Page 27 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
A pause. “Were we not in agreement?”
“Are kings not allowed to change their minds?” King Filip crossed his arms. “I am sorry, Uncle, but I don’t see the value in us both going to the capital to search for a man who, by all accounts, is centuries old. Asa should be able to find him just fine with your help.” The King crossed his arms and stood to his full height. He was still shorter than Correa, but only by a hairsbreadth. “I shall meet you in the Yalven city.”
Correa cursed. “Like the stars you will.”
“I will take the Essence of Time to Myrrai and await you there.”
They stared at one another. Hallie barely understood what they spoke about, but she could gather that she was the Essence of Time…and that whoever Asa was, he was important. She hadn’t done a whole lot of research into the Cerls, but she didn’t recall a younger prince. He was quite possibly illegitimate. The royal families of First Earth had also been obsessed with bloodlines. Stars-ridiculous, if you asked Hallie, but she’d had the privilege of growing up in Jayde. The government had its issues, but it allowed for the general populace to have a say in who made the decisions that affected everyone.
The two men continued to face off until, finally, Correa sighed. “Find Kainadr. Await my orders. We only have one chance to make this work.”
Filip nodded his head. “Good luck, Uncle. Tell Asa I will see him soon.”
Hallie itched to grab Kase’s goggles in her pocket to ground herself, but they might think she was reaching for a weapon.
Where had she gone wrong? What had she done to end up here? Her hands shook. She couldn’t help it.
This was different. This time, she was willingly putting herself in their clutches. She was making a deal with them. She would work with them.
She didn’t know if that made it better or worse.
She no longer felt like herself, but this deal was the only way she could do anything to help her country, her parents, and Kase.
Heat tingled at her fingertips once more. She didn’t think it was fear this time.
Correa paced a moment before turning back to her. “Regrettably, I was here in this little village nearly fifty years prior, looking for evidence of a Passage. Our intelligence suggested someone was looking for a way to the holy city.”
He paused. The heat rose up her arms slowly as the threads untangled. Fifty years…was that why they’d attacked? Had Navara been the reason the homes were burned out and overgrown?
Hallie thought back to the journal and her experience inside it—the darkness and the conversation. If someone had been looking for a way to Myrrai, had it been Navara? Had she tried to go back to her homeland to save whoever they’d been discussing in the…memory?
Correa prompted, “Is that why you are here, Miss Walker?”
Hallie squeezed her hands tightly and used the pain in her palms to ground herself. The answer was right in front of her. It had to be. She glanced subtly at the brick in question. She was certain that was the key. But if Navara had been unsuccessful in opening the Passage back up, could Hallie open it herself? The Lord Elder had created it, and Hallie now had his power.
The image of the glowing archway flashed in her mind insistently.
“It is,” she said with as much confidence as she could muster. “I believe a Passage lies here, though if you weren’t able to find it all those years ago, it might be that it has disappeared.”
The woman shifted behind her, and Hallie flinched without meaning to. “Weren’t you trying to do something with that brick there?”
Hallie hesitated. Her heart drummed loudly. She gave in and stuck her hand in her pocket, her fingers gripping the edge of Kase’s goggles as hard as she could. They gave her strength, and neither of her captors stopped her. She took a moment to breathe. The heat in her arms had reached her shoulders, but as she grasped the goggles, it receded slightly. “I’m not exactly sure.”
Correa stepped forward around Niels and looked down at the brick in question. “Fate works quite mysteriously.”
He bent down and brushed a hand on it. Sparks leapt from his fingers. He scoffed. “Of course, the maker of this particular Passage didn’t want it found by anyone. Only those who needed it. It seems as if we were not in need in the past. I’d blame General Ormond, but it bodes ill to speak of the dead…” he paused and looked over his shoulder toward something only he could see. “Especially in the place of his passing.”
“What?” Hallie asked.
Correa stood and shook out the arm that had touched the brick. “There are three ways to get to the holy city. The first is by traversing the sea above it or on it—a lengthy journey and nearly impossible until recently. The second is through the Gates. The final one is through smaller Passages created by the Essence of Time. This side of Yalvara used to have many of these Passages, but between the wars and the actions of the misguided peoples of Yalvara, most are now closed.” He gestured to Hallie and pointed at the brick. “But you can open this one.”
Without taking her eyes from Correa, Hallie stepped forward, trying her best to hide the shaking in her knees.
She knelt next to the brick and placed her fingers upon it, regrettably letting go of the goggles. The heat returned to her arms in full force, and with her fingers on the brick, they burned just like they had minutes earlier.
She closed her eyes against the heat and pain. She envisioned the fire and its spiraling, uncontrollable tendrils. Focusing hard, she grasped one and pushed it through her fingers into the brick. She closed her eyes and braced for…whatever would happen.
Her heart raced. Her power writhed harder, strands vying for control, fighting for her to release her hold on the one she’d chosen. She shut them out as best she could. Sweat poured down her face, dripping down her nose and onto the ground below.
