Page 37 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
She would never trust them.
Niels grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. His grimace gave away how much effort it took. The light revealed a sheen on his face, but he stayed standing, though he hadn’t removed his hand from the wall.
“Do you know where we are?” he asked, as if the last conversation hadn’t even happened.
“Somewhere in Myrrai.” She hoped, anyway. It was unlikely to be anywhere else, right? She wanted to fish out her grandmother’s journal and try to work her magic again, but she didn’t want Fely to know what she could do. The journal might not even be useful here.
Pinpricks buzzed in Hallie’s chest, and she stuck her hand into her pocket to grab Kase’s goggles. The cool metal would soothe her sore fingertips; they still felt scalded, almost, like she’d set her hand on a hot stove.
Instead, rough fabric lining scratched the pads of her fingers.
Empty.
The goggles were gone.
“Where…?” She searched her pocket again. She searched the other. Nothing. She glanced at the floor around her. No goggles. She crawled to her pack and tore through it. Not there.
“Hal, what’s wrong?”
She stopped her frantic search, righting her satchel and pack from where she’d dumped out the contents from both. “I can’t find Kase’s—my pilot’s goggles.” She ran her hands among the scant items. She’d only hadFrankenstein, her sketchpad, and a few pencils in her satchel. The pack she’d picked up from her childhood home held a few of her mother’s old blouses and trousers, as the ones she’d brought with her had been destroyed in the Pass. The goggles were nowhere. “They were in my pocket.”
Niels’ lips thinned, but he dropped his pack at her feet. “I don’t believe I have them, but you can look.”
Hallie shook her head. “No, I just dug through there for the bandages. I would have seen them.”
“These?” Fely said from her post near the doorway. “Nearly left them in the ruins. Figured they might be your Relic.”
Hallie cricked her neck looking over at the woman, who did in fact have the familiar goggles in her hands, undamaged except for a small crack in one of the lenses. Rubbing her sore neck, Hallie unsteadily pushed herself to her feet and retrieved them. “Thank you.”
Fely arched a dark brow. “In the beginning, it’s best if you hold your Relic while using your power.” She fished out a necklace from beneath her rugged blouse. “It’s probably why you couldn’t complete the healing, and why the Passage drained you so badly.”
Hallie clutched the goggles to her chest. The tightness in her chest loosening with each second that passed. She felt a little foolish to be so worked up over them, but she couldn’t help it. “Correa said something about them in Achilles, but he said my pocket watch was my Relic.”
“Do you have the watch?”
Hallie shook her head and retreated to where her belongings were still strewn about the cavern floor. “No, I lost it when…well, you know…the fort collapsed.”
Fely tapped her lips thoughtfully. “Was the watch valuable to you?”
Hallie nodded. “It was my brother’s.”
“Made of the holy metal?”
That phrase took Hallie aback. She’d only heard Yalvs use that specific terminology. If Fely had some sort of Essence power, she had to have some Yalven blood. She guessed it made sense, but something about that line of thinking irked her. She just couldn’t put a finger on what exactly.
“Yes,” she answered finally. “It was made out of Zuprium.”
“A Relic must be something crafted of the holy metal and have specific meaning to the wielder. However, it is unfortunate if the Relic was indeed the watch.” Fely played with the locket she’d unearthed from her blouse. “But that may depend on the Essence power you possess.” She closed her fingers around the locket. “This is the reason I am able to keep myself sane though I am but a vessel.”
Kneeling, Hallie finished repacking both her satchel and pack. She carefully laid the goggles in her pack, then thoughtbetter of it, untying her maiden belt and looping the goggles through it instead. She double-knotted the belt just to be safe.
“If you have lost your first relic, it might be difficult to replace it.” Fely rose to her feet. She peered into the corridor beyond. “I must ask the King, but we may very well be unable to teach you full control over your power without it.”
Hallie stood. “Then we’d best find what we need before it’s too late.”
She tried to inject as much confidence and nonchalance as she could into the words, but judging by the doubtful glance Niels gave her, she hadn’t succeeded. Hallie handed his pack to him before slinging her own onto her shoulder.
“We will wait for the King,” Fely said as Hallie approached.
