The Other Side of the Sky - Amie Kaufman Page 0,114

believed imaginary, a child’s balm in a world that hated her … it is true. There is a divine power speaking to her, of that I have no doubt.”

“I believe it,” Nimh murmurs, sounding lost. “She was so powerful. They raised the Shield of the Accord against her, and she withstood it.”

Jezara nods slowly. “That,” she replies, “is because sky-steel doesn’t hinder her magic.”

Nimh’s breath catches. “That’s impossible.”

“No.” Jezara’s voice is quiet. “It’s just never happened before. You asked why I don’t use spellfire to light my lamps. It’s because I can’t. They told me my divinity fled when I touched Inshara’s father. But my magic remained, until my priests found a way to take that away from me too.”

I glance at Nimh, who’s shaking her head. “You cannot take someone’s ability to use magic,” she replies. “It is a part of the magician, just as their blood is, their breath.”

“But you can, child. If you’re willing to do what’s required. They put a tiny amount of finely ground sky-steel into a waterskin, so that it was infused with the stuff. And then they held me and forced it down my throat.”

Jezara’s voice is bitter, and Nimh has one hand clapped over her mouth now, the other pressed to her heart.

“That was how you knew to make those jars, the ones you used to fend off the mist-wraiths in the village.” Nimh’s voice is muffled, but Jezara nods.

“You were pregnant,” I say.

“Yes. I think they believed it would rid my unborn child of any abilities as well. But it didn’t drive out her magic. It gave her a resistance to the sky-steel instead.”

“An immunity,” I say slowly. “Early exposure at low levels. Scientifically, it makes sense.”

“Nothing about this makes sense!” Nimh bursts out. Her eyes are wild, her breath ragged.

“She was special,” Jezara says simply. “Chosen. And she believed. It took some time before she came to call the voice in her thoughts the Lightbringer, for I don’t know that he ever named himself, but when she did …” Jezara shakes her head. “It was years too late by the time I began to wonder if the weight of her destiny had tipped her past conviction, past reason, into …”

“Madness.” Nimh’s breath catches in a sound that isn’t sure whether it wants to be a sob or a laugh. My hand twitches with the urge to reach out for her.

“I think we can safely say that’s happened,” I say.

“Yes,” Jezara agrees. “So I hid the scroll from her, realizing she could not be the one to remake the world—if she did, it would be in her image, a reflection of the hatred our people still held for me. But if that is truly her destiny … then I cannot stop it. None of us can.”

I look across at Nimh. Her gaze is hollow. She looks as though she’s been stabbed, but hasn’t figured out yet if she is dead.

Before she has a chance to reply, a bell in the corner of the room begins to ring, and Jezara whips around to look at it in consternation. “Someone’s coming,” she says. “That is my warning system. I would not be surprised if Insha has people watching this place. Her people are devoted to her, body and soul. She most likely knows you’re here.”

Nimh’s brow furrows. “We will not let you face her alone and powerless.”

Jezara’s eyes fall on her successor, a deep but brief glimpse of sympathy there in her gaze. “You’ll kill us both if she comes to find you here. That corridor leads to a tunnel that will let you out among the cliffs on the other side of the valley. I will delay them as long as I can.”

There’s a grim edge to her voice that causes Nimh’s eyes to widen a fraction. “You think she would harm her own mother?”

Jezara doesn’t reply in words, but Nimh’s answer is there in the sadness etching lines in the former goddess’s face, the way her head bows as if under a great weight.

I stow the scroll in my bag, carefully nestling the ancient document among my food and supplies. I’m not sure what use the thing will be—even if it turns out I can read it, even if it turns out I am this Lightbringer, Inshara doesn’t strike me as someone who would listen calmly while we explained her mistake.

Nimh looks at Jezara for a long time, and the other woman gazes back at her. I wonder what they see