Page 84 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“Is that what you want, witch? To see him dead?” the seer asks so nonchalantly Blair wants to slap her.

“It’s what the prophecy of Kalleandara says,” Blair blurts.

“Is it?” the girl muses.

Only then does Blair realize the girl’s sober tone is not meant to mock her but that she’s simply curious.

“Is it not?” Blair asks back, snapping her teeth toward her in a warning.

“Remember, witch, we are hardly ever what we seem. Even rarer what we dream.”

“I asked you a damn fucking question, seer. I suggest you answer it if you want to keep your miserable hide.”

The girl shrugs, utterly unfazed. “I don’t know. But the prophecy says that she will end the blight. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Caryanisthe blight.”

“Maybe he is, in a sense, maybe not, but… what of it anyway? What has this to do with you, other than a broken heart?”

“I have no damn broken heart!” Blair hisses, showing the full length of her elongated, silver canines. But how many nights has Caryan’s name played in her head like a song on repeat when she tried to sleep?

The girl looks back at her, playing with a strand of her whitish, pearlescent hair and some twigs and leaves that have caught there, saying nothing. Blair wonders how old this creature is. Older than her or as young as she looks?

“It also says madness is on the threshold, that the hounds of war have been summoned,” Blair goes on, her voice still sharp, her brows raised. “Has he gone mad? Is he going to start a war?”

“Maybe,” the girl offers.

“Foreign troubles that have been unlooked for too long... An earthborn child of ancient blood, who carries within her the light; she is the only one who will end the blight,” Blair recites.

The girl just shrugs again.

“You don’t believe the oracles?” Blair snaps.

“I do and I don’t. They’re so vague and so moody. They can change their prophecies all over. All it takes is one tiny decision, and everything turns out differently. Sometimes it’s the tiny things that make the biggest difference. Like an act of kindness, or mercy.”

“Is that what you told the blacksmith, along with my name?”

“I told the blacksmith where to find the wounded Nefarians. He wanted to know your name. That was all he came for. He said he dreamed about you. I see he gave you the sword the Nefarian gifted him.” The seer’s eyes rest on the black sword on Blair’s belt.

“Why are the Nefarians back?”

“Maybe they were never gone in the first place.”

“Stop being cryptic, seer! Or you’re going to end up as a treat for my wyvern.”

“The Nefarians still live in Khalix, the desert lands in the west. The forgotten continent.”

Blair stares at her, truly shocked. “What? There’s nothing there anymore. Nothing but dirt and dust. And we know. We flew there once and checked. The city hewn in stone is vacated, not a soul there left.”

“Yes, you did fly there once, I know. And you saw nothing because Khalix and the City of Sky and Stone are hidden under a glamour.”

“No way. There is no one powerful enough to hide a whole godsdamn city from the rest of the world.”

“Oh yes, there is, Blair Alaric. You always knew how powerfulheis, because you’re attracted to accumulations of power.”

“Caryan,” Blair whispers, a part of her unable to believe it.

“Yes.”

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