But the king said nothing. He simply turned to face the priestess.
The priestess spread the remaining paint on any piece of flesh not already touched and stated simply, “That you might be a light strong enough to face the night.” She placed the bowl on the wooden table behind her.
The Seven mounted horses. Two more were brought forward for Rade and me. “What’s happening?” I whispered to him.
“The first ceremony.”
“I thought that’s what this was.”
“No.” He gestured for me to get on the horse. The paint made my legs stick together as I climbed up. Rade got onto his own horse and echoed the priestess, “Now you must face the night.” And he gazed pointedly ahead.
At the writhing, dark wall of the Shroud.
TWENTY-FIVESAMIRA
I pulled my horse to a stop several yards away from the Shroud. There was no trace of Netherridge, or evidence that a town had stood here at all. The dark tentacles writhed against the clouds. My body swayed toward it, the pommel of the saddle digging into my stomach. Only sheer willpower kept me seated.
“I thought you said the Shroud twists those who enter,” I squeaked.
Rade dismounted his horse beside me, and so did the Seven. “We’ll be fine as long as we’re only in there for an hour or so.”
“Anhour?”
Rade placed a reassuring hand on my skittish horse’s neck, quieting the anxious animal, and gazed up at me. “We are awakening your magic, Amunet.”
I just shook my head, grateful when my horse danced a few inches away.
We all have darkness in us, Your Majesty. Some just have a greater propensity for it.
It didn’t matter that I had decided Velka’s explanation was wrong. I didn’t want to test it. The pull I felt toward the Shroud from the outside… What if, when it surrounded me, I didn’t want to leave?
Keir sauntered up on my other side and crossed his arms overhis massive chest. “I’ll make it easy for you, Majesty,” he said. “Either you get down from that horse, or I’ll get you down.”
“Keir,” Velka hissed behind him.
He just shrugged.
Something about that unfeeling gesture, the dare in his eyes, made me face forward again and draw a deep breath. Queen Amunet was frightened of no one and nothing, so that was what I had to be, too.
I slid off the horse and pretended my legs weren’t shaking beneath me.
Rade gave me an encouraging nod. “We’re going with you.”
Velka appeared at my shoulder. “And we won’t let anything happen to you.”
Keir took up the spot behind me, and the rest of the Seven fell into rank around me. A wall of muscle. It should have been reassuring.
It wasn’t.
My heart clawed at the cage of my ribs as I stepped forward, roaring at me to stop. But I took another step. Then another.
And then I was engulfed by the darkness.
I stepped into a cloud. The black smoke of the Shroud grazed my skin like downy feathers. A gentle, warm breeze made my tunic flutter around my shins, so at odds with Kaldfold’s climate. I drew a deep breath, limbs inexplicably lighter.
Around me sprawled the night sky itself. Glittering purple dust spun through the air like stars, blinking in and out as it drifted from tree corpse to tree corpse. Branches stretched and twined with each other like broken fingers, unnatural and sharply bent, not a leaf in sight. Yet I found it… beautiful.
A small laugh huffed out of me. There was nothing to fear here. It was wonderful. Ethereal. A dream in the flesh.
