United in fire, in light and in dreams
You will foil the wiles of Chaos,
You will spur Death’s victory
The words seem to float in the air in a visible wave of iridescent colors, the melody playing through my mind as clearly as if there were a bard singing into my ear, backed by melodic strings and percussion. With a gasp, I drop the parchment and watch it flutter to the ground.
“Winnie, what is it?”
I stare down at the parchment for a while before squatting to pick it up again. Neris willingly takes it, curiosity etched into her expression as she pushes her spectacles up her nose and reads the lines. She takes a while with it, then glances up at me. “Alright, please enlighten my Ordinary mind.”
“I heard music in my mind. I even saw it.”
Neris swears under her breath. “You know, sometimes I do not envy you, but other times … Music? Is it pleasant?”
“It is.” I smooth my hair back before my hand moves to the pocket of my dress.
“I hate you.” Her voice holds no edge, and she giggles. “Who do you think wrote it? The princess?”
I shrug. “I think you should keep it.”
The skin between Neris’s brows pinches tight. “Why?”
“I’m not sure. It feels important and I don’t want it confiscated or ruined. Keep it close.”
Realms bless her, she doesn’t question me further. She folds up the note and tucks it into the top of her bodice. After lookingaround for a while, she asks, “What do you think happened in here?”
“Someone was looking for something.”
“No shit.”
I huff a laugh before it’s snuffed out. “Everything about this castle is strange. Something feels off about it. This room, especially. There is something devious at play here, and I’m not sure what it is.”
A grin slowly spreads across her face, her eyes expectant.
“And I’m going to figure it out,” I say. “I may have to play into the Zenith’s mission for a while longer, but I’ll get us out of here somehow.”
Neris cheers. “There’s the Winnie I know!”
Chapter 50
I’m out of tinctures,so I’m left with herbal tea to take the edge off my headaches. It doesn’t do much to help with the usual dizziness, but Alys exhausted a lot of her healing magic after the ambush, so I’d rather give her time to recover.
I imagine that the cavern is rather silent right now. Chiyo and Ava are on opposite sides, Sloan is nowhere in sight—patrolling, perhaps—and Osheen, surprisingly, is chatting with Isobel.
“How do you feel?” Alys signs as she passes me a small copper cup wrapped in cloth, so I don’t burn my hand.
I shrug a shoulder. My chest feels overstuffed, and my jaw aches from keeping it clenched to suppress more silent tears. I’ve already shed so many.
“Any pain?”
I swallow thickly and blink away more tears that brim.
“Oh, sweetling. I wish I could heal your heart right now more than anything else. We’ll figure something out. You know Tiernan is tough. I’m certain they already regret having him in their custody.” She winks, but I cannot find it in myself to indulge in the mild lightheartedness. “It will be alright.”
Alys, bless her, seems to understand that I want to be left alone. She cannot be sure that he’ll be alright. We don’t knowwhat the Zenith is capable of or why exactly they want me, but Iywan had told Carys back when she was being tortured in Paramount that they wanted to open the Veil. If that is the circumstance, perhaps it’s the same reason they want me, given that I share Carys’s bloodline. What will happen when they realize Tiernan isn’t the person they seek? Will they kill him?
My chest grows tighter, my stomach roils. I close my eyes as darkness begins to infiltrate my vision.Breathe.I force myself to draw in a breath, to hope with everything I have that if he left this world, I would feel it. The same way he had faith that I would feel if Carys had been killed.
