‘Coffee with a friend fixes all things,’ Izill said and shoved a steaming mug into Ezer’s hands. ‘Drink up and then tell meeverything.’
Speaking soothed her, as did the warmth of the coffee. And as she ate, Ezer told her friend about her dream. Not every detail of the labyrinth, but about Styerra. About the face that matched her own.
‘Styerra is a common enough name in the north,’ Izill said with a frown. ‘But it’s more detail than we’ve had thus far. You’recertainit was your mother?’
‘I’ve never seen her face before,’ Ezer said. ‘But … I felt it, Izill. And even if I’m wrong, the resemblance was uncanny. It’s more than I’ve ever had to go off.’
At that, Izill nodded. ‘Perhaps the gods granted you a gift. A small blessing, to ease your wonderings.’
‘Can they do that?’ Ezer asked.
Because she’d never considered the labyrinth to be from the gods.
But what happened in her mind … it could only be explained by something like magic.
‘Of course they can.’ Izill smiled and took Ezer’s empty mug. ‘They are limitless. Andyouare going to be late. I’ll do some digging on the name. If she was a servant, she clearly had no magic. Styerra, you said?’
Ezer nodded.
‘You’d be surprised, what I overhear on my days inside the kitchens. I’ll do my best sleuthing.’
With a swift goodbye, Ezer left the dorms.
A snowstorm was fresh on the horizon.
It was unfortunate weather. Because today, Kinlear wanted Ezer to leave the cliffside. It was Six’s first time out of the runed circle of stones, and already, the raphon seemed anxious, pacing a hole in the snow as they talked.
‘We’ve several hours to sunset,’ Kinlear said. ‘By the gods, it’s cold.’
He looked exhausted. Even his runed cloak couldn’t seem to warm him, and his cheeks were too shallow. He’d been so vibrant last night, dancing his way through Absolution. How quickly things could change when someone’s own body was working against them.
She’d been with him less than an hour, and he’d already had to sip from his vial twice.
‘We’ll walk her the long way around the Citadel, out to the Sacred Circle. It’s the furthest we can go before we run into another Gate. She needs experience. A break from this pattern and place.’
‘And the War Table is letting us take her there?’ Ezer asked.
Six pranced past her, tail twitching as she kicked up the snow with her paws. Now that she knew it wasn’t going to kill her … she loved it.
Kinlear shrugged. ‘Training requires it. And besides, we’re inside the wards. The most dangerous thing in Augaurde is Six.’
‘And you trust me,’ Ezer said, ‘with her? With …you?’
He smiled at her. ‘Do I have any reason not to?’
She felt guilty as she thought of her dreams. His dagger, and the blood on her chest.
If anything,shehad reason not to trusthim.
But nothing she’d seen had come to pass. Not the moments with Arawn, not anything with Six. Certainly not her own death at Kinlear’s hands.
It washisdeath she worried about now.
He was too vibrant a person. Too bright a light to simply fade away early, a horrible fate for a man who hadn’t the excuse of using magic to bring about his early end.
Already, Ezer’s heart had begun to squeeze with amissingsort of feeling when she looked at him.
Like he was already half gone.
