Page 105 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
He’d never done that before.
Venus clapped her hands, dispelling the silence that had settled over the crowd. “Most impressive,” she said. “But these are just rodents. Perhaps something larger—”
She clicked her fingers, and a guard walked forward with a wargi.
Caer froze. “No,” he said.
“You can’t do it?”
“Icando it. I won’t.”
“And if I refuse to shelter you if you do not?”
“Then I will leave. I’d rather take my chances elsewhere than be forced to kill without reason. You have seen a show of my powers. You know what I can do. What others mightmakeme do. There is no need for me to kill further.”
Venus smiled, rising to her feet. “An excellent answer, Prince Caerwyn. Well done. You have passed my test.”
“Test?” Caer frowned.
“Whattest?” Minerva snarled.
“Oh come, dear sister. There’s no need for that. Let’s have some refreshment, shall we? The poor boy looks a bit unsteady on his feet.”
Caer felt more than unsteady—he felt like he wanted to be sick. Some horrid combination of using his powers and what he’d just been forced to do.
“Caer.”
He looked up, Aislinn was standing beside him. Her lifeforce flared inside her like a beacon, bright and dazzling.
He could snuff it out like a candle.
He staggered backwards.
Magna and Diana were behind him, with their soft, muted pulses, armoured and safe. Safe from him. They dragged him into a seat.
Aislinn stayed where she was. “You won’t hurt me,” she said, as the others disappeared to find him something to drink.
“You don’t know that—”
“I could hurt you,” she said. “Do you trust that I won’t?”
“It’s not like that—”
“You can feel my lifeforce, can’t you?”
He nodded numbly. “How did you—”
“You’re looking at everyone like I looked at the forests, the first time I felt it.”
“Will it… will it stop?”
“If you make it.”
“I don’t know how to.”
“It’s like closing your eyes,” Aislinn insisted. “Your power is just another sense. Don’t use it.”
“I… I can’t…”
