I drag in the steaming air. Faustrius can’t conjure his eruption with only half a vial.
At least… I hope not.
Rosalina’s cry echoes through the chamber, drawing my attention. I whip my head around to look. Faustrius sends Dayton sailing along the bridge with a body slam. With his sword, he cuts Rosalina’s briars at the root.
Quellos lets loose a massive blast from the palm of his metal gauntlet. It hits Keldarion square in the chest. He flies backward, then falls hard to the stone. Ice cages his ankles and wrists.
Ez’s whole body is splayed out, trying to protect Kairyn. Aquila readies her spear, aiming for his spine.
And Farron, where is Farron?
I crane my neck to see him, caught in another net.
Sira waltzes toward me. “You’re coming home, Caspian.”
No. No, no, no. I thought I could do this. I thought I could escape her. But the coward was right all along. I’m weak. I’m so weak. There is no force in all the Vale?—
The breath catches in my throat. Icy heat gathers in the chamber like an electrical storm brewing. A force of magic. Not ancient magic, not a blessing, not even that of the Below.
A magic alien to this world.
One growing in such power, I fear it may split the volcano in two.
And it’s not coming from me.
“No, no, no,” I breathe. “Farron, stop!”
But it’s too late. Farron rises, the net falling from him in shreds, his entire body engulfed in green flame.
64
Farron
Yes.
Yes!
YES!
The voice in my head is laughing. No, I’m laughing. It doesn’t matter.
We are one.
He’d asked me a single question as I lay there quivering, caught in a net. Watching as my loved ones were pushed back, beaten, on the brink of death.
What would you give?
I gave the same answer as last time he asked.
Everything.
I swell upward, incinerating the electrified net around me. Fire blazes up my body, but this is an entirely new experience. These flames won’t warm a hearth or cook a meal. These flames will turn my enemies’ bones to ash.
Everything in my vision is green. It’s a strange color. Nothing you’d see in a forest or meadow. It’s not fresh-grown things or even that of a sickly man’s face. This color wasn’t born in the Vale. It hasn’t existed here long.
But if that’s what it takes to destroy those who threaten my family, I will create a bonfire so bright, all the realms will dance around it and worship us.
Everyone has stopped moving. They’re looking at me curiously, as if they don’t quite know what to make of me. At the far end of the bridge, I see the Son staring with eyes like liquid night.
