Lightbringer (Empirium #3) - Claire Legrand Page 0,85

travel right into my bedroom with no warning, toss our son at me with no regard for my poor, shocked wife, and then go traipsing about the world after an angel with no plan other than dragging me along with you.”

“I can help you,” Tal said urgently. “If we can find your marque, we can find Rielle. And if I can find Rielle…” A lump formed in his throat, breaking his voice. “If I can find her, I can free her from him. I can bring her home to Celdaria, where she belongs. Only then will we be safe. If we cannot do this, I fear she’ll be forever lost, and the world will fall, just as Aryava proclaimed.”

“And what if Queen Rielle does not wish to be free of him?” Garver asked quietly. “What if she went willingly? What is it about you that will convince her to leave him?”

“I love her.” The choked words burst out of Tal. “I love her, and she loves me. I have taught her everything she knows. I have protected her all her life.”

“And done a piss-poor job of it,” Annick muttered.

“Annick!” scolded Garver.

“I know her. I know her.” Tal looked to each of them, praying they would believe him. “I can reach her. I know I can. I simply have to talk to her. If she hears me, she’ll see reason. If I can touch her, hold her, she’ll remember home. She’ll fight her way free of him if she has to.”

After a long moment, Garver glanced at Annick. She said nothing, her expression grave, and nodded once.

“Very well, my lord,” Garver said. “We will travel together. We’ll rest until dawn, then begin at first light.”

Tal’s exhausted relief was too immense for words. He directed them to the cave he had found, then settled on the hard ground outside it, under a wide black mouth full of stars. He hooked his arm securely through the strap of his shield, which covered his torso like a burnished shell.

Just inside the cave, Garver sat down heavily and put his head in his hands. Annick settled beside him, looking out into the night.

“I hate being so far away from Simon,” Garver said gruffly, after a long moment. “He’s a tender-hearted boy, though he tries not to be. He’ll worry.”

“Quinlan is looking after him,” Annick replied. “She has powerful friends. They’ll be safe.”

“Your wife is entirely too good for you.”

“Too true,” Annick said, and then added, a grin in her voice, “Do you know, at times like this, I almost find myself wishing you and I hadn’t ever stopped loving each other.”

“At times like this, I find myself wishing I had no power at all, so I could send your sorry ass to save the world and stay at home with my son.”

“Our son, you wretch,” Annick said fondly, and kissed Garver’s nose.

Tal listened to their quiet conversation until his eyes began to drift shut, and for the first time since leaving Celdaria, he fell asleep with a flare of hope burning clean and bright in his heart.

17

Eliana

“There are days when I too lose my courage. I hear the screams of the dying, and I think all is lost. But if you learn one thing from my writings, I hope it is this: Whatever pain you have been dealt, the Sun Queen, when she comes, will bear far more. And she will know all the while that, if she surrenders, she will do so at the cost of everything that lives.”

—The Word of the Prophet

It was over far too quickly.

Eliana lurched across the terrace, clumsy with terror, and crashed to her knees against the low stone parapet. Ioseph and Remy fell fast toward the ground, their bodies blurred shapes in the darkness.

From the moment Eliana grasped Corien’s intent, she knew what her choice would be, and therefore did not hesitate. She could sense the truth in his words: If she tried to save them both, he would kill them, and she would be left with nothing.

But he had known that and had correctly guessed how she would respond to that threat, that she would have no choice but to do what she was doing now—reaching out for Remy’s body as it spun and plummeted, desperation making her castings flare to life.

The empirium shifted at her command, the air around Remy weaving itself into a brilliant cushioned net. Eyes glazed, her vision gone golden and supple, Eliana could see the change in the air like the press