Beat.
Beat.
She could feel the moment they lifted off the edge. It felt like pressure upon her shoulders, and the wind became colder, stronger.
Her stomach dipped as they careened down, down, past the window wall in the Citadel, the rock face mere inches from Six’s paws.
Ezer held on, as the wind pulled at her cloak.
Her hair.
Her breath left her lungs as they picked up speed, as they fell, headlong, towards death.
She was going to splatter on the rocks.
She was going to end up broken for good, and Six would break with her, and?—
Trust her,Arawn’s voice appeared in her mind.Trust Six.
And the second she thought it, a vision filtered into her mind.
A beautiful sunset.
A feather, drifting gently in the wind as it headed for a cluster of mountain peaks. Not the Sawteeth’s fierce dark crown, but someplace different. Someplace where the mountains were smoother, softer, wholly covered in white.
Ezer practically gasped at the shift in vision.
Because while her body tumbled down from the cliffside, her mind was rooted to the spot, somewhere else.
If she imagined away the wind, the cold, the rocks at the bottom of the cliff and the seconds between herself and death …
She let herself sink into that beautifully painted vision from Six.
There was no battlefield, no cloud of living shadows. Instead, there were distant rolling mountains, thousands of them as far as the eye could see, and in their center, a glittering blue lake. Its shoreline was crusted with ice, and when she looked out across the water … she saw the reflection of a black-winged raphon.
And with it, a rider – herself – perched atop the raphon’s back.
They flew like they were one body, one soul.
The wind was a breeze instead of a torrent. The sky was a place to dance instead of fight, and as they flew…
Others joined in with them.
Ravens.
An entire flock, guiding them as they sang a mournful song. They headed into the wilderness, where no one could stop them.
Not even the wind.
‘Thank you,’ Ezer whispered, and she stayed there, safe and sound and warm in her mind, whileSixlead the way. WhileSixfaced the fear for her.
And Ezer was not afraid.
When it was over, when Six carried her safely back up towards the cliffside, and landed … the King nodded his approval. The Queen’s cold blue eyes held her … and so subtly, she approved with a lift of her chin. The Masters, too, and the vote was decided then and there.
‘You were magnificent,’ Kinlear said as he came to greet Ezer.
He held out a hand to help her down, but she did not need it.
