Page 212 of Flame and Sparrow

We were silent for several breaths, all of us anxious and lost in thought.

Then, very quietly, Valas said, “They wouldn’t dare.”

I scanned our surroundings with fresh panic, searching for familiar things, way markers, trying to remember if I’d walked this way when I’d crashed through the veil earlier.

Slowly, I realized I had.

And I knew the answer to my own question—I knew what lay to the north.A target.

The attack we’d fended off had been nothing more than a diversion.

Another group of our enemies must have slipped in while we were distracted. One with stronger weapons aiming for the spot where they could do the most long-term damage to this realm—the spot where gods were made and their magic was shaped.

“Their real target was the Tower of Ascension,” I whispered.

Chapter56

It had been my idea,too, once upon a time—that I could put an end to the Marr if I could destroy the tower they originated from.

Maybe I’d even been the one to put it into the minds of my once allies.

Dravyn was at my side in the next instant. Knowing he could travel faster than Zell, I leapt from the Selakir’s back and took Dravyn’s hand. He wrapped his arm around my waist, I braced myself for movement, and it happened as quickly as that—in a flash of wind and fire we crossed through the Edgelands, landing on the stone pavilion that surrounded the base of the Tower of Ascension.

I’d prepared myself for another battle, for countless weapons to be aimed our way as soon as we touched down.

But what greeted us was…nothing.

The tower was still standing. No one seemed to be attacking it—though the air was filled with the foul, familiar-by-now stench of anti-divine magic.

Mairu and Valas appeared at our side an instant later.

“That’s anticlimactic,” said Valas, frowning as he scanned the eerily silent and empty pavilion.

“It still feels like something’s wrong,” I insisted, already moving toward the tower for a closer look. I doubted our attackers could have gotten inside—I personally knew what an ordeal that was—but the area around the tower was full of nooks and crannies, places where enemies could be hiding. Potential weak points.

At first, I found nothing.

But as I rounded a corner and came to the eastern face of the tower, I saw the first bodies.

My eyes were immediately drawn to the Goddess of Sky, who lay upon a marble inset in the pavilion. Her body was perfectly still, curled up at an odd angle, large patches of her ivory skin turned to a poisoned, festering black. The shiny marble she lay upon was splattered with blood.

That explained the turquoise flashes of energy—it had been her magic.

But what exactly had happened here?

There were several dead veilhounds scattered around the space as well, their bodies shriveled, their silver coats matted with still more blood.

Even more elves lay dead in between them, their bodies ripped by teeth and claws rather than destroyed or drained by magic; whatever divine protection their armor had granted them, it clearly hadn’t stopped the veilhounds completely.

I rushed to the fallen goddess’s side. Mairu was right behind me, while Dravyn and Valas searched the surrounding areas for any signs of our enemies.

Mairu knelt, placing a hand over the Sky Goddess’s chest, feeling for signs of life.

I tried, desperately, to steady the rise and fall of my own breaths. “Is she…?”

The Serpent Goddess shook her head. “I’m not sure. I still sense her power, but it’s very faint. And getting fainter.”

“Will the reinforcements her magic made along the veil fade along with her?” I wondered, voice growing quiet at the thought. Was that why we’d seen the desperate flashes of her magic? Had she been trying to protect this tower—and now those protections had shattered along with her?

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