“Gams!” Cyrus called again, but Vera’s grip was like iron on both his arm and Aeliana’s golden arrow. Orra might have whispered an apology, but her words were lost to Della’s sobs echoing off the atrium walls.
Without another glance, Arvid reached for the arrow. His massive hands enveloped Aeliana’s and Vera’s as he uttered the foreign words barely visible beneath the blood. The brightness of the Stargazer engulfed them, the walls closing in like a vise that squeezed the breath out of Aeliana before everything went black.
CHAPTER 9
Orra kneeled, her face a handsbreadth from the woman called Della. She wouldn’t be on this world much longer, but at least Aeliana had used the arrow. She’d brought it to Vendaras. It was finally where Orra could reach it.
Della was scrunched up in such agony that Orra felt her own muscles tense. Orra held out a hand, itching to ease the woman’s pain, to heal her or even just numb her, but Orra’s hand was a mere wisp of shadow and light. There was nothing she could do with her physical body hundreds of miles away.
Instead, she sang. She started out low, more of a hum.
Della’s cries turned to whimpers. Her eyes latched onto Orra’s, as if drawing strength from the melody. The pure tone held the sorrow of a thousand lifetimes, the joys of hundreds more. A man rushed into the atrium, the panic on his wrinkled face tightening Orra’s gut. Not a bondmate in the traditional Vendaran sense, but threads of love tied their souls all the same.
He dropped to Della’s side, hands clasping hers. The motion brought the woman out of the near stupor she’d been in as she listened, her pain resurfacing even as Orra sensed the comfort brought by the man’s presence.
Orra picked up the pace of her song, engulfing them both. The man held Della, careful not to aggravate her wounds, tears streaming into his white beard as he whispered words only for her.
Orra wished to comfort them both. To wrap her arms around them and infuse them with love and hope beyond this lifetime. The limitations of this form left her agitated, and her volume increased until the man winced.
She cut off her song, the silence that followed bringing the woman’s eyes open a mere slit.
“Do you see the light of the Sun?” Orra asked.
The woman’s whimper gave no indication of an answer.
The man stroked her brow, his lips moving, the sound too low for human ears. But Orra heard the prayer, guiding the woman to the Stars.
“Look to the Sun,” she told the woman. “Do you see its light? It will hurt, even more than it already does. It hurts to look upon the Sun’s brilliance.”
The woman’s eyes were unfocused, her gaze resting somewhere behind Orra.
Orra imagined the woman’s view beyond this earth to the Sun’s presence on the other side. Orra longed for it in a way that left her weak, vulnerable to losing her hold on this place. She sucked in a breath, focusing on the frail humans around her, the wooden benches and stone walls.
“The Sun will draw you into its presence, give you greater life than the one you’ve known. May the Sun ever shine upon you.” Her voice caught as she forced the words to be for the woman and not for herself. No matter how much she desired these truths to be her own, this moment was for the human. “May you never lose its light.”
Della’s breathing slowed, the muscles on her face relaxing. The man’s breath hitched as her lips lifted, her gaze still focused beyond Orra. When she took her last breath, the entire room paused with her. The life left her body, her pain along with it.
Orra’s shoulders slumped. Now the woman was safe. The woman had what Orra could not obtain. The hold Orra had on this place disintegrated, her light bursting out around her as her essence was pulled back across the water and through the mangrove trees.
CHAPTER 10
Gaeren had just reached the swamps when the light came, shooting from the distant west toward the southern provinces. He froze, allowing the matching memory to saturate his entire being. That hadn’t been the light of a starlock being delivered from the Stars or retrieved from Rhystahn. He’d seen this light only once before—fourteen years ago.
He climbed the nearest tree, reaching for his starlock’s power to imbue himself with strength and speed. Then, willing the memory of the light to remain, he tuned in to its source. With his bird's-eye view, the most he could see of the light’s memory was a silvery fog extending down the western coast of Vendaras. If someone had used the starbridge, that was where they’d ended up. But how far exactly?
His need to set sail intensified tenfold.
He scrambled back to the ground and had made it a hundred paces toward the palace when he remembered the book. It was the reason he’d headed for his hideout in the first place, and he couldn’t leave it behind.
Eagerness made Gaeren reckless, so he was only ten feet from the right grove of trees before he finally tuned in to his surroundings. He sensed the same strange magic, absent of memories, that he’d noticed the last time he’d been out here. Removing his dagger, he slowed his pace, nearly choking on the swamp gas stench but unable to escape to higher ground with cleaner air. Not until he knew what awaited him.
He took a cautious step forward, preferring to climb the crude ladder one-handed than release his hold on his dagger. His starlock warmed against his skin as if preparing to enhance his magic. A peek over the boards revealed a woman slumped over his desk, her body too still. He tuned in to his surroundings, wary of a trap, and yet she didn’t breathe.
He hopped onto the landing and took a step closer. Who was she? Why was she here? And what in Rhystahn would he do with a dead body?
As he scooted closer, debating his options, she gasped in a deep breath, her light brown skin taking on a glow that infused her body with life. Painful life, if the tightness of her features was any indication. The light faded, and she attempted to straighten, dark strands of hair hanging in her face. She doubled over the desk once more as if she might be sick.
“Sun’s fire,” Gaeren murmured, reaching out a hand to steady her.