“Juth mariy!” One of them hissed. The glyph shattered and Vi used it like a starting gun on a line.
They’d been paying attention to the wrong hand and the wrong glyph.
“Mysst larrk,” Vi breathed between wide steps. Her right hand was held behind her, grasping the sword that bloomed from the light under her palm. She swung it wide, putting all her force behind it, both hands clasped around the grip.
It sank with a satisfying crunch into the elfin’ra’s side. Vi shredded bone and sinew, dark pride rising within her. It felt good to wield a sword again.
You should never underestimate a Solaris… least of all my daughter.
She’d prove her father’s words right as he watched in shock and awe.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The screamthe elfin’ra let out was sweeter than any music she’d ever heard.
“Mysst xieh!” Taavin’s voice called out from behind her. A shield appeared at Vi’s side. Magic ricocheting off of it. “Loft dorh.” The elfin’ra at her left was frozen still.
Vi had only taken her attention off the man before her for a moment, but it was long enough for him to grip the blade of her sword with a hand, blood streaming from between his fingers as he ripped it from his side and her fingers. She moved to take a step back, but wasn’t fast enough. His hand clasped her face.
His dark blood smeared across her skin, red lightning crackling between the blood and his fingers as he pulled away.
“Narro vah’deh.” He rasped at her.
She knew whatnarromeant—acts of the mind. Butvah’dehwas a new and foreign phrase. It rumbled across her uncomfortably in a dissonance that made Vi’s teeth clench to the point of pain. There was something distinctlywrongabout it. Something that made her toes curl and her head hurt instantly.
His eyes flashed a brilliant red, brighter than anything she’d ever seen. So bright, her mind went blank. The world was awash in that crimson shade. Shadows carved shapes from a bleeding reality before her, but Vi could no longer make sense of what she saw.
This is wrong, something in her screamed—a voice she knew once. It was her voice. But she couldn’t figure out how it had become so distant. She couldn’t fathom anything. Her mind wouldn’t move. Every time a thought formed it was gone, falling through her fingers like the magic that poured from them.
Another scream and Vi awoke back to the room, not as she’d left it.
The elfin’ra who had been holding her was ablaze, thrashing to try to put out the flames. The other elfin’ra had lunged for Taavin and the two tumbled on the floor. Her head was splitting in two, pain seeping out from her ears. But Vi forced her thoughts to work enough to conjure the symbol and sounds she needed.
“Juth calt.” This time, the other elfin’ra couldn’t stop her. The one assaulting Taavin crumpled as Jayme had on the beach, blood dripping from his mouth. Vi turned in place, repeating the process before the remaining man could put out the flames. “Juth calt.” As soon as the glyph was gone, Vi gripped her head, wincing in pain. “Mother above,” she hissed.
“Vi—” Taavin pushed himself from the ground, rushing to her. “Let me—halleth maph—better?”
“More or less,” Vi mumbled. He had stinted the pain, but a dull throbbing in the back of her skull promised it’d be back with a vengeance soon enough. She needed to find out what that elfin’ra had done to her. But first…
She turned to face the jail cell, and the man within.
Her father was a shade of his former self. He looked more like the man on the beach than the man in her memories—but somehow, even worse. His clothes hung limp on his emaciated frame, torn and tattered. Dark circles lined his sunken eyes and cheeks. Icy shackles Vi recognized coated his wrists.
But his eyes were alight, shining in the darkness. They were eyes Vi knew well from looking into the mirror.
“Do you know who I am?” she whispered, even though Taavin had only just said her name. She was overcome by the inexplicable fear that he might somehow deny her. So much had happened. She was so far and away from the girl he’d last met years ago when he’d managed to escape the pressures of ruling to visit her in the North.
A smile spread across his cracked lips. “I would know who you are anywhere. Not even a haircut can hide you from me, my daughter.”
“I’ve come for you.” She took a slow step forward. Her voice echoed in the cavern. Or maybe it just echoed in her ears. Vi couldn’t be certain. “I’ve sailed across the world for you. I’ve come to bring you home, father.” Vi looked to the heavy padlock on his cell, not even bothering to search for a key. “Juth calt.” It fell with a heavyclangand Vi swung the door open.
“I should scold you for this—coming to such a dangerous place.” Even as her father spoke, there was a prideful smile on his mouth. He stared up at her as though in a daze, as though Vi had become the Mother herself.
“Let’s save the scolding for when we make it out alive.” Vi knelt down, looking at Adela’s icy shackles. “Taavin?”
“It’s strange magic.” He stepped forward, looking over her shoulder.
“It stints my power.” Aldrik cursed under his breath—colorful language Vi had never heard from her father before.
