Page 162 of The Cerulean Sister
It’s a strange version of dawn with unnatural light, the hue the same as the greenhouse enclosure for the Frithian flower, cold and blurring.
I see it then, the underbelly of a giant First Son sky ship.
99 grabs my outreached hand, tucking it tightly into my side and pressing down into me, bracing for whatever happens next.
I can hear him whispering to me, but then my ears pop and the light that fills the space concentrates into a single circle.
It shoots out from the ship, a brilliant white with tiny, frizzy hairs dancing around the middle beam, lightning dancing wildly on the concentrated center.
The impact is an explosion of stone and glass.
The streak was pointed on the far side of the Estate, where the Viathan ship rests.
"Move, move, move!" 99 yells as he hoists me up from our spot.
We are rushed into the Estate, Viathans at our front and sides, sheltering me, my sister, and Selene in an armored shield.
99 stops in the first solid doorway, spinning to face me with heaving shoulders.
"How did they arrive so fast?" I pant.
"That ship was likely already here, cloaked and waiting until the conjunction. When it sensed the ward was gone . . ."
"Sir, it is clear ahead," a commander says, interrupting us.
"Radio Lord General to deploy the fleet toward the main temple!" He looks back down at me. "Is there another way to put the ward back up?"
"I don't know," I say.
This is my doing. I should have known that killing Crixa would have an effect on Cosima that would ripple outward, growing and endangering everyone. She said that Cosima would fall if I did not heal her.
"Look at me, Ferren. This is a First Son attack. We are prepared for it, but we need to get those wards up, alright?"
I nod, shaking myself out of thoughts that will not serve me right now. We need to get to the temple to place the ward again, to keep them from taking the entire Estate.
First Son soldiers are here for the stones kept in that very temple. I wish Leema had gone with Calliape, but I am not sure where it would be safest for her.
"That is not the fastest way to the temple. Tell your commanders to follow me," I order, pointing in another direction.
99 nods and squeezes my shoulder. "You will lead the way from the middle, Priestess."
The moment we all take off in the correct direction, another explosion rings out into the Estate, shaking the stone building like an indignant conjunction tremor.
I ask Leema if she is ok, but she only nods, struggling to keep pace with her rounded belly and billowing dress.
Selene gathers up the skirt for her and runs along beside. "We will need an elder to help put the wards back in place!"
I glance over at her. "You would be an elder priestess, Selene. You will have to do the ritual unless Calliape's spell book has another way. The rest are likely fighting."
"I will do it," she says definitively.
I instruct 99 which direction is best as we move through the Estate, the sounds growing more threatening as we get closer to the temple. The halls are empty, as every Estate and Viathan guard previously stationed here is moving to the epicenter of the conflict.
As we enter the heart of the Estate, rushing down the last corridor in this wing, a giant, dark figure steps into our way at the end, blocking our path.
The person is at least seven feet tall, completely black and made of shadow.
The commanders in the front drop to one knee and unleash their weapons while we tuck ourselves into any cover provided by the fancy furniture within the corridor.
