Styerra placed her hands in her lap. ‘Wouldn’t you, to save the one you loved? We would have been killed together, Erath and I, and you along with us, Ezer… if Stefon had not lied.’
Ezer had read thousands of stories in her life.
But none were quite so bitter. Quite so broken and sad.
‘Stefon loved me. But he loved the idea of me more. A perfect, pious Sacred woman, who was content to do the Five’s bidding and never think twice about what else might lie beyond. Because like I once did … Stefon believed that the Five, and their thousand impossible laws, were the only way. And to deviate from that way would mean a fate worse than death. He forged the letter from Erath. I do not believe your father would ever have left without me.’ She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, the sadness was replaced with anger, burning like an ember. ‘I tried to show Stefon, that final night. But his eyes were not ready to see. His loyalty to the Five, too strong. It’s why I lied to him, told him that I was the one to draw the wolves away. He would have treated you like the book. Like something to be feared, instead of cherished.’ She looked at Ezer’s pocket. ‘I know you carry the Shadow Tome with you.’
The book.
The symbols.
The blood drained from Ezer’s face as she reached into her cloak pocket … and found Zey’s empty journal there. The one that she’d been thumbing through, night after night. It hadn’t ever made the journey to her dreams before.
When she set it on the table between them, the pages fluttered open.
It was still empty.
Styerra smiled at the pages. Like she could see what Ezer could not. ‘When the Acolyte was set free, only the ones who could see through the cracks in the Five were able to decipher the message. Stefon saw nothing on the pages, like so many others. But I was awakened. I didn’t find the journal in town, like I told Stefon. I had kept Erath’s book with me, the last thing I had of him. In secret, I began to read it. And after you were born … I began to see the symbols.’
This was wrong. Ezer knew it was wrong, and yet …
‘What did they say?’ Ezer asked, glancing down at Zey’s empty pages. ‘The symbols.’
‘Your eyes aren’t opened yet,’ Styerra said. ‘Not fully. And there is nothing I can say, nothing I can do, to sway you to open them all the way. That must happen in your own time. For most, it never will.’
‘But that book, that raw power you speak of … it comes from the Acolyte,’ Ezer said, horrified. ‘The same power that caused a stone in the Sacred Circle to turn black. An entire realm. Gone. It’s coming for us, next. All of Lordach will be gone if he wins the war. It’s the same power that killedyou.And did this to me.’
She tucked her dark curls behind her ears. She lifted her chin, so that Styerra would be forced to look at her three hideous scars. ‘How can you worship a power like that?’
Styerra looked as sad as she had the day she left the Citadel. ‘I wish I could tell you what it all means. I wish I had been given the chance to teach you and be the mother you deserved. I was going to leave with you, the night the wolves came. I was going to go north to the Acolyte.’
‘To a monster,’ Ezer said. ‘You were going to take your newborn baby to a monster.’ She stood up, chair scraping, desperate to put space betweenthem. ‘He started a war after you died. He’s murdered thousands, women and children and men who never even stood a chance against him. He’s?—’
‘And yet …’ Styerra leaned back, holding her gaze. ‘You have bound yourself to one ofhismonsters. And by all counts, dear daughter … I would say that Six is good. There isalwaysanother side to the story.’
Ezer’s heart stuttered. ‘How do you know about Six? About the book I carry? About?—’
Styerra’s image suddenly flickered.
She let out a painful gasp.
‘What’s happening?’ Ezer asked.
‘Time is running thin. I cannot give you everything … but I can at least give you this answer. When I died, a young woman met me on the fringes of life and death. The doorsteps to the Ehver. She gave me a choice. To end my journey … or to go back and watch over you until you were ready. A spirit guide. The cost, of course, would be to delay my eternity. My peace.’
A cold sense of dread washed over Ezer.
‘You …’ she whispered. ‘You chose …’
Styerra nodded. ‘I choseyou, Ezer. As I would over and over again in every lifetime, no matter the cost.’
A choice like that …
It was love.
True, selfless love that left Ezer breathless.
‘I didn’t fly away to the Ehver,’ Styerra explained. She winced again, and spoke faster, like she was racing the wind. ‘I found myself here, in this labyrinth. A place full of my own memories. For a decade, I walked them alone. A purgatory, if you will. But as the years passed, more doors began to appear. They were full ofyourmemories.’She smiled. ‘This labyrinth … it is your mind, your soul – and mine – tangled into one.’
