“Another relic, lost to time,” Azariah said with a shrug.
“If it’s true that he removed a piece of the heart, how can you claim the planet is still living?” Sonara asked.
“The proof is all around us.”
“But no one can live with half a heart.”
Azariah lifted a brow. “And no one can come back from the dead, or walk the Earth with shadows for blood.” She carried on, satisfied with having silenced Sonara. “After the First King learned of the power that small piece of the heart gave him, he wanted more. He returned with a full army to remove the rest of it.And it was that night, while everyone slept, that Eona first heard the planet’s whisper.”
Sonara hadn’t heard that part of the story before.
“Eona crept closer, certain that the whisper came from the heart itself.Save me,it said. Eona could feel its terror, as if the planet were anticipating what was to come when morning arrived. She was clever. Too clever, as many princesses are.” She winked at Sonara with a casual smile. “She managed to steal the king’s mighty sword while he slept.”
“Gutrender,” Sonara said. “At least, the story says that the sword once belonged to him.”
The sword that started this whole mess in the first place.
“The next morning, when the First King awoke, he found Eona standing over the heart of the planet, the golden sword in hand.”
“To save the heart?” Sonara asked. “To fight off her father and protect the planet, like the good little heroine she was?”
She hated stories like these.
Why was the princess always so perfectly pliant? Why did the princess never answer the call of the shadows, never bathe herself in blood or sidle up next to the sweet simmer of sin?
You do,Sonara told herself, but it sounded like Soahm’s voice.You are the Devil of the Deadlands, the heroine from Soahm’s story come to life.
Sonara was surprised when Azariah frowned. “It’s quite the opposite. Thali says that Eona’s true greed appeared as she listened to the whisper of the planet. As she stood over the heart, staring into its inky depths, she tasted the power she could have. With it, she could surpass her father’s strength, and become something far greater than he.She used his sword and slew his army in a great bloody battle. She nearly delivered the death blow to the First King… until someone stopped her.”
“Who?” Sonara asked.
There was nosomeonein the other versions of the tale.
“Her brother,” Thali said. “Her twin brother, Eder. She did not expect him to stand in her way, so perhaps it was the element of surprise that helped him to take Eona’s life. Alas, that part of the story does not remain in the holy texts. But it was his goodness, his purity, that stopped her from stealing the planet’s heart. He saved Dohrsar.”
“But then Eona became a Shadowblood?” Sonara asked. “Why her and not Eder?”
“As she lay dying, the planet brought her back. You know how it goes. Tendrils of shadow, sprouting from the ground to fill your body and give you a second life. Have you never considered what those shadows are?”
Of course Sonara had.
She and Jaxon and Markam had talked about it over countless hours, musing about what they now were. But there was never a true answer.
“The shadows are pieces of the planet’s soul,” Azariah said. “The planet lends us some of her soul, and gives us magic with it. The power to command the aether. The power to call upon the bones of the dead. The power to sense the emotions of others.” Her eyes lit up as she looked at Sonara. “You’re an extension of the Great Mother, Dohrsar. A Child of Shadow.”
“But why bring Eona back, and not her brother?” Sonara asked. “She tried to kill the planet. He’s the one that saved it.”
“We could not possibly begin to understand the Great Mother’s choices, just like our Wanderer that lies in waiting for us, back at camp.”
Sonara shook her head. “But why bringanyof us back? What makes us chosen?”
Azariah shrugged. “Does anyone truly know? You must remember your time in that fold between life and death. The planet decides.”
Sonara nodded. “Darkness. Light. A realm that held none other, save for… a voice.”
“A whisper,” the princess said. “Another detail that every Shadowblood remembers. Thali says it is the planet, speaking to us. You may not want to believe the truth, may not wish to worship the Great Mother… but you can at least acknowledge the fact that she lives. That she exists.”
Sonara’s breathing stilled.
