Page 93 of Vow of the Shadow King

“Hold on, Faraine,” I whisper against her hair. “Just a little longer now. Hold on.”

The pool is readily visible under moonlight, even at a distance. The smooth clear waters gleam silver, surrounded by red fire lilies, just as Mother described. I guide Knar down, circling lower and lower until his feet prance just inches above the ground. I adjust my grip on Faraine, press her head to my shoulder as I slide from the saddle and stagger to the pool. Collapsing on my knees before it, I stare down into the dark water. There lies a perfect reflection of the terrible sky overhead.

Something resonates from below. I can’t explain it. It’s not unlike the crystal songs of thegujekminstrels. But deeper. Like the voice of the earth itself, echoing from below.

The moon glides higher and higher. It casts silvery light over the grass, the flowers. Nearby trees throw shivering shadows, like fingers rippling on the surface of the pool. I look down into Faraine’s face, bathed in moonlight. She’s so beautiful in my eyes. So strong, so brave. Dauntless in the face of every danger, a queen of true dignity and grace.

She is everything to me.

I would give everything for her.

Slowly, I slip into the pool. Find my footing, ease into that cold dark water. Her hair trails over my arm and drags behind us as I carry her to the center. There the water is deep, up to my chest. I angle her carefully to keep from letting her go under too soon. The moon climbs high. It hovers almost directly over us now.

“I give it all, Faraine,” I whisper, my mouth against her soft hair. “My heart. My life. Come what may, I am yours.”

A life for a life?

So be it.

I throw my head back and roar to the dreadful heavens, declare before all the gods: “Whatever the price, I will pay it! Let it fall on me!”

Then, holding her tight, I tip over backwards. Black water closes over our heads.

42

FARAINE

The crystals are singing.

I hear them. All around me. Under me. Over me.

Singing a song of the stars they once were. Singing a song of the blackness of space, the endless vastness of eternity. A song of life and love and darkness and endings and beginnings.

The song moves around me, through me. Pulls me down through layer after layer of reality until I’m submerged in black water, cold as ice. I feel the heaviness of a body all around me, like I’m encased in stone.

Still the song sings, vibrates through my bones. These are the voices of suns and moons, the voices of the higher gods. And above them and below them and through them, the great One Voice that spoke even the gods into being.

I am ecstatic. This is beyond any experience I ever hoped to know while housed in a body of flesh. It does not matter that I am cold, that I am heavy, that I am blind. Why should such things matter when such a song rings through every fiber of my being?

Then the pain begins.

Like a lance of furnace-heated iron shot straight up my spine.

I scream. There is no air, and I have no voice. It does not matter. Both my body and my spirit scream, thrash. I thought I knew what pain was. I thought I could endure it.

I was wrong.

Oh, why did I not die as I should? The worst was over. There was no need to come back, no need to feel this burning, wrenching, shattering . . .

Faraine.

Vor’s voice. Speaking directly to my heart.

Faraine, let me take this. Let me have your pain.

No! No, I will not give this to him. If this is the price of my daring to defy the very laws of death, then I alone shall pay it. Not him. Never him.

Faraine, let me take this from you. Let me give you my strength.

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