Page 89 of Beneath the Haunting Sea

“But I will try anyway.” And he leapt at her with a fierce cry, the sword flashing before him.

Rahn shouted a Word Talia knew wasDeath,and raised the Star, knocking him backward against a jutting rock. Talia both heard and felt the snap of his bones as he fell limp and dead onto the shore.

Rahn trod over his lifeless body without a glance, her terrible army surging just behind.

Talia’sheart cried out, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away. The mirror wasn’t finished.

She saw Rahn striding across all the continents of the world, crowning herself queen, making the living worship her along with the dead. Rivers and forests were choked with shadows. Palaces were knocked down and rebuilt with human bones. All the gods remaining on Endahr crept out of their corners of the earth: Tuerand Raiva, Hahld and Ahdairon and Mahl. But they were not strong enough anymore to defeat her. Rahn killed them, one by one, and then clapped them in chains.

No more,Talia thought.Please, no more.

But the mirror changed again. She blinked and was astonished to see the throne room in Eddenahr, with its huge, arched hall, hidden fountains burbling in the alcoves, and jasmine twining throughthe window lattice. The two thrones on a dais in the center of the hall were made of bone and iron. Rahn sat in one of the thrones, the Star bright on her finger. In the other throne, Talia saw herself.

She was clothed in robes woven of sea glass and water, a coral crown on her head, strands of blue and green in her hair. Her skin was strange, speckled like river stones. Her mouth was twistedinto a cruel smile.

And at her feet knelt the shadow of the Empress, gray and dead, bound in chains. “Please,” Eda moaned, weeping with pain, “let me free. Let me go.”

But Talia shook her head. “In life you tormented me, took from me everything I had ever known. Now you will be tormented until the end of time.”

“Please,” she begged. “Please!”

Talia waved her hand and a pair of dead guardscame forward and dragged the Empress away.

Rahn looked at Talia on her throne, and smiled. “You do very well, my daughter.”

The scene changed again, and Talia wrestled with Rahn in a field of bones, clawing for the Star on the goddess’s finger. They fought for centuries as the world wheeled around them, and at last Talia was triumphant and claimed the Star as her own. She struck Rahn with itscold fire, and when the goddess fell dead to the ground Talia slid it onto her own hand. She felt the power surge through her, and she knew no one would ever take anything from her ever again.

Beyond the field of bones, the sea lapped upon the shore, and suddenly, she saw the shadow of someone she had once known: a boy, weighed down with chains. He looked very sad.

“Talia,” he said, coming nearher. “You have to let it go.”

But she would not relinquish the Star, not even for this boy. She could do only one thing for him. “Be at peace,” she whispered, and touched the Star gently to his forehead. “Goodbye, Wen.” He smiled at her and dissolved like smoke into the air, going at last to his rest beyond the world.

And then she was wholly alone.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

TALIA. TALIA. TALIA.”

She took a breath and opened her eyes. She was crouched in the hallway outside of her room, her throat raw from screaming, her face wet with tears. She had no memory of leaving the library.

Wen knelt beside her, his face wracked with worry. “Talia,” he repeated softly. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

She focused on breathing, in and out and in again, willingherself to regain her calm. But she couldn’t seem to stop shaking.

He folded his hand around hers, rubbed his thumb over her skin. “What’s wrong? What did you see?”

“Nothing,” she sobbed. “Nothing.” He was alive. Wen was still alive. Whatever awful future the mirror had shown her hadn’t happened yet.

He studied her, serious, alarmed. “Please, Talia. You’ve been missing three days from the Ruen-Shained.I know you went into the mirror room.”

She felt numb and weak and impossibly thirsty. She scooted back from him and leaned against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest.

“I could help you, you know,” Wen said when she still didn’t answer. “With the things you saw. With whatever it is you mean to do about them.”

She saw him falling dead to the sand, Rahn and her army striding over his body.

She saw him fade into nothing as she stood on the field of bones, an all-powerful goddess.

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