Lightbringer (Empirium #3) - Claire Legrand Page 0,147

the mountain. Her skin and lips were deathly pale. Corien sat on the steps of her altar, holding her in his arms, begging her to awaken. He roared for his officers to fetch the healers from their laboratories.

Rielle shivered, watching this unmoving version of herself. She certainly looked dead.

“Don’t worry.” The girl’s voice was high and clear. “Didn’t you hear me? You’re not dead yet. Now, come. I’ve been waiting so long for you to arrive. Walk with me. I should like to show you what is here.”

Rielle hesitated, then took the girl’s hand. They walked through the shallow black-gold sea. The hem of the child’s white gown floated on the water’s surface.

“Do not be afraid,” said the girl cheerfully, leading her on. “It is only me here, and I have no wish to hurt you. I think you will like it here very much. I think you will prefer it.”

Rielle shivered. She longed to rip her hand free and also to wrap the child in her arms. “Where are we?”

“We are everywhere. Do not let go of my hand, please. That will make it easier for you. Your mind is still quite crude in its humanity.”

Then the girl tugged Rielle forward, and the sky began to move. The stars streaked past them in brilliant streams of color, but the water remained calm, as if somehow every step they took covered a span of many miles above and only a few inches below.

Rielle cried out and stumbled, her mind unable to grasp the incongruity, but the girl’s grip was strong. Her laughter chimed above the roar of the sky.

“Where are you taking me?” Rielle gasped.

“I want you to see me,” the girl replied. “Am I not beautiful?”

“I cannot look.” Tears streamed down Rielle’s face. Her chest tightened. The force of the stars streaking past, how they rushed like angry rivers. The sound would crush her.

“I understand. Your eyes are simple, but they will not always be. Already it has begun.”

Hours passed. At last, Rielle cracked open her eyes just enough to see her feet moving shakily through the black water. The sea’s surface did not reflect the light of the stars. The waves held their own light, as if illuminated by fires that burned deep underwater.

She found her voice, hoarse from disuse. “You are the empirium, aren’t you?”

“You should open your eyes all the way and look around.” The girl’s whisper made her jump.

They had stopped moving and were now sitting in the shallow sea. Something tickled the back of Rielle’s neck, urging her face toward the sky. She fought it, though she ached to look up. If she saw whatever hung in the sky above her, she would never want to look away. Instead, she watched the warm water lap against her swollen belly.

Playful, the girl drew her hands across the waves, then smiled up at Rielle. “This is where you belong. Look up and tell me you agree. I would like you to agree.”

Rielle hesitated. The seabed pebbles were silky between her fingers, each one pulsing with the rapid patter of her heartbeat.

“Look up, won’t you?” the girl said once more. “You will not be sorry.”

Rielle could no longer resist. She lifted her gaze to the sky.

Among the stars, globes of light and rock spun slowly—some large and near, others small and distant. Stripes of color ribboned some; others were plain or murky with clouds. Rielle ached to reach up and touch them. She sat on her hands.

“What are they?” she whispered.

“They are worlds. Would you like one?”

Rielle ignored the question. “I don’t understand. My world does not look like this.”

“It would if you lived in the stars and looked down upon it. It is a pretty thing, Avitas. Green and blue and white. A gemstone streaked with clouds.”

Rielle’s heart pounded all reason out of her. She struggled to form thoughts. “Tell me: Are you the empirium?”

The girl looked disappointed. “Everything is the empirium.”

“But there must be a single place or being more powerful than the others. A place where everything began. A being that began it.”

“Must there?” The girl tilted her head. “Perhaps you are the being that began it, for you are of the empirium, and the empirium is all things. Perhaps nothing began it and it has always been.” Her bright golden eyes did not blink. “Perhaps I am the empirium, one of many that have existed, and the time has come for me to be reborn as another.”

Rielle’s breathing had grown thin. “You speak