Page 73 of House of Embers
Body. Mind. Soul.
Mindwas circled to highlight what part of the test Tieran was on.
No magic can penetrate.
No mind-speak may pierce.
No loved ones are safe.
The champion has a choice—you or the other.
Bound till sunrise.
Till death.
Kerrigan cursed. Well, that was ominous.
Tieran had to choose between her and another person he loved before the sun rose again. If not, then they all died. She couldn’t speak to his mind or reach out to him in any way. Hence the giant tendrille chamber and shackles.
A smile came to her lips as she sank back onto the hard ground and reached for the thread she’d left open as soon as she and Gelryn had begun planning. He had told her not to bother with the first test. Her interference would only hinder Tieran’s focus, and they both agreed he was a better fighter than Dalrig.
But the mind test was something else. It was a way to break the dragon by forcing an impossible choice.
There were ways around that—at least for her.
Kerrigan tugged on the thread. Her Doma powers didn’t work the same way as the rest of the Fae’s powers did, and this ceremony had been put into place with the dragons and Fae as the contingents. Theycouldn’t counter the gods. If they could, they might not have been sent to Alandria in the first place thousands of years ago.
So when she had come back out of the spirit plane, she had left a part of herself open to it, a tether to the plane that she could use as a little loophole for the test—something a Fae couldn’t possibly do. Only a dragon had access to the plane, but even a dragon would be hindered by the tendrille. The metal was a product of the gods. She could, if she chose, utilize its powers for herself.
Or so Gelryn believed.
For now, she needed to see if her trusty loophole worked.
She tugged, and the spirit plane materialized. A slow, dangerous smile came to her face. So much for magic dampening.
She dug back into her magic, which was unrestricted on the plane. She couldn’t conjure the elements here, but it worked the same. Every creature had a magical signature that felt different from any of the others. She had long ago found that Tieran’s had the scent of baking cinnamon and hearth fire. He felt like winter warmth.
Her magic cast from the plane, and it only took a minute for Tieran to appear when she called him.
He blinked at her in a panicked surprise.“Kerrigan?”
“No time to explain. Gelryn figured out a back door for me to talk to you.”
“This is cheating.”
“Is it cheating when the loophole exists? Or is it dumb not to utilize it?”
“It is cheating.”
“Gods, Gelryn told me to do this. So take it up with him. I’m not sure where I’m at. Somewhere in the mountain surrounded by tendrille. Now that I’m on the plane, you can locate me like we used to have to do during training.”
Tieran huffed dramatically.“If they found out…”
“They won’t. Who is the other person they have restrained?”
He was silent a beat.“My sister.”
“I love how forthcoming we are with each other,” she said sarcastically. “First your mother and now a sister. I didn’t even know youhada sister.”
