Lightbringer (Empirium #3) - Claire Legrand Page 0,49

don’t know why, but beyond it, past that seam, is everything we have ever feared.”

Ruusa stared, her freckled face gone horribly pale. As he rowed, Hob’s mouth was set in a grim line.

“Eliana often spoke to me of the Gate,” Navi continued, locking eyes with Malik. “You know of it too. Father and Papa—they told you, just as they told me. Most people in our world think it only a rumor. They look at their black-eyed attackers and convince themselves there are no angels still living. But we know better.”

Malik looked grim. “And you think that…that thing is another Gate?”

“I think it could be someday. I think the quake we felt was something much bigger than simply a shift in the earth. I think it was a shift in the empirium, that Eliana is still alive and fighting.” Navi stared at the distant black eye, hovering half-hidden in the trees. Fear tickled her throat.

“And I think,” she said quietly, “that if we mean to help her before it’s too late, we must hurry.”

10

Rielle

“Dearest sister, you may have heard that I am dead, and while it’s true that Merovec Sauvillier nearly beat the life out of me, he didn’t finish the job, though I wish he had. Two friends rescued me. No, I can’t tell you their names, though you would like them both. I’m no longer Merovec’s prisoner. I wanted to tell you that, at least. But I cannot come home. I’ve heard what happened in Âme de la Terre. I know Audric and Rielle are gone. I could not warn them in time. I failed them, just as I failed to save Father. I never wanted his crown. That was always your secret wish. You’ll be better for our people than I could ever hope to be. Find Audric. Help him as you can. They will call me the Craven King, for abandoning you. They’ll call me the Abdicator. Well, let them. Lying near death, I realized home had never felt like home to me. Now I choose to live, and find a place where I actually fit, for however long we’ve all got left in this darkening world. I’ll miss you, but I’m not sorry to be gone.”

—Encoded letter from King Ilmaire Lysleva to his sister, Ingrid, dated November, Year 999 of the Second Age

Corien found Obritsa almost at once, pinning her and her guard in place with his mind. But in the brief moments after her escape, she had traveled more than a hundred miles.

They would have to retrieve her on foot.

For three days, Corien raged in silence as they traveled the scrubby, mountainous landscape of Vindica, its cliffs and canyons, its plains cut by thin rivers. His pace was ruthless. He hardly spoke to Rielle; when he did, it was in clipped commands.

Come here.

Walk faster.

Kiss me.

He kept his promise; he no longer cloaked her thoughts. When he pulled her against his body in the dark, Rielle grabbed his collar and met his mouth with hers.

When she obeyed him, it was because she wanted to obey.

Then, on the fourth day, they found Obritsa.

Rielle knew it as soon as she opened her eyes from a restless two-hour sleep. They had stopped racing through the night only when Rielle, exhausted, had stumbled over a crack in the ground and nearly tumbled off a cliff-side path. Now, curled up on the floor of a shallow mountain cave, she opened her eyes just as Corien stopped pacing.

“Get up.” He was wild, his hair hanging in greasy strands. He yanked Rielle to her feet. “They’re close.”

“Unhand me.” She ripped her arm from his grip. “I can walk on my own.”

“Then keep up. And watch where you step.” His pale eyes glittered in the moonlight, and he wore a hard smile. “I have her. She can’t move. I have both of them.”

Rielle struggled to match his stride, her side cramping. He was hiding his intentions from her, and the expression on his face alarmed her.

They found Artem first in a cluster of wind-twisted trees. On his stomach, limbs askew. Alive, Rielle assumed, but certainly not moving. The pack holding the castings had fallen and split. Marzana’s shield glinted silver; Grimvald’s hammer hummed quietly in the dirt.

Past him was Obritsa. Corien had hold of her with his mind, and yet she was still crawling away slowly, as if moving through tar. Tears streamed down her face from the effort. Her face was gaunt, her lips cracked. Rielle realized, startled, that the girl must have