Lenna was shoved to the side as a fae female ran by, screaming at someone to help her, to get a healer, as she dragged a moaning gargoyle towards the center of the hall, blood leaking from his thigh, painting the white tiles an unnervingly deep red.
Queen’s Guards, and those loyal to Adara, battled against the tide of beings who directed their anger at being tricked onto her closest supporters, pops of magic and the gurgles of the dying a quieter sound than the ringing of steel on steel, the shouts of betrayal and rage.
Heart hammering in her chest, Lenna backed away from the clamor, holding the Prism so tightly to her chest that her palm ached and the sharp planes of the stone cut into her fingers. Unsheathing one of the daggers Esmeray had given her with her other hand, she shrank back into the shadows along the wall, her grasp around the hilt so clammy that she almost dropped it. Behind the throne room doors, a roar shook thefoundation of the Palace, answered almost immediately by a screeching bellow.
Sparrow had taken one look at the monster Adara shifted into and waned Lenna out of the throne room under the orders to hide until this was over. Or run–if the battle waged did not result in Esmeray winning the throne.
Lenna scrambled away, ducking behind a marble statue of a long-dead royal a split second before a blast of magic whizzed past, ripping away half the statue’s face.
Pulling her knees to her chest, Lenna panted, her mind bleating in terror. Curled up in a ball, she felt so utterly alone. Battles raged around her, and yet Lenna was frozen to the spot, petrified. She was not a warrior, not a battle-hardened gargoyle, nor a powerful fae.
She was just…Lenna.
Human, powerless, way too mortal to be involved in this fighting.
As tears spilled down her cheeks, a sharp poke to her stomach gave her pause. The Prism dug painfully into the soft fold of her belly. Grimly, she brought the Prism up to her eyes, wondering who would be activated upon her death. At least she hadn’t failed to project the memory of the King and Queen’s murder. At least she could be proud of herself for completing her task–even though she was no help after, and would probably die here, afraid and alone.
“Esmeray waned Adara out of the throne room, and we don’t know where she went.”Laurent’s voice broke in her head as her mind speak ring heated on her finger.“Where are you?”
“I’m in the Great Hall, hidden away from the fighting,”Lenna whispered back into Laurent’s mind, embarrassment heatingher cheeks at the implication that she hadn’t been helpful after projecting the memory while others fought.
The Great Hall.Lenna jolted.
It looked…familiar.
Suddenly, Keerian’s voice began shouting through the ring, open to all six of them.“Esmeray! WHERE are you? Please, please, gods, tell me where you went.”Over and over, Keerian roared down the ring for his mate. It ripped into Lenna’s heart–his pleas for Esmeray to answer, the deafening silence as the Queen did not.
“We’ll come get you, stay where you are,”Merrick’s weary voice rumbled through her head. Lenna didn’t respond as she stared at the Prism in her hands.
Throwing herself into the Prism, Lenna flung herself down the thread of her past, searching for the strand that connected to Esmeray, barreling down its length to the Queen’s most recent memory–as close as Lenna dared to the glowing golden orb that would shove her back to reality. Right at the cusp, Lenna dove into Esmeray’s thread.
A soft flurry of snow, so white it was almost blinding, came into view. Esmeray, back in her normal form, was panting and bleeding in front of temple ruins half-buried in snow.
Lenna blanched as she realized this was the setting of the nightmare she had in Doortan, of the monstrous black gargoyle hunting her. But through this lens, the black gargoyle was Esmeray, in dire need of help, as the huge white Sentry stalked the perimeter, trying to locate the Queen. Lenna’s eyes darted around, trying to discern any sort of landmark that could help locate Esmeray.
Lenna launched her mind higher, higher,towards the clouds.
There.
The black spires of the Obsidian Palace. Esmeray had waned Adara to the mountains above the Obsidian Palace for her final stand.
Yanking her mind out from the Prism, Lenna moved to touch the ring on her finger, to tell the others she located Esmeray. But what could they do? Esmeray had waned to the Obsidian Palace, away from them, to keep the bloodshed between her and her sister. It begged the question–did Esmeray want them to come? Or was she getting Adara away from the throne room to finish the fight herself, without further endangering Merrick, Laurent, and Sparrow?
As another burst of magic fizzed by, Lenna flinched, stilling as she took in the destroyed face of the statue in front of her.
The hidden entrance to the dragon lairs are behind the marble statue of a Queen long dead.
The Hallwasfamiliar–from the memory of young Esmeray and Sparrow. It all came flooding back. She’d been so numb after finding out Diana passed, had been so worried about Marlo and Orla, that the memory of Sparrow and Esmeray as children seemed trivial.
But she had thrown herself into the Prism, not really looking for anything particular, and wound up seeing that memory. As if Moirai had steered her there, knowing she’d need the knowledge for the future.
For this moment.
She was not only the Oracle of Terramere, but a seer as well. What if Moirai had nudged her to the memory of Sparrow and Esmeray, using the past to give her information helpful for this fight?
Lenna quickly got to her knees, running her hands against the curved wall behind her.
Adara was big.
