Page 85 of Still the Sun

Her power bursts from her in a cascade of amaranthine. It sweeps the land, growing and burning and hardening into a wall that seems to stretch on forever, that surely encircles the continent in its entirety, an impenetrable guard to keep any from climbing it and reaching to the cold abandon on the planet’s other side.

And then she falls, lifeless, toward the earth.

“Cas!” I shout. I try to run, but my weary body falters. I fall to palms and knees, scraping them on the rough soil. Pushing up, I limp forward, desperate to reach her—

Ruin’s black tendrils fade to little more than a shadow of gray. I’m so desperate to reach Cas that I don’t even notice when I cross one. But I feel it. Immediately, I feel it.

It doesn’t devour me, as it did Hagthor. Ruin is too weak. But even as it sinks into its prison, the Devourer consumes. My dwindling strength leaches out through the soles of my feet. The golden glow seeps from my hair and skin. My bones shrink. As the sun-bright sky blots to darkness in my vision, I collapse.

And I forget.

Lids scrape over my dry eyes, and mist-strewn sunlight fills my vision. With a groan, I push myself up. My blood feels made of grit, and my skin, cracked leather. I take a moment to gain my bearings. Where am I? Why do I feel like this? Ugh ... my head feels like the clapper of a giant bell.

Someone is crying.

Picking myself up—it takes a few tries—I teeter toward the sound. I think it’s a child at first, but when I find the source in the hazy fog, it’s a small woman, curled up on herself, her dark hair falling over naked back and shoulders.

I crouch in front of her. “Are you okay?”

She blubbers a little longer. “No,” she wails. “No, no, no ...”

“What’s your name?”

She doesn’t seem to understand me. She squirms from my touch, sobbing and muttering choppy nonsense. I stay with her a long while. I have so little energy. But eventually I hear other voices, more clear and precise, more intelligible, elsewhere in the fog. Voices I know, somehow, but can’t quite place. I try, and ... lose my train of thought.

“Here.” Standing, I offer my hand. “Let’s find you some clothes.” My own hang off my frame; my trousers barely stay up. “Better to cry where it’s safe than out here.” Whereverhereis.

It takes some goading, but I convince the naked woman to take my hand. Her body spasms a few times, then allows me to lead her toward the others. She drags her feet and mumbles under her breath, but I catch part of it.

“Cas ... neeee.” She shudders and tries again. “Casss ... neeee!”

“Is that your name?” I ask, but she doesn’t reply. Doesn’t seem like she’s able to, like her mind is elsewhere, connected to her body by only a thin string. After a few more attempts, she says, “Nia!”

“Casnia,” I supply for her, and she doesn’t object. “I’m ...” It takes a moment for me, too. “Pell. Pelnophe. I’ll help you, okay?”

She stumbles then, dropping into the dirt as though her strength has left her entirely. I have a little left, so I carry her the rest of the way.

Chapter 28

My forward momentum sends me colliding with the old planks of Salki’s floor. I catch myself with my free hand and fall onto my hip. Casnia releases my other and falls into a heap beside me.

Just like before.

“Cas!” I cry, rivers streaming from my eyes.Rivers.I remember rivers. Oh gods, I remember rivers and trees and night and stars andCas’raneah. I roll her onto her back and smooth hair from her face. I barely recognize her like this. She’s so changed, so ... mortal.

She gave everything to create that wall. She pulled the power for it right from her mind, right from her soul. Left her like this, but it didn’t kill her. Thank the Well it didn’t kill her.

But she couldn’t tell me. She lost herself to the confines of her own prison.

“Cas. Cas.” Hovering over her, I pat her round cheeks. “Cas’raneah, can you hear me?” I pull back one of her eyelids; her iris rolls back. I check her pulse. Heart beating. Still breathing. But she doesn’t wake, no matter how hard I shake her. “Cas!” Tears hit her collar and my knees. “Cas, I’m so sorry, I’m so—”

Serpent save me, Ifixed the damn machine. Tampere’s World Serpent is free and turning. We’re heading into night, and it will only take about six hours for Moseus—for Ruin—to reclaim his true power.

How did it escape? How did it obtain a physical form and reach the tower?

Arthen pushes open the door just then. “What—” Seeing us, he rushes to Cas’raneah’s side. “What happened? Is she okay?”

Oh, Arthen.He’s so different from how he used to be. So much smaller, weaker. Aged. We used to be so much more. Strong, tall, golden. Halfway to gods. All of us, and Ruin took it from all of us. Devoured our shadows of divinity as it was sucked down into its terrestrial prison.

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