“Run for your life!”Ebb shouts, and I do. I scrabble to my feet and run from the room like there’s a jet stream at my back.
I run through the smoke and darkness out into the light and snow, and then I keep running.
81
EBB
He would have killed that girl.
I don’t suppose I had a choice but to come back.
THE MAGE
There’s no time.
The Humdrum is devouring us.
And today’s the day—today is a day that my magic might work. Holidays are auspicious, the solstice lingers.
Today is the day.
This is the hour.
If only Simon were here…
I thought we’d done it—at great cost, yes—but I thought we’d done it, Lucy. We’d brought the Greatest Mage.
He is the greatest mage.
I hid him among the Normals, so that no one would know. So that no one would ask. I hid him until he was ready. Until he called me to him, just like every prophecy said he would!
I didn’t know that he was broken.
I couldn’t see that he was a cracked vessel.
Maybe it was too much power for a babe to hold—maybe that was my mistake.
If he were here, I could fix it. I have different spells now. (I’d been looking too far in the past; I should have realized that new power must come from new psalms.) I have a chance now, I could relieve him.
But Simon isn’t here. And I can’t wait for him. The Humdrum won’t wait. The Pitches are on their way—
This woman will have to do. She’s the brightest star in the Realm, next to Simon.
Our Simon.
I can take her power.
I just have to kill her first.
EBB
I don’t suppose I ever had the choices I thought I did.
THE MAGE
She’s all brute force and ’90s clichés.
I’ve seen her weave spells like a master on the goats and the grounds. But in battle, Ebb’s a cannon at a sword fight. No wonder Simon follows her around like a lost kid.
