“I haven’t quite come to terms with this new-found freedom. I didn’t think it a possibility, not in this lifetime at least. I was bound for so long in that room, chained like a dog, until she found me.”
Can you not die?
“No,” he replied. “I don’t think I can. Having my throat slit didn’t stop me. Why should years without food or water?”
Mirin froze, her heart beating faster as she checked her walls. He was there, lurking in shadows. She hadn’t even felt him slip passed. She surveyed the expanse of her mind, checking for some internal weakness that would have allowed such an intrusion. There wasn’t one. “Get out.”
A wisp, there and gone again. He slipped from her mind as effortlessly as he’d entered. “As you wish,” he said. “I’d like to speak to her.”
“Her?”
“Your daughter,” he said smoothly, his palms coming to rest flat on the table. “I would speak with her and no other. I’ve no answers for you. I am not your mystery to unravel. I speak to her or no one at all.”
How much did he know? How much had he seen? In those brief seconds that he had touched her mind, had he come to know her? Hopes, fears, dreams. She was at his mercy, every secret spread out before him like a hand of cards. How he’d choose to play them was unknowable and the thought sent her heart plummeting.
“That is your secret to give. You can relax,” he said, the briefest hint of amusement setting the corner of his mouth adrift.
Shame was replaced by anger and she slammed her fist down, shaking the table as much as he’d shaken her composure. “I said stay out of my mind!”
He shook his head. “Has she changed yet? You might want to check.”
“You keep asking that. Changed how?”
“Why not see for yourself. She’s awake.”
It was pointless. Round and round they’d go and she’d be no closer to getting answers than when she’d started. Too aggravated to remain in the same room, she turned away from him and headed for the door.
Seekers startled like frightened pigeons as they moved to let her pass. “Watch him. If he tries to leave, use whatever force necessary to keep him here,” she barked. The Seekers corrected themselves and filed into the room, but she did not miss the tense shoulders, the fear building between them like a great storm cloud.
Has she changed? She’d been asleep when they’d found her, alive and breathing but enwrapped in a dream she refused to wake from. There had been nothing different about her, nothing changed. But what would happen when she woke up? What would she be when her eyes opened to the world?
She would learn soon enough. Hasty steps carried her closer to her destination. At the end of the hall, she came to an abrupt stop. There were voices, hushed whispers coming from Kirheen’s room. Words blurred together, too quiet to make out what was being said.
Lightening her footsteps, she crept to the door.
“It’s hard to make sense of any of this. The Darkness is real. We were all fools to think things would get less complicated after Sanctuary, that it was all a lie. Allseer, was it a lie? This is a mess,” a gruff voice said. Not Tomias, someone else. Someone else from Sanctuary. “Was Nyson right the whole time?”
“It still doesn’t justify what he did, but I guess it makes it easier to understand,” a lighter voice chimed in. “Still, this is a lot to take in. We spent most of our lives living in fear of this, knowing one day that we’d have to leave our friends behind to go face it. I didn’t want that to be real.”
She’d heard enough. She flung the door open, startling those inside as badly as she’d startled her own Seekers. Tomias stood near the back of the room, Kirheen just barely visible over his shoulder. The two others had formed a crude wall, ready to defend if it came down to it.
“You might try knocking next time,” Tomias called, an edge of irritation sharpening his words. “What are you doing here? I told you I’d update you if anything changed.”
“It did change,” Mirin retorted. “You just did a poor job following through on that promise. Our charming princeling has demanded an audience.”
“With me?” he asked, his tone colored with surprise.
“No, idiot. With her,” she replied. “With Kirheen.”
“This might not be the best time. You see, things are a bit complicated right now and you happened to barge in on a rather private conversation that we’d all very much like to finish.” He glared, making it clear he wanted her to turn and leave.
Mirin rolled her eyes. She could see Kirheen, her pale face visible, stormy eyes narrowed. She turned her words away from Tomias, aimed them at her daughter. “The man you found seems to know quite a lot about you. He all but demanded your presence and he refuses to speak to anyone but you. He claims you’ve changed, that you’re just like him now. Is there any truth to those words?”
Kirheen shuffled and Tomias glanced back over his shoulder. “You don’t have to. You shouldn’t.”
“What choice do I have? I need answers. We need answers,” Kirheen said. Giving her other two companions a brief nod, she stepped out from behind Tomias. The two young men stepped to the side, eyes falling to the floor as she walked past them. At first, nothing looked out of place. She was the same girl, same ashen hair and gray eyes, the same sway to her stride. She wore a simple black shirt and pants, the dark fabric clashing with her pale complexion. Through the fabric of her shirt, a faint glow could be seen, highlighting the jagged, unyielding crystals trying to pierce through.
And there was enough power radiating through the room to make her bones ache.
“It’s true,” she said, her blood going cold. There had been some thread of hope, some lingering wish, that the prince had been lying, that he’d simply been making a fool of her. Instead, he’d told her the truth, the most terrible of gifts. Why you, daughter? What does this mean for the world, for this city? “You’ll speak with him? I can’t promise he won’t try and harm you. He’s unstable, to say the least. His power is… well, I’ll just assume you know.”
“I do,” Kirheen said. “And I will speak with him. Whatever has happened to me started with him. I think he owes me some answers.”
Tomias looked ashen, his gaze rising from the floor to lock on Mirin. She could feel the threat coming before he pressed it against her mind. “If anything happens to her, it won’t be just me that comes for you,” he said, his voice trickling through her defenses.
“Save your anger for Elfrind. We might just need it.”
Stepping aside, she motioned for Kirheen to approach the door. “After you,” she said and steeled herself for whatever was to follow.
CHAPTER 9
“Alone, or not at all. Do I really need to repeat myself?”
Elfrind was not what Kirheen had been expecting. He had been a skeleton, some strange nightmare conjured by a sick mind, a mind that she’d had little control over. He’d been there in the shadows, guiding her, luring her, forcing her ever closer to where he’d been caged. She could still see him as he’d been, bones and sallow skin, chains wrapped around a brittle body that had resisted breaking.
There was nothing of that nightmare now. Elfrind was whole again, whatever strange power they shared having healed him to what he’d been before his life had become chains and darkness. He sat across the table from her, his chest bare, the crystals piercing through his skin devoid of any light.
Kirheen could feel Mirin and Tomias behind her, hovering over each shoulder, protectors unwilling to forsake their duty. He wasn’t going to talk, not with them there. His demands were clear. Either they left, or the answers she sought would crumble to dust. “Go, both of you. I’ll be fine.”
A familiar weight fell on Kirheen’s shoulder and she glanced back at Tomias. His eyes were flinty, his mouth set in a tight line. His gaze lingered on Elfrind before turning to her. She knew it wasn’t easy for him, but she needed answers. “I’ll be fine,” she reassured him, careful to use just the slightest touch of her power against his mi
nd.
“We’ll be close by,” he said, his expression softening. “Call for us if you need anything.” He squeezed her shoulder, and the desperation and helplessness she could feel through his touch made words impossible to form. “Be careful.” She knew he wanted nothing more than to drag her away from harm, away from the catalyst sitting across the table from her. Footsteps faded, the door closed, and she was left alone.
Satisfied, Elfrind looked from the door to her, his eyes eerily bright. The air seemed to vibrate between them, an energy harmonizing and building. His expression was passive, and he reclined back, waiting patiently for her to speak. Just ask the questions. Ask, get your answers, get out.
She could no more form words than she could form thoughts. Her head was empty, filled with a swelling power that pulled, and pulled, and pulled. He seemed to sense it and reacted to her hesitation. Lips parted, words breaking the silence.
“How does it feel?” he asked, his tone gentle.
She needed to speak. Get answers. Get out. “I-I don’t know. Different? I don’t feel like myself.” She felt alone, pulled apart from the others as her power drove a wedge between what she’d been and what she was becoming. It was hard to even feel connected to herself.
“Are you really you anymore? Can you be? You’ve power worthy of a god and it’s flowing through your very veins.”
“I never asked for this,” she said. “I never wanted power like this. What did you do to me?”
Elfrind shook his head. “I didn’t awaken this power in you. I felt it growing from afar, just as you must have felt it in me. This,” he said, fingers rising to caress the crystals on his chest. “is not something I caused. I’ve been where you are now. This happened to me after I died. Something dragged me back to this life and it has kept me rooted here ever since. For the longest time I thought I was alone, the only being with such power. My family left me to die, to rot, and I was powerless to cause them harm. You were the only one who could hear me, the only one who could free me from my prison after all these years.”
It was disturbing to think her power had been growing inside of her the whole time, shifting and changing, reaching for something familiar. “If not you, then who? What caused this?”
“I’ve asked myself that question a thousand times. Was it the gods? Some divine force beyond our understanding? How can we really know? This power is us and we are it, two sides of the same coin, bound and chained to a fate not of our choosing. Does the answer really change anything? It’s what we do with this power that matters.”
He was right. The answer changed nothing. Knowing the truth wouldn’t change her circumstance. It didn’t change the fact that there was something vile and corrupt lurking just below her skin, an ocean of power just waiting for a moment of weakness.
Her silence was accepted and Elfrind continued. “You came here to see Val’shar with your own eyes. You came to save it, if that were even a possibility. The rift between those with power and those without was growing and you couldn’t help but peer into that abyss. Not because I called, not because I lured you here, but because you thought you could change things. Weak and fragile as you were, you really, truly believed you could change this wretched place. I once thought the same. A pathetic notion compared to what could be accomplished now.”
“And what is it you want to accomplish?” Kirheen asked. “This power isn’t right. Nobody should have this. Not me. Not you. Not anyone. This corruption inside of us, it’s just a matter of time before it gets out, before it hurts people.”
“You’re in control of it now, why wouldn’t you be later? This power is to me as natural as breathing, controlled and contained by my will. You could be more. I can help you control it.”
Kirheen gritted her teeth. The air felt heavy. His power was reaching for her, drawing her closer and closer. Her skin itched, the Darkness thrashing against the prison where she’d locked it away. She looked at her hand, envisioned it crawling out of her skin, consuming everything it touched. “I just want this to stop. I don’t want this power.”
“And if you did? If you had control of it, what would you do? How would you shape the world?” His eyes were piercing through her, digging into her soul. She looked away and stared at her hands resting flat on the table. They should have been burned, marred beyond recognition, held too long over a candles flame. “Don’t look away from me,” Elfrind commanded. Something in his tone caused her to meet his gaze. There was a sadness in his eyes, a longing for something she couldn’t quite understand. “Tell me what you would do.”
She couldn’t look away. The table seemed to vanish between them. He was too close, his hand curled around her heart waiting for the answer. “I don’t want this. I never wanted this.”
“Is that truly what you want? For this to go away?”
“Yes,” she admitted. She didn’t want such power. Who was she to wield it? What right did she have? She had wanted to help, to fix the rift between her kind and the others. This was not what she’d had in mind. And with the Darkness lurking inside, she was now a threat to everyone.
“I can make it go away, Kir. I can make it stop. You wouldn’t have to carry this burden anymore.”
Something inside her broke, a dam holding back her vulnerability and weakness. “Please help me,” she said. “Make it stop.”
Before she could react, Elfrind was leaping across the table. He collided with her, body and chair crashing to the floor in a painful splintering of wood and bone. Something reverberated through her ribs, a sharp snap as something shattered within. Strong thighs straddled her, pinning her hips to the floor while hands cold as ice gripped her arms, keeping her immobile. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, his pale face inches from her own. “I wish this could be different. Please don’t struggle.”
He was close, so close. The crystals across his chest flared to life, and she was lost within them, lost within that strange beauty, an endless expanse of stars. The gods watched, as indifferent to her suffering as the man hovering over her.
Pain spread like a raging fire across her chest, burning up her throat, down her limbs and settling in her belly. Her power was fighting against him, latching on with the same ferocity used to strip it away, drop by drop. What would happen when it was gone? “Stop!” she shouted.
“It’ll be done soon,” he whispered, lips against her cheek. “You won’t have to suffer anymore. Give your power to me. Let me shape the world with it. I will stop it, this cycle without an end. Let go.”
“Stop.”
Don’t let him take it, a voice called in her mind, bright and sharp. Fight him or it’s over.
“Enough,” she screamed. Her power roared within and she grasped for it, dug her fingers in deep and pulled. He would not take this from her. In her soul she knew if he did, the world would end, drowned in a sea of darkness. Everything she’d fought for, the people she cared about, devoured and torn apart, their souls lost to oblivion.
They struggled, a game of tug-o-war with no clear victor. “Just let go,” he growled. “Let me help you!”
“Screw you,” she growled between gritted teeth, drawing her power back into herself. Despite her own strength, he was still stronger. For every drop of power she managed to reclaim, he took two more and he wouldn’t stop until she was left with nothing.
Fight him, that inner voice called again, urgent and clear as a bell. And she did, she flailed against him, bolstered her strength with power from a rapidly depleting well. With a sharp yank, she managed to free one of her hands and with it she focused her power, let it tear through reality and crash into Elfrind. The blow took him by surprise, knocked him off balance. She used that moment to strike again, freeing herself from his grasp and scrambling to her feet.
“Don’t be a fool,” he growled. Something had cut his face during the attack and he wiped away at the blood pooling on his cheek. The crystals in his chest flared to life, the wound sealing in an instant. “You don’t understand what you’re doing. Give
me your power willingly and I will change everything. I will save us all.”
Kirheen leaned against the wall for support, her power depleted enough to keep her from healing her wounds. She clutched at her side, each breath causing a sharp pain to radiate through her ribcage. There was no way Tomias and Mirin hadn’t heard their struggle. Her eyes flicked to the door, expecting to see them rushing through to aid her. Instead she found there was no door. A writhing wall of dark corruption filled the space where the door should have been, keeping those on the other side from entering. She was alone and trapped with a man intent on taking her power. “I think I understand well enough. You can’t have it.”
His eyes narrowed and in a flurry of dark energy, he appeared before her. His hand shot for her neck and he lifted her off the ground, slamming her into the wall. Cracked bones shifted and the pain was enough to take her breath away. “I don’t want to hurt you. Let go of your power. You can still find peace.”
“No,” she gasped. “I won’t let you.”
“Then so be it,” he said. His other hand slammed against her chest, against the crystals protruding from her skin. Her power was draining faster, pulled forcefully out of her grasp. The pain was unlike anything she’d felt before and she screamed through gritted teeth, fighting desperately to hold on to her power.
The light was fading, her vision becoming a blur as she looked upon the nightmare she’d unleashed on the world. Forgive me. I’m sorry.
Some great explosion shook the room, the sound like lightning striking over their heads. The wall next to them exploded in a shower of sparks, and wood, and stone, and through the opening came a woman she’d never seen before. She was all ferocity and fire, a blur of motion and lethality. Her skin was dark, her raven curls a whirlwind about her head, her chest set ablaze by some inner light. Spectral blades glowed in her hands and she dove for Elfrind with the intent to kill.
Elfrind was forced to evade, his grip on her neck releasing as he leapt back out of harm’s way. Tomias and Mirin bolted through the hole in the wall, splitting off to either side of the room. The prince was surrounded. “It doesn’t have to be you,” he spat, his words directed at Kirheen. “There is another. I will have what I seek, and when I am filled with his power, I’ll come back for you. For both of you.”
The Allseer Trilogy Page 67
