Page 27 of The Shadow Wand

Ni Vin’s face is tense with indecision as Kam Vin makes a case to young Chim Diec. Perhaps a case for my life. Chi Nam calmly leans on her runic staff and listens.

Every now and then, Ni Vin’s gaze wanders toward her mare’s charred, mangled corpse, and pain twists her face.

Remorse spears me.Ni Vin’s mare. Her beloved mare.

Unexpectedly, the mare I thought dead comes to life with a gurgling shriek, head slashing side to side, foam spraying from her mouth. Her eyes fly open, her dark gaze wild with terror as she begins to writhe in agony.

My mouth falls open as my chest seizes.

Something has to be done. She can’t be left to suffer so grotesquely. As if locked in a nightmare, I glance around and, through the thinning smoke, my gaze catches on a slim, pale shape.

The Wand of Myth.

It lies on a raised, flat stone not far from my feet, unharmed, as if it’s offering itself up to me. I rush to it and grab it with shaking hands, my power giving a hard lurch toward its spiraling wood. I stumble to the mare, stopping a few feet away, mesmerized by the grotesque thing I’ve done and sick with desperation to stop the horse’s pain.

A white bird circling overhead flicks into my peripheral vision. It flashes bright as starlight and opens a dark corner of my mind.

All of a sudden, it isn’t a horse I’m looking at, but a soldier, his uniform charred beyond recognition, the lower half of his body melted into the ground. His gaze is on me and filled with heart-wrenching terror. But it isn’t just him. I look around, horrified to see soldiers of every race and realm, dying, burning, screaming. A battlefield full of soldiers—Gardnerians, Alfsigr, Noi, Ishkart, Amaz. But not just soldiers, no—women, men, children, even babies, all of them burned, all unspeakably injured by my terrible magic.

In that moment, I fully grasp what my power is at its malignant center.

The vision fades and is replaced by the dying horse once again.

Ni Vin stands beside her beloved animal, her rune sword unsheathed in her unscarred hand. As she considers the horse with her usual stoicism, my eyes take in her melted hand and ear, the scars that cover almost half her body.

She has tasted the same destructive magic that lives inside of me.

I flinch as Ni Vin expeditiously brings her sword down through her mare’s neck. She watches as the animal becomes motionless, her own face devoid of emotion, as if she is resigned to the death of an animal that has been her companion for years.

I look to her beseechingly. “I’m sorry, Ni Vin,” I choke out. “I’m so sorry.”

She turns and meets my eyes.

And there it is—a flash of grief-fueled rage, brief as a cobra’s strike, gone before she turns away, wipes off her blade, and sheathes the sword once more.

Distraught, I look back at the mangled pile of flesh where a magnificent animal once stood—and all of it my doing. The vision of an entire field of death once again fills my mind and sends it spinning.

I cast the Wand away, fall to my knees, and sob.

A moment later, as my tears fall onto the charred ground, I feel Chi Nam’s steady presence in front of me before she even speaks. She hovers near me, her wizened hands coming to rest on my shoulders.

“Gather yourself, child.”

I look up at her, choked with tears and smoke. Her weathered body, wrinkled face, and age-thinned skin cause me to momentarily question her ability to help me learn how to handle the monstrous power lurking inside my lines. At this moment, faced with thisthinginside me, she’s like chaff in the face of a hellish storm. All of us are.

I can feel the claws of my power taking hold, sizzling through my affinity lines. Power I don’t want. Horrific power.

“I’m no good to any of you,” I rage. “Icannotcontrol this power.” I motion toward Ni Vin’s dead horse. “Look what happened!” I glance at Ni Vin with fierce remorse.

Ni Vin’s face tightens and she turns away.

I try to shrug off Chi Nam’s hands, feeling close to hysteria. “Nothing good can come of this! The power was like a thrall once it took hold. Ican’tcontrol it!”

A hum of energy shoots through Chi Nam’s hands and courses through my shoulders in a thin line. I gasp at the line’s powerful vibration as it flashes into me. My eyes jerk up to meet Chi Nam’s as the energy charges through my body, riding my affinity lines as it smooths away my panic.

“That’s better,” Chi Nam says. The weight of the blue line of her magic pushes down harder, forcibly calming me. Suddenly, she doesn’t seem so much like chaff.

Chi Nam’s grip on my shoulders firms. “You push this fear aside and gather yourself.”

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