Page 91 of Heart of the Shadow King

I feel no shock. No surprise, no dismay. I feel no sorrow, or disappointment, or despair. I simply stand in place. Staring around me. Feeling nothing.

“Took you long enough.”

I turn slowly to that voice, my stone eyes unblinking as the ragged, hooded figure steps out from behind the last standing Urzulhar stone. “Maylin,” I say coldly, my crystalized voice echoing.

“I was beginning to fear you’d never break out of that cursed cell.” The old woman totters toward me, her walking stick crushing bits of crystal. She looks around at the destruction, sneering as though she’s just discovered some child’s mess. “That wretched prince and his wretched followers ingest lead tablets. It makes them resistant to suggestion. I couldn’t reach you.” She sighs then and looks at me, one eyebrow quirked. “But I suppose you managed in the end. The gods are not through with you yet.”

On the far side of the stone around my heart, questions burn. Why did she conspire with the Children of Arraog? Why did she manipulate me into performing that spell? Was it all preparation for the confrontation she has envisioned? Or did she use me to seek some final vengeance against Gaur and the city he once loved? I wonder, but . . . I cannot care.

When I open my mouth, I say only, “What can be done? The Urzulhar are gone.”

“Yes, well.” The witch looks around at the ruined circle. “It was never strong enough for what we have in mind. We must go deeper.”

I tip my head to one side.

“Come, girl, you didn’t think these pretty rocks were the best the Under World has to offer, did you?” Maylin tosses back her head and cackles. “No, no. For your final wonder-working, I have something much better prepared. Come! Come with me.”

She turns and hobbles back through the rubble, her body more bowed and decrepit than I’ve ever seen it, as though all the age of her many long centuries of life has finally caught up with her. But pure purpose radiates from her soul, the strongest I’ve ever felt.

I fall into step behind her, following where she leads.

38

VOR

“Faraine!” Her name reverberates against the still-trembling walls, threatening to bring the compromised ceiling crashing down on me. Heedless, I bellow again and again, desperate to hear her response. That voice which had spoken—that hollow, distant, echoing voice—that was the voice of the crystal-bound being who had shielded me in the cell. Faraine, but not Faraine.

What has happened to her? What is this magic which warps and changes her? What has become of the gentle, thoughtful, wise, and soft-spoken woman I loved? Does that woman exist anymore? Did she ever?

“Vor!”

The desperate cry reaches my ear. I cannot heed it; all my energies are thrown into tearing away this barrier of rock which stands between me and my bride. I must get through. I must find her, wrap her in my arms, somehow force her back into the version of herself I know. The woman who could never do what this woman has done, who could never be what this woman has become.

“Vor! Help us!”

It’s Hael. Her fear cuts through the fog of my frenzy, jarring me back to awareness. With a curse, I turn. The pile of rubble blocking the infirmary door is partially shifted, enough that my captain has managed to shove the door open and extend one arm through. But two great stones remain, wedging it fast. She cannot find leverage to move them. For half an instant, I hesitate. Every instinct urges me in pursuit of Faraine, all anger, all hurt, all betrayal forgotten. But I won’t leave Hael trapped. I promised Sul she would live. She must live.

The world shakes again as I hurl myself at those last stones. Gripping one with both hands, I lift it above my head, muscles straining, and bring it crashing down atop the other. It strikes a point of weakness, and the boulder fractures. I hit again and a third time. On the fourth blow, the stone cracks in two. I push the chunks aside, giving Hael room to shove the door open. She stumbles through, Prince Theodre at her heels. His soft human skin is so coated in dust, he looks almost troldish. His bright blue eyes—so like Faraine’s they make my heart lurch—blink up at me, dazed in the thin light of thelorststone he clutches with both hands.

“Gods save me!” he yelps. “I thought the whole palace was about to fall in on top of us!”

“It was,” Hael says, while in the same breath I growl, “It is.”

The prince makes a thin, uneasy sound in his throat. “Don’t you think perhaps—and I don’t want to step on any toes here—but oughtn’t we to think of making a speedy getaway?”

Ignoring him, Hael turns to me. Though weak from her many wounds, her eyes are brighter than they were, alight with a terrible, burning glow. “Where is the queen?” she asks tremulously.

I indicate the fallen stalactite filling up the passage. “Through there.”

“Alive?”

I nod.

“Morar tor Grakanak!”she breathes. Without another word she throws herself to work, almost as zealous as I to clear the way. I should tell her to stop, to be mindful of her injuries. Some of those cuts are deep and have scarcely begun to heal. They’ll reopen if she isn’t careful, and she’ll bleed to death before the world caves in. But she wouldn’t listen to me. There’s a fire in her now that I don’t fully comprehend.

Working side-by-side, we heave, break, and haul stone. Theodre tries to help, but mostly gets in the way. Hael finally growls at him to back off. Stirring after stirring shifts the ground beneath us, smaller tremors, but growing more frequent. Writhing dread fills my chest. Did Sul manage to clear the lower city? Will any of them reach the Between Gate in time? Was I too late to take action, foolishly clinging to a forlorn hope? Damn my arrogance! Damn my stubborn unwillingness to accept failure!

And yet, even as these thoughts clamor in my head, only one force drives me now: Faraine.Faraine.I must reach her. I must find her before the end, must send her from this world in which she never belonged. Perhaps she deserves to die in crushing oblivion for what she did. I don’t care. Be she innocent or guilty, angel or destroyer, I will not go to the arms of the Deeper Dark until I know she is safe.

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