Page 181 of The Eye of the Fifth
‘Kyra, please calm down.’
With a thunderous, growling scream, Kyra launched the box at the wall. It shattered on impact, splintered wood cascading to the ground. She didn’t watch to see where the ear fell and stalked to the door, but within a second, Naal was blocking her path, her great wings splayed wide.
‘Move,’Kyra snarled.
‘For once, I am asking you tothinkabout your actions,’ said Naal desperately. ‘I am begging you to control your emotions, to dampen your impulses-’
‘Move!’Her fists balled at her sides as power rumbled within her.
‘Think,Kyra! Please! Shut off your emotions and please try tothink.This is more, far more than the death of one woman-’
‘MOVE!’
The ground shuddered as the mountain itself responded to her fury.
Before she could blindly unleash herself upon Naal, before she could blast her way to a clear path to Rosary, a gale of wind hit her so hard it lifted her off her feet, slamming her hard into the wall behind.
Dust sprinkled down from the cracks in the slate stones and landed atop her shoulders, her head, her arms.
Hot blood coated her tongue, thick and fast. Her teeth had bitten through it. She spat a mouthful of it on the ground, then looked up.
Naal was halfway through the door when she turned back, the sparkling silver of her eyes emphasized by unshed tears as she said, ‘I’m sorry, Kyra. Truly… I am so sorry.’
Then she locked the door behind her.
Chapter Forty Eight
Damning Of The Mothers
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Gallena’s Temple, Nythanor.
Gedeon.
‘Let her OUT!’ The waterling man, Kawai, squared up to Naal Westerra the moment she closed the Council Room door. Locking Kyra within.
Gedeon did not move from his position at the bottom of the short stairwell. Carefully watching the interaction.
‘Step away from thepramah,boy, if you know what’s good for you,’ Maida scolded Kawai from Gedeon’s side.
‘She’s not mypramah,’Kawai said scathingly, though he did take a step back. ‘Do you actually think this is going to help her?’
Gedeon was inclined to agree, though he did not dare voice his opinion. The boy received no answer from Naal.
Instead, she looked past everyone to stare straight at Gedeon. ‘I need to speak with you. Alone.’
Surprise flitted over the faces of the small congregation, each of them staring at him but none questioned it. Gedeon gently pushed himself from the wall, the hanging dusty tapestry billowing behind him. Without a word, he inclined his head.
Naal swept down the stairwell, and Gedeon made to follow her, but she turned back to her Eternals just as she reached him. ‘No one is to unlock that door. That’s an order. Kawai, you are not bound to me, but if you disobey you will be expelled from this temple.’
No one replied with their consent. But then, Gedeon supposed, Naal did not need them to. She’d given a direct order. Gedeon himself had felt it fuse into his very bones.
As Gedeon followed her down to the corridor below, Kawai’s contempt-thick voice chased after them, ‘You keep talking about ridding the world of tyrants, Naal, yet you’re acting like the very people you’re trying to overthrow.’
If his scathing words bothered the Air Warden, she did not show it. Just continued on as though Kawai had not spoken at all.
In a tiny library that smelt as ancient as the temple itself, Naal finally turned to him. She looked more tired than Gedeon had ever seen her. ‘Gedeon, you know your mother better than anyone.’ She took a great breath. ‘Am I right in thinking it’s a lure, to get Kyra to go to her?’
