Page 95 of Shifter King
"If we say no though, does that mean you aren't going to come back and teach us?" the white-haired boy asked.
QueQoa found a small chuckle and shook his head. "No. I will come and teach you. After my sister is safe and after we have resolved these issues, I will come teach you."
He paused, a great weight pressing in upon him. Not just Laachtue but all of this. It had been wrong to ask the Golden Foxes to fight. If they had volunteered that would be one thing, but these were babies and children. He'd never gotten to have a childhood. Some of his earliest memories were of hiding with his brothers, scavenging and hunting in the wilderness, scraping together what meager existence they could wherever they could. How could he ask these little ones who had given up so much to risk themselves?
"That's very generous of you," Ren said, still smiling. "We are grateful to know you."
He rubbed the back of his neck. "You're still practically children. You shouldn't have been asked. It's good for you to stay back and tend to your own. A day will come when it is right, but it is not this one I do not think."
Ren's smile faded. They all looked at him now as if he had struck them except for Eskiatlo who seemed to be chuckling to herself. "Goodbye, QueQoa," she said. "Thank you for everything."
He nodded. "And goodbye to all of you." With another dip of his head, he then dropped forward into the iron dragon form. The young ones backed away, mouths wide and eyes even bigger as he leaped into the air and sailed into the sky.
Yes, it was good the Golden Foxes weren't going to fight.
TIME PASSES
Amelia pressed her spine against the wall, struggling to support her arm. Breaking her arm once had been hard. Having to do it a second time and a third? Sweat rolled down the back of her neck. That guard had stridden past, bashed on her cell door, and told her they were coming for her. It had been another day.
How was time moving this fast?
Already it was the fourth day. Having to break her own arm made for a poignant reminder of when the day started fresh. Yet it felt wrong. For so many reasons.
It would have been hard to tell how time passed anyway. They didn't let her sleep much despite taking away the torches in her cell. They barely gave her enough water to keep her alive. Every time she drifted into some fitful rest, someone came and shouted at her or beat on the door. Several times, two people in robes came and injected her with needles or took her blood. Now the passages screamed at her, random memories attacking and assailing her, not clear about who they belonged to but distilled to their essence which was always agony or grief or terror.
The Ki Valo Nakar cursed at her. "We are running out of time," it snarled in her ear. "It would not be hard to find ten who deserve to die. But I can work with seven."
She pushed her back against the stone wall, shutting her eyes and struggling to block out the chaos of the screams and agony of all the consciousnesses pressing hard against her. It was like she couldn't breathe."No. Just stop."
"They aren't coming. Something has happened. They're all dead."
"Has it really been four days?"
"I'm not the best at estimating time in this place,"it growled, hunkering down. It filled her mind's eye."But it has been too long. Something happened. They aren't coming."
"Stop it."
"You can't count on Elonumato sending anyone to help you. The Tue-Rah is gone. You really aren't a Nalenth any more. He'll come up with some other plan. But you don't matter. Not really. You are the one who will decide if you're going to survive."
"I will survive,"she bit the words back at it."But you need to shut up and let me get what rest I can if you aren't going to help me get out of here."
"I'm trying to help you. What do you think I could do?"
"If you're going to help me, find some way that doesn't involve eating people's souls and inflicting massive suffering on them, all right?"
"You need power,"the Ki Valo Nakar whispered."You need it to survive. That is what matters."
She drove the bases of her palms beneath her eyes, pressing hard."If I started, would I stop? Would I only stay with the guilty and could I prove that I had?"
"Everyone is guilty if you look. Some more so than others."
Without the necklace to help her focus and so much present pain, she struggled to reach even a quiet place within her own mind. Prayer was hard, feeling more like rote statements and desperate pleas to hold onto her sanity, and meditation had become impossible.
"Listen to what these souls are actually saying. Not all of them. The ones who inflict this," the Ki Valo Nakar whispered. "Start there. And really, truly, could you not consider that perhaps Elonumato intended for you to use this ability? That he intended for you to help yourself. It can't always be forbidden. Otherwise, why would you have these abilities? Why would your people havealways chosento keep them. But what is coming is worse. The Okalu is watching. I've seen it too."
She shuddered. If they were watching, they were probably pleased. Though if one of the Unformed Ones came for her now, well—there wasn't going to be much she could do.
"We are running out of time. You are running out of life. And if you die, then I am doomed to wander. So listen to me. Listen, it is so easy to do what must be done. To devour a soul is very simple. And they aren't dead forever. No one can really destroy a soul. They just suffer awhile. Let Elonumato sort it out on the other side. Now listen carefully."
