Page 47 of A Court of Truth and Thorns
“Kali!” The voice calling my name is both familiar and displaced. Rune’s. Calling from the underworld. Or from the stars. I’ve forgotten whether I’m inhaling or exhaling. “Kali!” Rune calls again. From below. Not the stars, then.
Hands grab the gargoyle and a lithe body pulls itself up onto the roof. Silver-blond hair, emerald-tinged gray eyes shining in the Eye’s orange light. It can’t be.
Rune releases the rope. It swings back down from the gargoyle’s neck. Bending against the wind, he starts toward me. “Where is Bahir?” he hollers over the storm.
I can’t answer. I don’t know. And I don’t know how to say that I don’t know.
Cursing, Rune fights his way over to me. “Kali, look at me.”
I do. My chest hurts. The relief of seeing Rune is making my knees buckle, but I cannot even tell him that. Can’t say anything.
Rune yanks the healing stone from his neck and wraps its cord quickly around his fingers. Drawing the knife from his boot, he opens a shallow cut along his palm, then another across mine. Our hands connect, the living stone pressed between our bloodied palms. Rune’s face goes taut, but a moment later, my chest expands with breath. Again. Again. Steady and smooth. My eyes regain their focus.
“Are you breathing for me?” I try to ask. The words sound muffled, my tongue too big for my mouth.
“Yes,” says Rune. “Since you can’t be bothered to do it yourself.”
I blink. Another breath comes into my lungs. In and out. Itfeels good. The Eye pulsates. I can’t be both with the Eye and with myself. I’ve not the skill Bahir had.
“Do it, Kali,” Rune says softly, studying my face. Reading my thoughts. “Destroy the Eye.”
“Can’t,” I croak.
“Yes, you can,” says Rune through clenched teeth. “You are a warrior and you can. You will.” His eyes find mine, stare into my soul. “And while you do, I will breathe for you. I will pace your heart. Trust me to keep you alive while you do the same for the rest of us. Trust me, Kali. Please.”
I do. Abandoning my body to Rune’s control, I focus all my being on the Eye’s magic. I drink all that I can, and more, so much more. And then, like bending light to create shadow, I reflect all the magic back into the living crystal.
Until it cracks.
31
KALI
Iwake to a soft feather mattress hugging my body. Snow, white as my sheets, sparkles beyond a velvet-curtained window. Everything hurts. I shift my head to the side and have the disorienting feeling of being both alert and asleep, as if one of my limbs failed to awaken with the rest of me. I check and find all my limbs accounted for.
“There you are.” A disheveled Wil springs up from the chair beside my bed. “Rune will be pissed as a hungry bear. He’s been waiting for you to wake up for three days.” Wil grins.
Rune. That’s the sleeping limb. I’m not sure how I know it, but I do. Just as I know that he’s waking up now and that Wil’s prediction is right.
“What happened?” I ask.
Wil sprawls back into his chair and swings one leg over the side. “Let’s see... A few hundred whisperers and I were all wondering where in the bloody hells you and Rune haddisappeared to, when the Eye of the Goddess exploded into shards and the weather turned to Everett.”
I lick dry lips, the memories returning slowly. The rooftop, the Eye. “Bahir?”
Wil hands me a glass of water. When he thinks I’m not paying attention, a lake of worry and fatigue fills his eyes. “Luca’s men have been going through the temple rubble. They don’t think they’ve found him yet.” With visible effort, Wil chases the shadow from his face. “But it’s hard to identify the bodies. We may have him buried already and not know it.”
I swallow. “Of course. There is nowhere else for him to have gone.” A lie. But perhaps it’s all right to lie to yourself sometimes. Even if Bahir is still alive, he’s castrated without his ring and Eye and whisperers. At least for now.
“We did find Bahir’s journals in his room,” Wil adds. “I think Leaf is in her own personal paradise amidst the pages. It appears that Bahir has been working toward seizing control of Dansil for decades, ever since discovering himself a mage and starting to hoard living crystals for their power. Everett seizing control of the Sylthia mines shattered a lot of his plans. He’d gotten the Eye out of Sylthia before the attack, but was never able to return for other large pieces. It drove him mad with fury. Especially once Everett started breaking down large stones into small, practical chunks for transport and sale.”
“Was the Drought always part of his plan?” I ask.
“Not originally. Bahir intended to harness the Eye’s magic into a weapon, but it didn’t work out. Something about the breed of the crystal not being what he needed. So he changed tactics, decided to make the most of what he did have until he could get Sylthia back.” Wil shrugs. “Bahir called the Eye’s effects ‘unexpected but fortunate and illuminating.’ I think he really believed himself to be the Goddess’s chosen.”
Yes, he probably did. “And the ring?” I frown at my emptyhand. “It allowed Bahir—and me—to siphon the Eye’s magic directly.”
“Melted into goo when the Eye shattered. Leaf is trying to figure out where he might have gotten it, but as of now, you are back to siphoning the old way.” Wil sighs. “After seizing Dansil, Bahir planned on retaking Sylthia and harvesting more stones to feed his power. The whisperers he collected were being groomed to tune and stabilize whatever other crystals Bahir obtained. The man was nothing if not thorough.”
