I know the shape of his skull now. The way his hair curls at the nape of his neck. I’ve seen it a hundred times, and I’ve imagined a hundred ways to separate it from his shoulders.
But none of that tells me where she is.
I reach for the connection again, pushing until my head throbs. It wavers, thins, then slips away.
Gone. Again.
“You’re doing it again.” Therin’s voice comes from my left. “That’s the fourth time in the last hour. You’re going to burn yourself out.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.” Selveryn shifts beneath me as Therin moves closer on Kaethros. “You haven’t slept since we left. You’ve barely spoken. And every time you reach for her, you come back looking worse.”
“What would you have me do? Stop trying?”
“I’d have you trust that we’re going to reach her.”
Trust. We’ve been riding for days, and should have passed them long before now.
I reach for the bond again. And this time, I catch something. Stone walls rising against the sky. A gate. Guards in the king’s colors.
The palace.
The connection slips away before I can see more.
“They’ve arrived at the palace.”
Therin swears. “How far away?”
“Half a day. Maybe less.”
I lean forward, and Selveryn responds, surging ahead. The others follow, hooves eating the ground in great silent strides, and the capital looms larger on the horizon.
The connection flickers again, fear flowing toward me with defiance beneath it.
Then it goes quiet.
We ride hard, eating up the distance between us and the city walls, then pain slams through the bond. Selveryn winks out of existence and I hit the ground hard.
“Cairn!” Therin’s voice is a distant shout as pure terror whites out everything and drags me into her mind.
A mage. There’s a mage in her head.
“Cairn?”Someone touches my back, but I can’t answer, because the mage’s magic is tearing through her, and I can feel it as though it’s happening to me.
She’s fighting. Throwing up walls, trying to shield thingsthat matter to her. But she doesn’t know how to do this. No one has ever taught her, and the barriers she’s building are made out of desperation and instinct. The mage shreds through them with no effort at all.
Her scream tears through me. I hear it in my head, feeling it in my chest.
He’s taking her apart piece by piece, and I can’t stop him.
Moirthalen. Can you hear me?
I try to get her attention through the pain.
Cairn.
She heard me. Through the agony and terror, she heard me.
