“But theirluinarisn’tluinaranymore by the looks of things,” the first voice growls. I have awareness enough by now to recognize it as well. Tassa. My sister. Another support strangely absent from the moment of crisis.
A groan rumbles deep in my chest as I begin to come more fully awake. My mind is jumbled, but I reach almost instinctively for thevelra, for my connection to Ilsevel. It is still there, still strong. I can feel as well that she is far from me. Very far. I squeeze my eyes tight as more memories emerge. That’s right—I sent her away. On Elydark. Elydark! He is gone too, leaving me behind. As he should. As he must.
It comes back to me in a flood then. The betrayal of Kildorath, the turning of the elders against me. The thud of an arrow striking flesh. Ilsevel! She took that arrow to her shoulder, moments before Elydark carried her away from the fray. What happened to her? Is she out in the wilds somewhere, wounded? Is she . . . ?
“He’s coming to,” Halamar’s voice rumbles in the dark beyond my eyelids.
“Taar?” A sound of feet splashing in water. I seem to be sitting in water myself. Someone kneels in that puddle beside me, anda pair of strong hands grip my shoulders. “Taar? You stupid idiot of a brother, wake up! Wake up and look at me!”
“Ah!” I wince against the ache in the back of my head and, grimacing, open one eye. “What joy it is to wake to the dulcet sounds of your voice, sister mine.”
Tassa’s face swims into view before me. Wherever we are is cold, damp, and deeply shadowed, but myibrildianeyes see well enough to discern the spark of tears in her eyes. She scowls at me and gives me a fierce shake. “Taar! You absolute blithering fool! What were you thinking, riding straight into the hornets’ nest like that? You could not have believed they’d welcome you and that warbride of yours warmly.”
Something tightens in my gut. “I don’t remember seeing you there to lend support.”
Tassa’s expression twists bitterly. “I’d already made my stand and been disarmed. Halamar too. They tossed us down here to keep us out of the way when word came that you were approaching.”
I peer over her shoulder, take in our surroundings. We seem to be in the Elanlein well-turned-holding cell, the same cell from which I pulled Ilsevel weeks ago, before she could be ceremonially executed. The walls are stone-lined and slick with damp moss and old, dead ilsevel vines. I peer up at the circle of sky far above. Fading stars gleam overhead, vanishing into the paleness of coming dawn.
I could probably climb out. If my head wasn’t pounding likethe devil. And if I weren’t bound hand and foot. I look down, grimacing at the sight of chaeora ropes biting into the flesh of my wrists and ankles. While it does not have the same poisonous effect on me as it does on licorneir, it is, nonetheless, a powerful binding. It dims my connection to Elydark significantly; I cannot feel my licorneir, though our soul-tether remains active.
Breathing out a sigh, I lean my head back against the stone wall. All that matters now is that Ilsevel is alive, Ilsevel is safe . . .
Tassa smacks my shoulder.
“Ouch.”
“You deserve that and much worse,” she snarls. “When were you going to tell me that you’d gone and married Larongar’s daughter? A Gavarian princess, Taar! The blood and bone of the very man who brought about our world’s destruction.”
“Who told you that?”
“Is it true?”
“Yes.”
“Damn.”
“It’s true,” I continue, “but I did not know until . . . until well after.”
“Until well after you’dshakhedher, you mean?”
“Tassa, have mercy. You’ll blister poor Halamar’s ears with that tongue of yours.”
Halamar’s chuckle rumbles in the darkness, but my sister is not about to be deflected. “You knew,” she growls. “I told myselfthat, even if everything Kildorath said was absolute truth, you must not have known yourself. But you knew. All along. And you made me train her! And you made me . . . like her.”
I shift my rather damp seat, twisting at the bindings on my wrists. “So itwasKildorath who told you.”
“Yes. He returned from the campaign and spread word far and wide that you’d abandoned us and gone chasing after the human princess. He told how she brought about the death of the licorneir she’d cursebound, revealed that she was not only a Miphata but also Larongar’s daughter.”
My teeth clench hard. “And where did Kildorath get that idea?”
“From you, presumably.”
I shake my head. “I never told a soul. Certainly not Kildorath, who was already searching for any excuse to do away with her.”
Tassa regards me narrowly. “Who told him then?”
I turn my head, look her in the eye. “Shanaera.”
