Page 51 of House of Embers
She barely had a second to think before she was inside a dream world of her own making, a figure with golden hair standing before her.
“Kerrigan?” Audria gasped. Tears came to her blue eyes, and she threw herself into Kerrigan’s arms. “You’re okay. Oh gods, you’re okay. Where are you? Where are we? Oh, don’t answer that. I don’t want that information.”
Kerrigan looked her friend in the face. For all intents and purposes, she looked like the same golden-honey dream girl, a beauty—confident, popular, and vivacious—except for the hollows under her eyes, the tremble of her hands, and the downturn of her mouth, the fear laced in her expression, as if she were waiting for the other shoe to drop, only the shoe was a blade on her neck.
“How is this happening?” Audria gasped. “I’m here, but I don’t know where here is.”
“Spirit magic,” Kerrigan said.
“Right. I didn’t think you could dothis,” Audria said in awe. “I don’t know how you even got your powers back.”
“It’s a long story. What happened to you?” Kerrigan asked.
Tears formed in Audria’s eyes. “You left. Bastian took over the Society. I was imprisoned, but Roake vouched for me.”
“I’d heard as much. And now you’re working for the Society?”
“No,” she gasped. “I mean, yes.” She scrubbed at her face again. “I don’t agree with them, Kerrigan, but I don’t want to die. Roake got me out of the dungeons, but I’m being followed, and I can only leave the mountain with him.”
“Oh, Audria.”
“I thought you were dead,” she said, breaking down into tears. “Helly was dead. You were dead. Fordham was dead. I didn’t know what to do. I thought I could work from the inside, but no one trusts me. Gods, do you hate me?”
“I don’t,” Kerrigan told her. She envied her the ability to keepgoing through life like a lie, the privilege to do it. “Now I have someone on the inside.”
“Yes. Yes, I’ll do anything I can to help,” Audria said at once. “But I don’t see how I can help. Roake is going away on this mission, and while he’s gone, I’m under house arrest.”
“A mission?” Kerrigan asked.
Audria’s mouth opened and then closed abruptly. “I…”
Kerrigan arched an eyebrow. “What’s he doing, Audria?”
“I’m not even supposed to know,” Audria said in a whisper as if she expected someone to overhear.
“But you do know.”
Audria dropped her gaze. “He’s escorting a scholar to the Holy Mountain.”
Kerrigan narrowed her eyes. “For what purpose?”
“To talk to the Dragon Council.”
The Dragon Council. Her mind whirled at that information. What exactly could Bastian want with the Dragon Council? Any of the innumerable possibilities were frightening.
“Who else is going with him?”
“Uh, I think four escorts in total.”
“Just fighters?”
“No, two fighters and a healer. I only know because Roake was trying to convince me to go as a healer.”
Kerrigan considered. “But you’re not even a good healer.”
“That’s what I told him. But the other healers revolted after Helly’s death,” Audria said in a whisper. Helly had been the most accomplished healer in several generations. When Bastian had murdered her in the arena, it was beyond Kerrigan losing her mother figure; it was also losing the knowledge of several lifetimes.
“I see,” Kerrigan said. If they were down to Audria as one of their most accomplished healers, then they were definitely struggling. “And the other healers went where?”
