Page 156 of The Shattered Rite
Eliryn curled into herself.
“Why did you defend me out there?”
“Because you looked like you were about to collapse.”
“And?”
“And I don’t think you killed your guard.”
“I—Silas…” Her throat closed.
Vaeronth’s voice turned softer.I hear others. Approaching.
The door opened. She stiffened.
“Eliryn?” A new voice. Warm. Familiar.
“Garic.” Her breath cracked, tears she didn’t know she had threatening now. “Thank the gods.”
This wasn’t a time to be concerned with using names amongst mixed company.
She reached blindly, and his hands found hers, steady as stone. She gripped him like the edge of a cliff.
Vaeronth described him instantly.His face is grim. But his eyes—he’s afraid for you.
Garic crouched, gripping her arms gently.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m blind.” She finally broke. “And Silas is dead.”
“What?”
She told him everything—rushed, raw, stumbling through the words. The chill of the stone corridor. The sudden silence. The way his hands were there—and then gone. The blood. The breath. The way she’d held him and begged him not to leave her.
Her voice came in broken shards, scraped from somewhere deep.
Across the room, Whitvale didn’t move. He stood against the far wall like a statue, but Eliryn could feel him watching. Cool. Quiet. Unflinching.
When she finished, the silence held.
Garic’s voice broke it like flint on stone. “And no one saw who did it?”
“No.” Her voice was hoarse.
Garic’s voice was steel now. “Whitvale. You were nearby.”
“I found her minutes after,” Whitvale said, evenly. “She was already soaked in blood.”
“You saw no one?”
“No.” His answer didn’t waver. “Just her.”
Garic stepped closer. Eliryn felt the air shift, his stance widen. “Then someone sent those other guards. Someone trying to sweep this clean.”
Eliryn’s voice was low, but cut through the chamber like glass. “We’d just split from you. From the others. That hall should’ve been safe. Should’ve had eyes.” Her hands shook. “And whoever killed Silas… never even touched me. Never even tried.”
The silence after that was suffocating.
