Palace of Silver (The Nissera Chronicles #3) - Hannah West Page 0,38
deserve better. You deserve more.”
“What are you planning?” I asked.
“You must trust me,” she said. The mirror rippled and stretched with her movement like a bubble too strong to burst as she reached out her hand, offering it to me.
I considered deceiving her to decrease the intensity of the situation, to lessen the danger for others who could be caught up in her wrath and sacrificed to her temper. But I could not pretend I didn’t hear the poison lacing her every word, a toxic brew of arrogance, fear, envy, and acrimony that she hoped to make me swallow.
Elicrin magic pounded through me, warm and urgent. The hairs on my forearms prickled.
“You’re asking me whom I will serve,” I said. “You’re asking me to choose between you and Valory. But my answer is neither. I serve light over darkness, goodness over wickedness. You cannot understand that because you only serve yourself.”
Ambrosine bared her teeth, ready to retort, but someone else spoke first.
“That’s not true. She serves her new master.”
Hesper emerged from the shadowy space between two mirrors, clenching an effigy in her fist. She must have quietly followed me here. “I can see him behind her eyes. Vainglory does not hide for long. It cannot resist showing itself when invited.”
Holding out the effigy, she closed her eyes and began praying in Perispi, beseeching the Holies to give us the strength to defeat Nexantius.
Ambrosine twitched and sneered as though repulsed. Her pupils enlarged and the irises flooded with luminous silver.
“Stop!” she yelled, her high-pitched screech entwined with a velvety male whisper.
“Hesper, let me handle this!” I raised my voice over hers, trying to contain my panic, but she only prayed louder.
“Stop it!” Ambrosine screamed. To my horror, she stretched the fluid mirror to knock the figurine from Hesper’s grip and raked her claw-tipped rings across the woman’s face.
I roared while Hesper shrieked and sank to her knees. Blood trickled through the cracks between her fingers as she clenched her wounds.
My shock fueled the spell that sent two glowing whips hurling from my elicrin stone. They were meant to wrap around Ambrosine’s wrists, but she stepped back into the safety of the mirror. They struck the glass and dissolved to glimmering dust.
Ambrosine laughed. Again, a deeper voice braided through hers.
Waves of dread roiled through me. My sister was a formidable enough opponent, but she had struck an unholy union with this creature. Who knew the scale of their combined power?
I had to face them both. Ambrosine had squandered the redemption we’d given her. She had misspent our mercy and, instead of reforming her ways as Perennia probably still hoped, she had tormented innocent people. She had opened her body and soul to something even more wicked than herself.
I would never be able to drag her back to Nissera in chains.
The only choice was to destroy her.
But not here, in this maze of mirrors, where she held an undeniable upper hand. I had to escape, draw her out.
“Sokek sinna,” I whispered to generate an enveloping shield.
Hundreds of reflections of the shield glowed back at me in the darkness, encouraging me. I knelt beside Hesper to cover her with my shield and help her stand. “We have to get back to the edifice. Is Navara still there?”
She peeled her hands away from her rent flesh and managed a nod. One of her eyes was a bloodied mess. Even a fine physician would not be able to salvage it. I tried not to cringe or think of how close I had come to such a devastating injury myself in my battle with the blights last year.
“Keep close to me,” I whispered, leading the way back down the passage.
But now…it was solid. Closed off. Another mirror.
This was no maze.
It was a prison.
Hesper whimpered through her blood-slicked hands. I turned in place to find a way out.
Instead, I found likenesses of my parents.
My heart thundered with longing, joy, loss, despair. I’d known Ambrosine was capable of cruelty, but this was beyond cruel.
“How could you turn your back on your own sister, Glisette?” the likeness of my mother asked.
“We always taught you that family comes first,” my father added in his typical stern tone.
“Father would never say that,” I said, feeling as if my heart had been torn. “He was a king. His duty required putting his people first.”
“We told you to take care of each other,” Mother continued. “You have lost your way, my darling. You’ve lost sight of what truly matters.”