CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Marisarma Lords remain focused on Sultira. The path is clear.
—Correspondence from Anonymous to Queen Antares. Date unknown.
Darkness enveloped me. I’d been here before. Months ago, on the streets of Stynguard, when Cyril sliced through my neck with Talon. That dream-like state, somewhere between life and death, floating along through my not-consciousness. Where I saw that young man on the ship. Where I witnessed Enya’s last moments. But this was different, somehow, and I could still feel Tiberius with me, knew he still held the cast.
Warm water swelled around my legs. I was distantly aware of the sound the strange water made as it whooshed upward, but I couldn’t see where it went with the darkness that loomed, familiar yet uncharted. It was the darkness before sleep bids farewell, like the quiet space between the stars. And then a shimmering light peeked through the black night, sparkling and lovely.
Small, barely perceptible lights, like gemstones in the depths of the ocean, suddenly linked, forming glittering, ribbon-like whorls that swirled and danced to some unknown ballad above.
Threads.
Mythreads.
A dark, twisting ribbon spun with a brighter golden one, weaving together in a living knot of beauty. All I could do was stare as it continued to twist over itself. My powers—the Obscura and Transcindiel.
My fingers grazed the edge of spinning powers above my head, and the shimmering lights stopped, suspended in midair, before an explosion of color and lights lit up the darkness. Threads of all sizes and colors erupted from its center, stretching for miles in every direction, creating a brilliant web of light, like never-ending constellations.
Six ribbons shot from the center of the twisting knot of powers, stretching in different directions. Five were identical, looping and twisting in a glistening mixture of blues and greens, like underwater plants tethered to the bottom of the sea, swaying in its tides. Six ribbons connected to my powers… Bellators?
My eyes snagged on the sixth, the same, yet brighter and taut, like the cable that connects the ship to its anchor. I looked closer, noting a second, braided thread wrapped itself tightly around the first, as if to strengthen it.
The tips of my fingers neared that taught thread, and a pulse of warmth beat through the air as it brightened. It sparked as I neared, sending a wild white flame dancing down the thread toward a brilliant white knot at the other end. A warmth filled my chest. I wanted to follow it. My heart leaped.Bayne?
I reached up to grab hold of it when I spied other braided threads in the distance. Two or three, giving off a gentle pull, calling me to whatever lay at their ends. Silver flashed, and my eyes locked onto one in particular. The silver pulsed, as ifwhispering to me.Soon, it seemed to say,soon. Shadowed silver glimmered off that thread. Powerful. Dangerous.Unyielding. And yet…
My hand hesitated, and I stared as the braided threads called to me. I dropped my hand and heaved a breath. Why was I here again?
Can you hear me?Tiberius’s voice was a distant thing.
Yes.
Are you alright? The cast broke an hour ago.
An hour. Shit. I came here to get answers about those bodies. About the great battle in Bayne’s vision. I looked up into the tapestry of dancing ribbons of light and formed the question in my mind.
What happened to the Lady of Tomorrow?
I scanned the undulating threads that made up this mini universe. A brightening of one of the Bellator threads was the only answer I received.
Was it an illness?
Again, that same thread brightened for a moment before returning to its quiet sway. I didn’t understand.
We need to go,came Ti’s voice.
My gut twisted.
How can we win the great battle in Lotrennia?I asked the waters.
My powers flared to life in response, a line to the silver braided thread igniting, sparks zapping down it in quick bursts from my knot of powers. What does this mean?
Lyvia…Ti’s voice held an edge of warning that sent my heart on a steady beat in my chest. How was I supposed to get out of here? I scanned the expanse of the darkness and light, my eyes catching once again on that taught, silvery thread leading far away.
Ti, I don’t know how to get out.
Nothing.
