Page 59 of Witchlight
Sheneededhim to be understanding right now.
“I can’t c-control their Threads, Aeduan. I can’t force them to fight for us. All I can do is cleave as many as possible, then h-hopethey attack each other.”
“No.” He fumbled for her face. His fingers were so cold. “I won’t leave you, Iseult.”
“And I won’t give you a choice.” Winds thrashed harder; Iseult felt the charge of untamed magic on the way. She touched her forehead to his. “Go, Monk Aeduan. I command you: find the light-bringer and keep her safe until I can come after you.”
Aeduan didn’t move. The war brewing inside him was visible in the quaver of his pupils. In the hardening of his touch against her cheeks. He wanted to disobey Iseult. He wanted to fight with all he had inside him to keep her safe.
But in the end, he had taken his vow. He had named the dark-giver his master. Heknewhe had to let Iseult claim his Aether and guide his blade.
She laid her hands over his, feeling the frozen skin. The muscles below. His hands had held her in so many ways. As enemies, as allies, as friends.
“I love you,” she said.“Te varuje.”She kissed him. He stiffened for half a moment against her… then he leaned into her lips. One hand clutched the back of her head, fingers curling in her scarf. He held her tighter, tighter against him. A panicked kiss with clashing teeth and no time—no time.
Iseult broke away first. “I love you,” she told him again.
“I will find you” was all he replied.
TWENTY-SEVEN
When Safi had been young, she’d gone swimming in a lake near the Hasstrel estate. The night had been hot, and there’d been guests at the estate she hadn’t wanted to deal with. So after sneaking out of the family castle, she’d hurried through the nearby evergreens and embraced the shadows.
Once at the lake, its surface a perfect mimicry of the starry sky, she’d stripped off her clothes and dived in. Down she’d swum. Down, down, savoring the silence. Relishing the cool. The pressure increased against her skull. Her eyeballs were compressing and her lungs felt like bursting.
It was a good feeling. Alivingfeeling after too much time indoors hiding her magic.
Until something brushed against Safi’s leg and terror lashed through her. Then she writhed and kicked. She’d still been young enough to believe in the tales of mountain bats, and everyone knew they sometimes liked to swim when there were children nearby.
But Safi was too deep for the stars’ light to reach her. She saw nothing.
So she tried to surface, tried to swing her arms and haul herself upward… but she only made it a few strokes before she realized she had no idea which way was up. She’d swum so deep and lost so much air from her lungs, she wasn’t floating. For all she knew, she might be swimming toward the night or she might be swimming deeper.
Panic really set in then. It was as if the Void itself had swallowed her, and now she was going to die. Who would find her body? Would it be eaten to bits by a mountain bat? Would anyone evennoticeshe was gone?
Her toes hit something hard. She stretched longer, and yes. That was substrate. Rocky, glorious substrate.
Without another thought—there was no time—Safi kicked hard at the lakebed and swam. No mountain bats ate her, and soon, the shadows shifted as bright mountain stars cut through the water.
When she surfaced, her lungs were a conflagration. She gulped. Hervision spun. There was a very real danger she might pass out, so she made herself flip upward and lie on her back.Breathe. Breathe. Float. Float.
Eventually, Safi made it back to shore. Eventually, shivering and broken, she hauled herself onto the rocky edge and lay there until the stars stopped shaking and her lungs stopped aching. She hadn’t needed Habim or Uncle to inform her how stupid she’d just been. For some reason, Lady Fate had opted to spare her that night, and Safi never—not ever—swam alone or swam that deep again.
Yet now, here she was, trapped in the same shadowy unknown, and with no substrate to guide.True, true, true.She was in a forest with soft earth and barren winter beech trees. There was almost no snow here and even less undergrowth, and Dandelion listed and zagged so much in his panic, Safi had no idea which way would get them out of here.
Worse, her arm was on fire again. The Painstone’s numbing powers were finished, and the blaze was so much hotter than before—no longer confined to just her left side but sparking into her skull, into her chest and abdomen.
Safi squinted upward, trying to ignore how it made bile rise in her esophagus, but there was too much winter gray for the sun to pierce through. She couldn’t gauge which way was north. There could be no desperate final kicks to guide her home.
You can’t pass out,the Cahr Awen clamored.You’re so close to the Well. Just a little bit farther.But even those souls were not as powerful as the Firewitchery that had claimed Safi.
With a groan, she hauled herself off the saddle. Her left arm jostled. Pain stabbed, dazzling and fresh. She had to screw her eyes shut and wait for the wave to pass.
When she lifted her lids again, Dandelion was staring at her expectantly. His breaths whitened the air; he looked as lost as Safi felt. And Cloud—she was no better. She had moved closer to Dandelion, her ears swiveled forward as if she awaited her next command.
No,Safi thought as Dandelion’s ears also swiveled.They hear something. Iseult and Aeduan—it had to be Iseult and Aeduan. They had followed her tracks and were here to rescue her.
Except when no sounds actually reached Safi’s ears, she realized that whomever approached was moving with such quiet care, they could not possibly be an ally.
