Page 54 of The Ember and the Emerald

Flash. I run through a village filled with rushing, screaming people.

Flash. Ian holds a glowing emerald, laughs, and drives a blade into my belly.

Flash. Morris falls beneath monstra fire and Andrea rises, the smoky haze concealing her face now fading.

Flash. In the padded room, the shadow woman leans close to my bed and whispers, “I’ve found her. It’s almost time.”

As the visions died, my knees buckled. Down I toppled. Blood poured from my nose.

Jasher shot forward, pulling his chain taut to reach me. He stopped mere inches from contact as the king caught me. Our first brush of contact. I wrapped my fingers around his wrist, clinging as I tried to speak. Only choking sounds left me.

Ahav eased me to the floor. “What did you see?” he demanded.

Words spilled out, unstoppable. “Flames. Death. Pain. Ian…evil. The original. He is the clonemaker.”

“The maker.” A harsh breath escaped the king, the sound thick with dismay, anger, and disbelief. “That…that cannot be. Ian is close to my age. He didn’t live in Morris’s time, when the original monstra came.”

“I’m telling you the truth,” I said, pleading my case though he was closing off before my eyes. “The original monstra might not have been his, but the second generation are.”

Growing fury radiated from Ahav. “Are you willing to face him with these accusations in the Ring of Truth?”

The gravity of his tone ignited uneasiness.

“No,” Jasher snarled, with his own burst of fury. “She refuses. Tell him you refuse.”

I didn’t understand his vehemence, but I couldn’t allow it to sway me. “Yes. I’m happy to face Ian in the Ring of Truth.”

Jasher punched the stone wall, and I jolted. Cracks spread, dust pluming the air.

Ahav released me and stood. “Very well. The trial will be held at dawn.”

16

PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT

The trial will be held at dawn.

The words echoed inside my skull, a tolling bell. The warning in the king’s tone, coupled with Jasher’s reaction, conveyed a very clear message: whatever the Ring of Truth was, I wouldn’t like it. But I didn’t back down. I hadn’t lied.

“Guardian. Commanders,” Ahav called, his voice a dagger unsheathed. He didn’t move, but I felt the ripple of his power.

When Ian strode into the room with three others only a heartbeat later, I almost growled. They’d been waiting outside the entire time, and I hadn’t sensed them.

I was on my feet in an instant. Ignore the unsteady ground and shaking legs. Fragments of the visions shimmered in my head, bleeding into the present. Faces, fire, ruin. Clues.

Ian had stabbed me. But first, he’d laughed while holding a glowing emerald. Could it contain the Ember?

An idea to ponder. Later. I glared at him. He watched Jasher, who watched me, lids slitted.

Why had he urged me to avoid the Ring? How much would he hate me for this examination?

I folded my arms around myself as the commanders circled him. Their voices were low, clinical, like butchers inspecting a fresh slab of meat.

“The trajectory of its wings is greater than expected.”

“Those scales. Small in number but as impenetrable as the other beasts.”

“The incendiary gland seems unstable, but potent.”