Lightbringer (Empirium #3) - Claire Legrand Page 0,239

and had heard her father describe her many times. When she imagined her mother—her green eyes, power painting her hair and arms with gold—Eliana sometimes had to hold her breath, because it felt as if she could turn around and see her mother standing there. As if Eliana’s mind could bring her back from the empirium, wherever it had taken her.

“She helped the empirium go to sleep,” she told her father, her voice falling to a whisper, as it always did when she spoke of her mother. She thought carefully through each word, because her father had taught her how important that was. The magic in their world was gone, he said, but some still remained in the words they spoke, and that power must be respected. She held the necklace her father had given her—a disc of gold on a slender chain, engraved with the image of her mother riding Atheria. Holding it always made her feel a little stronger.

“Someday the empirium will wake up again,” Eliana said to her father, “but right now it’s asleep, and only I…”

She stopped speaking, her cheeks warming as she stared at the floor. When she wasn’t praying at the temples with Miren and Sloane, or reading books about the empirium with her father, Eliana often forgot about the power inside her body. Her power was why she could see Zahra and the other wraiths, while everyone else could not. Her power was why her father sent her to Garver’s shop for lessons, and why her father and Miren and Sloane and Zahra taught her so many things that sometimes she felt like her head had grown three times larger than it should be. They wanted her to learn everything there was to know about this magic that lived in her blood, and to not be afraid of it, and to know many other things too, like healing and music and mathematics, so that her power was not the only thing she loved.

Sometimes, when Eliana remembered that she wasn’t like anyone else in the world, it made her feel lonely, like a bird perched high in a tree, too high for the other birds to reach.

Her father kissed her head. “Only you can still touch the empirium. That’s right, Eliana. And it isn’t a bad thing. You shouldn’t be ashamed of it. Your mother left your power intact for a reason. Maybe she thought something frightening would happen someday. Maybe she loved you so much that she wanted you to keep this piece of her inside you.”

Eliana shivered. What frightening thing might happen someday, and what could she do to stop it?

“This is why Simon sometimes feels sad, I think,” her father said. “Why sometimes he even seems angry with you. You have power still, and he does not. His gift was taken from him, as was mine, as was everyone’s—for good reason, I have to believe it was for a good reason—but they are gone nonetheless. I think seeing you sometimes reminds Simon of what he has lost.”

Hearing this, Eliana’s eyes filled with tears. “Should I not be his friend anymore? I don’t want to make him sad, Papa.”

“No, darling, that’s not what I meant. In fact, I think it would make him saddest of all if you stopped being his friend. There may simply be days when he is not himself, and you will need to be patient with him. Maybe you’ll even feel that you should not talk to him at all at those times, and that’s perfectly all right. You can work together in silence, or read one of Garver’s books and leave Simon alone at his table. Do you think you can do that?”

But today was not one of those days. It was a day of light and cheer in Garver’s shop, and Eliana stared and stared at Simon as he laughed—laughed because of a thing that she had done! Her chest hurt a little, watching him. It was a sweet, quiet hurt, and she didn’t mind it. The feeling reminded her of being home in her safe, warm bedroom, watching her father’s face as he told a story about her mother.

The silver bell rang at the door, and Eliana whirled to see that Zahra had come to bring her home—but she was not alone. Her father had come with her, all the way down from the castle! Even though he had told Eliana he would most likely have to sit in boring meetings for the entire afternoon,