Page 19 of A Song of Ash and Moonlight

Thirsk pulled at his collar and cleared his throat. “Yes, and as I’ve said to you before, Your Majesty, there has been immense pressure from others in the Conclave to do just as Professor Fontaine suggests. The Committee for New and Emerging Magics is a jewel of the university and is headed by the professor himself, as you know. Surely they would be helpful advisers in this crisis.”

Yvaine slowly shook her head. “Gareth is important in what’s to come. I see that clearly. Not his colleagues. Only him.” She looked at me then, and her expression softened. “And the four of you, and your sister in the Order. And Talan—he is part of this too, of course. Oh, Gemma.” Yvaine’s voice was heavy with sadness. “You must miss him terribly.”

Gemma flinched. Now I was the one to grip her hand hard.

Ryder took a step toward the queen. “Your Majesty, why have you brought us here? What are we a part of, exactly?”

Yvaine watched him as she might a beloved child. Her right hand absently played with the air near the ward magic; sparks flashed at her fingers.

“I need your help,” she replied. “All of you. I must put every strength, every resource at my disposal, into guarding this place and determining the sinkhole’s cause. And”—her gaze flicked over to Brogan—“into ensuring that this secret does not breach these walls. I must remain here. I am strongest in the Citadel, which the gods made for me, which they carved out of stone with their own hands. You, though…”

She looked to each of us in turn. My skin tingled with some ancient instinct.

“You can go anywhere,” she murmured, “and everywhere, and you must. I need all of you to be my eyes, ears, and hands out there in the world. Learn what has made thisaberration, as my advisers are so fond of calling it. This window, this door. What made it, or who, and what other else-things are out there in our world, opening up paths to the unknown?”

At once, I thought of the Middlemist and Mara’s recent letter.The Mist is dying.Was this sinkhole evidence that its disease was spreading? My mind raced with dire possibilities. More than anything, I wanted to go straight to Mara and wrap both her and Gemma in my arms, never let them go. We could hide away at Ivyhill; I would play my music night and day if it would keep them with me.

“Farrin,” said Yvaine on a soft puff of air.“Farrin.”

The queen’s voice pulled me back to myself. Everyone was looking at me; I realized I was trembling, my shoulders tense with anger.

“Youmustwork together, all of you, at all costs,” Yvaine said after a moment, looking sorry for me. “There are those who may try to stop you from doing so. You must defy them, no matter how dear to you they may be. Even if—”

Suddenly, Yvaine fell silent and went rigid. Her solemn expression cracked open, and before my eyes she became herself again, my friend Yvaine, mighty but human, who knew mortal things like humor andloss and fear. Her face went slack with horror; she ran wildly for the sinkhole, and then, before any of us could stop her, tried to throw herself into it.

The ring of beguilers heaved; a shock of magic rippled through the room with a sharp crack that made my ears buzz. Dimly I heard the beguilers shouting in panic, in pain.

Gemma released me. “Keep working!” she shouted at the beguilers. “Brogan, make them hold!”

Brogan, wide-eyed, muttering an incantation himself, scuttled around to each of the beguilers in turn. He placed his hands on their shoulders, bowed his head, and kissed each of their own, murmuring all the while.

The invisible rope of magic encircling the sinkhole shimmered and darkened. Tongues of power snapped across the room, making our hair stand on end. Yvaine threw herself against the ward magic again and again. She beat at it with her fists, horrible sobs bursting out of her, and then she started shouting in a language I did not know. But at the sound of it, my skin tingled, and my memory flashed to the sad house at the edge of the sea called Farther—the evil echo of Talan’s family home, where Kilraith had nearly killed us all.

Whatever the queen was shouting, the language was Olden.

Ryder and Alastrina grabbed her, tried to pull her back from the sinkhole, but she was strong, frantic, and she twisted like a wild animal in their arms. The ring of ward magic echoed her, roaring, thrashing. An arm of it snapped out and whipped across Ryder’s cheek, leaving a horrible glowing burn.

“What is she saying?” Gemma called out. “Farrin, do something!”

I’d been too stunned to move, rooted to the floor by absolute terror, but finally rediscovered control of my body and hurried to Yvaine. She was on her knees, Ryder and Alastrina holding her arms. I knelt beside her, feeling numb and useless, hardly able to find my voice.

“Yvaine, I’m here,” I managed to say. “It’s Farrin. Please look at me.”

She shook her head, squeezed her eyes shut, and still the foreign words poured out of her mouth. The room trembled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Thirsk run back into the shadows, toward the corridor that had brought us here.

Gareth crouched beside me, shouting to be heard. “She’s saying,They’re coming. They awaken.It’s Zelophar, a godly tongue. Found carved into the land in the days after the Unmaking, where the five Cloisters now stand. And in Aidurra and Vauzanne too, on the sides of mountains and the walls of caves. Most scholars agree the gods meant to mark these locations as holy sites, places ripe with power that are important for Edyn’s protective infrastructure—”

“Not the time for history lessons, librarian!” Alastrina snarled, sweat dripping down her face from the effort of restraining the queen.

“They awaken, they awaken.She’s saying it over and over.”

“You have to stop this,” I shouted to Yvaine. I found some courage and grabbed her hand, though it was so scorching hot I nearly dropped it. I steeled myself and tried to ignore the pain, though it shocked tears from my eyes. “Yvaine, listen to me. You’re going to hurt yourself. Look at me, please! Breathe with me. Be with me.”

Gareth continued translating, the sinkhole’s lightning flashing across his face. “Make them go to sleep!” he cried, echoing the queen’s screams.“If they come here, they’ll die. Make them go to sleep!”

Yvaine was hysterical, her sobs so fierce they were making her gag. She clawed at the current of magic nearest her; blood dripped from each fingertip. Not knowing what else to do, I pulled her into my arms and held her, and over her shoulder I met Ryder’s gaze. He nodded firmly, the slash of blood on his cheek an alarming bright red. He and Alastrina kept their hold on the queen, gripping her shoulders, her legs.

“Yvaine, Yvaine,” I murmured. “It’s all right. I’ve got you. I’m here.”

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