The Acolyte’s voice called out from behind her. Sudden and commanding.
The Sentinel paused. Fresh pain struck Ezer like a bolt of lightning.
‘Who are you?’
She was going to pass out.
‘I asked you a question,Sacred.’
She tried to speak, but she had no voice.
‘Who are you?’the Acolyte demanded.
He stood from his throne, moving towards her with predatory grace. Shadows swirled outwards from his feet, as if he were walking on a dark cloud.
He stopped before her … and a cold tendril of his power stretched down and lifted her chin.
She hissed at its touch.
‘Take note, child,’ the Acolyte said, ‘of how I, enemy to the Five, give even an assassin such grace.’ The shadow pressed deeper, cutting into her chin as he forced her to look up at him. ‘What is your name?’
‘I’m no one,’ she sputtered.
‘The truth,’hissed the wind. ‘Tell him the truth!’
‘It’s no use lying,’ the Acolyte practically purred down at her. ‘I can sense that youare?—’
He paused.
As if he’d just noticed something … and suddenly the shadow at her chin recoiled.
She sucked in a breath.
‘Where did you get that ring?’
His voice was a rough whisper. And though she could not see his face, she knew he was looking at her hand. At Styerra’s ring.
The wind caressed her, a reminder that she was not alone.
‘It was my mother’s,’ Ezer growled, as hatred rose in her. ‘A woman who died believing inyou.’
‘Your name,’ he said again. ‘Speak now, before I send you to your death. She flinched as one of his shadows slithered across her face. Across the dark scars on her cheek. ‘This time, my wolves will not miss.’
‘Tell him,’the wind hissed.
So she looked into that dark, depthless hood. She thought of the life she’d lived, the things she’d done. The mysteries she’d uncovered that parts of her wished she never had. She took a breath and said, ‘My name is Ezer. The Raphon Rider of Augaurde. Descendant of Wrenwyn.’
He knelt before her … and the shadows that concealed his face suddenly melted away.
Ezer thought, for a moment, that perhaps she was already dead. Perhaps she was just lost in her own dreams again, a nightmare that had twisted itself up all wrong.
But the pain in her body reminded her that it was real, it was true.
And the man standing in front of her … the Acolyte …
It was Erath.
Her father.
