The Alcazar (The Cerulean Duology #2) - Amy Ewing Page 0,86

she was wearing the necklace she had given Sera, as she never had in true life. She gripped the dream stone in her hand and felt an overwhelming connection to her best friend, as if Sera’s heart was contained within it.

“Do you know where Sera is?” she asked.

“Yes,” the wisp replied. “And she is in grave danger. There are forces at work on the planet that wish to clutch her in their claws and never let her go. You must help her, Leela. You must help her show them.”

“Show who what?” Leela asked. “I am only trying to bring Sera home.”

“Home is not always what we think it is when our journey begins,” the will-o-the-wisp said. “And it can change along the way. Home is ever shifting, because it is not truly a place. It is a feeling.”

Leela wasn’t sure what she meant by that. “But I miss her,” she said.

The will-o-the-wisp glowed brighter. “You will see her again,” it said. “But my children have forgotten who they are and it is time they remembered. It is my fault—I was broken with grief and I let this City drift out of my sight. By the time I recovered, I could not find it.”

“Why not?” Leela asked. She felt as if the will-o-the-wisp should be capable of anything.

“It stopped moving,” the wisp said sadly. “If the City does not move, I cannot see it. And it has been still for so very, very long. There was a dark time when I worried I might never find it again. Little lights winked out one by one and my love was too far away to be made tangible anymore.”

“The moonstone,” Leela whispered, and the dream stone grew hot in her hand. “That’s why it stopped appearing. Because you could not find the City.”

The will-o-the-wisp shuddered in a way that Leela took as a nod. “But it lives in the City still,” the wisp said. “It cannot be destroyed, only hidden.”

Another image came to Leela, an unfamiliar one, of a fountain being torn apart out of fear.

“Why?” Leela asked. “Why would she hide it?”

The wisp did not need to ask who Leela spoke of. “She is consumed with guilt. She thinks she is doing what is right. But it has been too long. She thought she could withstand all those years, thought she could be strong enough to protect the City. But it is not protection. It is desperation. Her time has come to live in my light and love, to let go and allow the change she so desperately fears to happen.”

“How can she live in your light and love after all she has done?” Leela asked.

“She is my child,” the wisp said. “Just as you are. All children make mistakes. It is not for me to reject but to forgive. And her story is not over yet. There is still time for redemption.”

Leela did not quite agree with that, but felt it best not to say anything. The wisp was far older and wiser than her.

“But if she destroyed the fountain, then why not the statues or the obelisk?”

“Even she would not destroy the images of my daughters,” the wisp said. “And the obelisk, too, is sacred. But all other pieces of my love have been locked away. They are yearning to be touched once more, to be owned, to be connected.”

“But I don’t know where they are,” Leela said miserably.

“Ah. That I can help you with.”

The will-o-the-wisp floated toward her, so close Leela felt its heat, and before she could cry out or back away, it floated inside her. And suddenly, she was at the top of the temple spire, at the place where Sera always loved to perch and watch the stars.

“Look inside,” the will-o-the-wisp whispered from within her heart. “See beneath the glitter and the gold. And then make a leap of faith.”

Leela saw a flash of gold-silver-blue that she knew was the tether, then she felt the terrifying sensation of falling, and space was all around her, and the underbelly of the City swam in her vision and she woke up drenched in sweat.

Heal them, the will-o-the-wisp’s voice echoed in her ears. The dormitory was quiet around her, the gentle breathing and light snores of the novices the only sounds.

Leela stayed there, stock-still, replaying the dream in her head. She could not have been asleep for very long—it was still dark outside. She wondered if she should wake Elorin, but some instinct said this moment was for Leela