Page 128 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Hallie gave him an odd look. Fely shook her head. “My messengers. I am only the source of information.”
Niels didn’t understand anything at this point.
“And?” The Stradat Lord Kapitan folded his hands in front of him.
“It’s much worse than you feared, Stradat Lord Kapitan.” Fely leaned forward on the table, her long fingers splayed. “Stradat Loffler is not working with the General. He’s gonerogue. And he’s the reason Zalina, the end, is upon us. At least the General is trying to stop it.”
No one spoke as the words weighed heavy in the air. Niels itched to pull Hallie into his arms and tell her that it was okay, but he never would be able to do that.
She wouldn’t even look his way. Kase’s hand was still on her knee. Niels tried to let go of the grief and anger building up within him. Hallie had rejected him. Niels knew he should have saved Jack. He knew he should’ve followed her to the capital.
But he hadn’t, and she’d moved on.
He’d lost her and hadn’t bothered to find her.
The Stradat Lord Kapitan rose and went to the tent entrance. “Sergeant Fisher, please fetch the Yalven emissary immediately. Tell him it’s of the utmost urgency.”
With the renewed silence, Niels looked at anything besides Kase and Hallie. He couldn’t get the image of their reunion out of his head. It hurt. He also didn’t want to make idle chat with the Stradat Lord Kapitan or Fely. He forced himself to inspect his bandage. It was only just starting to show the blood along one of the edges, but it definitely wasn’t bleeding enough to cause this kind of chill.
So why did he feel so cold?
He was so focused on the chill creeping higher that he barely registered the man entering the tent a short time after. The numbness had started to feel blissful, but he noticed the man was extraordinarily tall with long braided hair. Someone gasped. He wasn’t sure who. The man who’d entered looked quite ragged in his rumpled clothing—a long toga tucked underneath a thin cloak. Bags drooped under his red-veined eyes.
“Miss Walker—you’re here.” The man rushed over and bowed over her hand, saying something in a different language.
“And may they not fall when morning breaks,” Hallie said back in Common with a tight smile. She went to say something else, but the man looked past her and froze.
“Lord Saldr,” Fely said quietly. “I was not aware that you were…here.”
Something happened, but Niels wasn’t sure exactly what. One second the other man was there, and the next he sort of…flickered. He rubbed his eyes. Surely he was seeing things. He needed to sleep. That was it.
“Lady Felyra,” the man, Saldr, breathed. “May the stars rise upon you.”
The ice was creeping into his chest. It wasn’t painful. Just cold. He was finally able to focus on something else besides Kase and Hallie, and with the encroaching chill, he barely minded that Kase had moved his hand from Hallie’s knee to the back of her chair.
Fely finished the greeting and said, “It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?”
“Indeed it has.” The man took the vacant seat beside the woman but refused to look in her direction. He bowed his head slightly to the Stradat Lord Kapitan. “I understand why you called me here.” He glanced over at Hallie. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
Who was this man, again? How did he know Hallie?
“I’m still unsure what it means. The only times I’ve used the power, I’ve lost control,” she answered.
“And pray tell us, what does your supposed Essence power do?” The Stradat Lord Kapitan asked without inflection.
“I’m not entirely sure. I created a Passage here, for one, and…a few other things.” Hallie played with the fingers in her lap.
Kase rubbed his thumb between her shoulder blades. Niels looked away.
“I don’t know what I do, truly.” Hallie wasn’t being completely truthful. She chewed on the inside of her lip. There was something else, something she was scared to tell the Stradat Lord Kapitan. She’d messed something up in their journey here, leaving them lost in a void for a week without them realizing it.
She hadn’t just lost control; something had gone very wrong. But to admit something like that to the most powerful man in Jayde would be ludicrous.
The other man in the room saved her from answering. “Your Essence manipulates time.”
No one spoke. The words seemed to drown out sound outside the tent as well. They were heavy and laden with implications Niels didn’t understand.
The Stradat Lord Kapitan looked thoughtful as if he’d expected the insanity. “If that is the case, using your power to restore the electricity to the city would go a long way to surviving this war.” He pressed his fingers together and brought them to his lips in thought. “Yes, that would work quite well. We could scrounge up a few hovers, surely. We have three pilots, though my son is the only fully trained one, but a few of my own men could work in a pinch.”
