Page 69 of The Sundered Blade

The voice was as familiar as it was unexpected, but Karreya did not take a deep breath or drop her guard as Inci shifted to include the newcomer in her field of view.

“You,” she hissed, eyes gone wide with shock and dismay. “How are you not dead?”

“The usual way, I suppose.” With the silver shimmer of her mirror held aloft in her left hand, Senaya approached from the direction of the gate, sparing not even a glance for the golden bulk of the dragon. “I have simply not yet ceased to breathe.”

“After so many years, why throw your life away now?”

Senaya let out a sigh, and her lips curved gently. “It seems I have at last learned a lesson the Enclave could never teach us.”

Inci drew another dagger from her belt, but held it behind her back to protect it from Senaya’s mirror magic.

“And what lesson is that?”

Senaya tilted her head and smiled softly. “We have all been told that love will hurt. And it is true. There is no more exquisite pain than that caused by deep and genuine love. But what we were never told is… It is worth every moment of agony. Every breath that shreds our lungs and leaves us bleeding from wounds no one can reach. Everything of value has a cost, and with love, that pain is the price. But I would choose to pay it, over and over again, for the chance to love and be loved once more.”

She released a long breath before she continued, and it sounded like letting go. Of her pain, her fear, her resentment… Whatever had brought her back, she seemed to finally be at peace with herself.

“Because… there is also no greater joy,” she said. “No greater peace than to know that you are seen, that you are chosen, and that you are fully accepted as you are.”

“Such things are fantasy,” Inci snapped. “An illusion of the mind.”

“Yes, the Enclave teaches that feelings are an illusion,” Senaya agreed. “But when wechoosethem, they become so much more. Whether we choose hatred, envy, resentment, or love, they change us and make us different than we were before.”

“You have nothing to save you but talk,” Inci replied, shaking her head. “And it makes you weak. I am here for one reason only, and I will not be turned aside. Even if I must burn this land to the ground, I will accomplish my mission and return to my Empress.”

At last, the waiting dragon began to move. Its immense golden head lifted, and it moved towards Inci, one heavy step at a time, as clumsy on land as it was graceful in the air. Subject to her commands, thanks to the gem embedded in the scales between its horns.

The creature was as much a slave as every mage in the Empire, and Karreya’s rage flared as she considered the life it was forced to lead. When would it end—this abuse of other living, breathing, thinking beings for the sake of one woman’s power?

The dragon’s wings unfolded and beat the air, buffeting Karreya and Senaya with gusts of wind.

“Burn,” Inci said softly, and the dragon turned its head and set the world aflame. Grass and trees blazed up, an ornamental fountain became a plume of steam, and Karreya felt the sweat drip down beneath her collar as the heat pressed closer.

“Give in,” Inci said simply. “You cannot win. I do not wish to harm either of you, but I must fulfill my mission. I will burn this place to the ground, one city at a time, until you are willing to submit to the Empress’s commands.”

Karreya felt a sudden surge of despair as she glanced over her shoulder at the palace of golden stone where Niell even now searched for her father. Should she agree to go with Inci, even if only to save Niell’s life?

The dragon lifted its head and turned to the other side of the carriage road, sucking in a breath in preparation…

“No. Be at peace.”

The voice was soft, but it cut through the sound of the flames like a shark through the water—swift and unstoppable. The dragon reacted as though it had been slapped, shaking its head, dropping its chin, and folding its wings as it bent its neck and regarded the newcomer standing in the road.

It was a woman, small and simply dressed, her face covered by the hood of her cloak. There was nothing threatening about her voice or her posture, but when she lifted that hood and cast it back, both Senaya and Inci stared as if they’d seen the specter of death itself.

For a moment, the woman did not speak again, only approached the dragon and laid a gentle hand on its neck. The enormous head turned, and that terrifying mouth full of teeth closed, only to bump the woman’s shoulder gently, as if in affection.

“Yes, you are beautiful, love,” she murmured. “Do not fear. I will not harm you.” Her gaze shifted to take in Senaya and Inci, who remained frozen in what Karreya could only call terror.

Whowasthis tiny woman they feared so greatly?

“I will not harmanyof you by choice,” she said. “Not unless you attack. I have set aside my powers for all purposes except defense and the freeing of any mage who finds themselves under the control of another.”

“How did you find us?” Senaya’s voice was hollow with some remembered pain, and the newcomer sighed.

“It was well known that I could sense others’ magic, but less well known that I could learn to imitate it, given enough time.”

Even by the flickering light of the flames, Karreya could see the color drain from Inci’s face.

---