“And all of you,” Karr asked, “you have been chosen, too? You have this shadowed blood?”
“It’s terribly complicated, I’m afraid,” said Azariah. “When I was only a child, my father murdered me. He slit my throat in a golden temple of his own making, and I came back as one. Most of us meet a horrific end before we’re brought back.”
Karr felt like he might be sick. And not just from the smell of the smoldering cave rat.
Thali spoke again. “It appears you have Terra magic. The depths of your abilities, we cannot yet be sure. But they all have their own. Lightning runs in Azariah’s veins. Markam can make illusions appear true.”
Sonara glared at her.“Details,cleric. Hold your tongue.”
But Thali did not seem fazed by the command. There was something unique about her, beyond her appearance. It was the ease with which she carried herself. The calm certainty. “He is one of us now. Even if he came from that ship.”
“The ship that has taken our people captive,” Sonara said back.“And still holds Jaxon and Soahm with it. They took everything from us.” Her gaze became icy, the same way it had when she’d nearly taken her blade to his skin.“Everything.”
“Hedid not,” Markam corrected her. “You told me that yourself. He spoke true, about Soahm. He knows nothing.”
“But his people do,” she said. “I’m certain of it.”
“Certainty and desperation are two very different things,” Thali said softly. “You would be wise not to confuse the two, Devil.”
Silence fell between them.
“Continue to speak truths, Wanderer,” Sonara said to Karr again. “Or you will die.”
“He will not,” Thali’s voice hardened beyond her bone mask. “No Child of Shadow will be harmed on my watch. Harming him would be to cause harm to yourself, because for whatever reason, Devil,youand this Wanderer are bound by fate. Do not test the planet, by hurting him now.”
Sonara crossed her arms over her chest and stared across the flames at Karr.
Beneath her gaze, he felt like he was in someone else’s skin. He stared back at her, unblinking, looking at the lines of her face.
This wasn’t happening to him, truly. Was it? But he could feel that the strange sense of the power in him was real.
“Fine.” Sonara sighed. “You will not die today, Wanderer.”
“Child of Shadow,”Thali corrected.
“My apologies,” Sonara shot back. “You think you know so much about the planet. Why in the hell would it bring back a Wanderer? Seek and findthattruth.”
Thali’s next words were a whisper. “I will not pretend to understand.But it remains the same. We took him captive, but he is not what he once was. He’s not an enemy any longer. He shouldn’t be bound.”
“He will remain so until we decide where his loyalties lie. For now, they’re with his people.” She looked back to Karr. “But you should know that it wasn’t my choice to kill you. And if what Thali says is true—as much as I’m inclined to disagree—then the planet decided for me. It felt like something gripped my power and pushed it forth.”
“Yesterday,” Karr said, putting aside the fact that she still looked like shewantedto kill him, “I split the cave floor. I did it, but it felt like my… my magic… was doing it of its own accord.”
Azariah nodded. “It lives, just as the planet lives. It’s a part of you now, just as the shadows are.”
“What are they?” Karr asked.
“The planet’s soul,” Thali breathed from behind her mask. “A gift granted to you because in the place of darkness and light… you did not choose.”
How could she have known what happened to him when he died?
“We all went there, in death,” Markam added, as if he were reading Karr’s mind. He shrugged. “A terribly boring place. Lonely.”
“The details change,” Sonara said, “depending on your memories. But the half-ness of it is the same. Part darkness, part light.”
Karr suddenly had a flashing image return to him. Like a snapshot taken by a camera, displayed on the ceiling of his bunk inside theStarfall.“I wouldn’t say it was lonely. The child was there.”
A pause, as the Dohrsarans all looked to each other. There was something shadowed in their glance, like they were holding onto a secret Karr hadn’t any idea how to unlock.
