Page 52 of Sightwitch
Something Lisbet said this morning has altered everything. One comment, and my entire perspective has changed.
I was showing her my latest design for the viewing glass and blade.
“The glass must be bigger.” She pointed at the frame.
“Glass is expensive,” I said, more than a little annoyed. This was, after all, my fourth design that aneight-year-oldhad turned down. “Not to mention, it’s very hard to buy in the middle of a mountain range, Lisbet.”
“Bigger,” she insisted.
“The power from Sirmaya is strong,” I insisted back. “I do not see why we must lose more time and money on a larger piece of glass.”
Her little jaw jutted sideways, and I swear her eyes flashed with silver light. “It does not matter if Sirmaya is strong,” she said with all the authority of the Goddess. “If Her Threads do not have enough surface to bind to, then the spell will never be powerful enough.”
My mouth fell open. I gawked like a fool for at least an entire minute while the implications of her words unraveled in my mind.
Of course. Ofcoursea spell to reveal a Paladin’s past lives would need heaps of power, and of course the Threads of that power would need space to adhere to.
All this time, it was not that the Vergedi Knot hadn’t been strong enough to create a passageway; I had been using materialstoo small.
Blessed Sirmaya, why had I not seen? It was so obvious! The answer had been lurking beneath my toe all along, but I had never once thought to lift my foot.
“Right,” I mumbled at her, already turning away. Already shooting for the stairs. “I’ll have Nadya send for more glass.” My feet hit the steps, and I barreled downstairs to my piles of rock. Limestone from the coast, granite from these mountains, clay from the plains in the North …
Six types of stone for the six doorways I needed to build. But small rocks would not do. I needed boulders. I needed monoliths.
Saria, I decided before I even reached the closest pile. Lady Saria would be able to help, and I had a meeting in a week with the Six.
It was all going towork.
And Sister Nadya had been right this whole time: all I had needed to find my answer was a change to shake things loose.
2(?) hours left to find Tanzi
Captain tried to apologize. It was the only time we spoke for the rest of our trek on the Way Below—and also the only words we shared in a tunnel carved entirely through ice labeledThe Future.
Seventeen times Captain declared he was sorry, and seventeen times I ignored him.
It was childish of me. I see that now, but responding meant I would have to consider why his words upset me.
And that was something I was not ready to do.
The Rook nestled on my shoulder the whole journey, and each time my teeth started chattering, he cuddled against my neck.
Like before, in the cavern with the shadow wyrms, the ice seemed lit from within. It glowed so bright I had to squint to see.
And also like before, black filaments and patches hovered deep within the frozen blue. Too far away to distinguish real shapes, but they were there all the same and impossible to ignore.
“What do you think they are?” Captain asked as we hurried past one dark expanse that was faintly human in shape. Lines radiated out from it in all directions. “It almost looks like the ice is … iscleaving.”
“You remember what cleaving is,” I said flatly, speaking to him for the first time in at least half an hour, “but not your own name?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t understand it either. I know how to hold a knife properly and I can sing all the words to ‘The Maidens North of Lovats.’ But what my name is or how I got here or why I’m covered in this foul gunk”—he swatted at his sleeves—“I cannot recall at all.”
A beat passed. Two. Then he added hastily, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you before.”
Apology number eighteen, and this time I offered a grunt in return.
Ninety-three steps later, we left the Future and reached a new spot on the map: a long, dark room labeledThe Past.
