Page 111 of Beneath the Haunting Sea

Talia scrambled onto the dais, her skin crawling, and came face-to-face with Rahn.

For a moment,she found herself transfixed by the goddess’s beauty: hair the color of finely spun gold, shot through with veins of silver; skin as pale as the Tree; eyes as blue as the deepest part of the sea, filled with hatred and sorrow, wisdom and laughter and, above all, an immense, terrible strength. Tendrils from the seaweed that made up her throne curled through her hair and twined about her shoulders,caresses for their cold queen.

The goddess eyed Talia coolly, almost disinterestedly. “Very few of the race of mankind have ever dared come to my Hall. Why have you?”

Talia stared the goddess down. “I have come to destroy you.” Her words cut strong and clear through the Hall, but her knees shook. She could feel the Words peeling themselves from her skin, bit by bit.

The goddess looked at her,her expression a mixture of amusement and annoyance. The Star on her hand glittered and flashed. “What nonsense do you speak before me?”

Below them, the Billow Maidens’ music faded to the barest whisper, and Talia knew they were listening.

“I am a daughter of Endain. The strength of mankind and the power of the sea flow through my veins. Your evil won’t endure, and when you are gone the deadwill at last find peace. Your rule is at an end.”

“Fool! There is no power on earth or sea or heaven that can stand against the Star and the Tree! I will rule the world until the end of time itself, and you will dance with the otherwormsat my feet, and worship me.”

“I willneverworship you. And you’re wrong. There are powers that stand against you.Istand against you, bound with the veryWords that spoke you into existence. And I am not alone.” Talia peered down below the dais to where the Waves were watching, fingers slipping slower over their harp strings. “Daughters of Aigir, there is no bond set upon you anymore! The nine centuries of your curse are ended—you need not play for your mother and her dead any longer if you do not wish it.”

“Silence! You will speak no more inthis Hall. My daughters will do my bidding, now and forever, bond or no.” Rahn’s voice writhed through the sea, impenetrable, unmovable.

But below the dais, the Waves silenced their harp strings, one by one.

The dead moaned before the throne, confused, faltering in their dance without the Waves’ music to guide them.

The hand that bore the Star began to shake. The goddess rose from her throne,towering above Talia with majesty and rage. The sea slipped about her shoulders like a robe for an Empress, blue and green, white and silver. “Do not think you will defeat me!” Rahn thundered. “Many have tried and all have failed, and the ranks of my dead only swell.”

“The birthrights of the daughters of Aigir were not yours to take. You stole their power for nine hundred years—now it has returnedto them, every drop.”

“And they’re rather angry with you,” added Wen, choosing that moment to leap onto the dais opposite Talia.

A split-second glance passed between them, and as one, Talia and Wen flung themselves at Rahn, a Word ofDeathechoing on their lips.

Talia seized one of Rahn’s arms and Wen the other. She had time only to reflect that the goddess’s arm was surprisingly human-feelingbefore she and Wen yanked her backward, tumbling with her down the side of the dais. Rahn raged as she fell, shrieking Words into the sea, but Wen and Talia didn’t let go.

They hit the ground in a rain of bone shards and pearls, and in the same instant Talia’s fingers closed around the Star. She yanked it from the goddess’s hand.

Fire shot through her.

She screamed, for the Star was drawingher into its heart and she couldn’t bear the pain. She would splinter into a thousand pieces; she would turn to dust, the fragments of her soul broken and scattered for all eternity.

But then she felt a change inside herself, the blood of Aigir crying out. She had a right to the Star. She could contain its power, control it just as he once had. She would destroy Rahn, save Wen and her mother,free the dead. And then—then she could do anything she wanted. Return to Eddenahr and execute Eda for her crimes. Take Wen to Od where he belonged. Crown herself Empress of all the world, never again have to endure pain or heartbreak or sorrow.

She wanted that, more fiercely than she had ever wanted anything. The power of the Star flooded through her. She welcomed it, let it in.

But then shefelt fingers tightening around her wrist, biting sharp and cold, a cuff of bone. “Don’t,” hissed a voice.

She blinked and found her dead mother beside her, a spark of life in her eyes. “You’ll become like her.”

Talia gasped and dropped the Star. The fire winked out. She stared at it, relief and regret warring inside of her.

Rahn rose to her feet, shaking Wen off her like an annoying insect.Rage writhed in her beautiful face, but her hand looked frail without the Star.

The goddess lifted her hands above her head, and began to speak, Words of power falling fast from her lips.

They were dark Words. Evil Words, full of shadows and decay.

Talia felt them coiling toward her, circling her neck, choking her life away.

The Star blazed white where it had fallen in the sand, but Rahn didn’treach for it. The earth shook beneath Talia’s feet, and a piercing wail sounded behind her. Then came the noise of cracking wood, so loud it nearly deafened her. The wail went on and on, and Talia realized it was coming from the Tree. The shard in her knapsack seemed to shudder.

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