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She turned to me. “To kill Cornaith is to destroy Elyrdin.”
“He can’t be that important. Can’t you replace him with Ezra?”
“You misunderstand. When I say destroy Elyrdin, I mean it in the most literal sense of the words.”
“Come again?”
Surely she wasn’t implying that if Cornaith died, the world would fall apart—well, at least Elyrdin. Feranzis, Moicae, and whatever existed beyond those lands weren’t part of Elyrdin. How did one being define the existence of a location?
“Twenty years ago, when Cornaith and Merwick—”
“Merwick?”
“Remember the monarch I told you died protecting Cornaith?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s Merwick. He died protecting Cornaith twenty years ago, but Cornaith was gravely injured. We don’t know whether he found a way to bind himself to Kalthea or whether Merwick used the last of his power to bind him in an effort to save him.”
How would a human soul slipstream save a Shyrlivi’s life?
She sat down next to me. “Cornaith has been feeding off Kalthea for twenty years. With every injury and illness that doesn’t heal immediately, he taps into the slipstream to restore his vitality. He can call on its soul energy no matter where he is, so he can no longer suffer a lasting grave injury.”
My gaze fell to the ground as a sickening realization hit me.
“We can’t risk his life, Raelynn,” Amra said, voice cracking. “To kill Cornaith is to endanger our people.”
I met her gaze, noticing the sunlight making her unshed tears sparkle. “He’s immortal.”
“As long as he is bound to Kalthea, essentially yes. He can die, but his death will mean death for many of us.”
“So unbind him?”
She shook her head. “The only Shyrlivi capable of that would be Alaxians—soul binders. And I haven’t encountered a soul binder since Merwick died. We believe he bound Cornaith before his death to save his friend, but we don’t know, and Cornaith never said.”
“What happens if he dies?”
“Because he has fed on Kalthea for so long, he would absorb too much of the slipstream for it to withstand reviving him. To avoid causing a total collapse of the slipstream, it would draw back the power it has given us for centuries, which would kill many.”
“And without the slipstream, Elyrdin falls.” I scoffed when she nodded. “Yet he was the one accusing me of trying to cause the collapse of the slipstream.”
No wonder the guys never stopped Cornaith from harming Zeke.
Attacking Cornaith either meant banishment or death. The guys would never take the throne. They’d never get to make changes. Lymsrana, Ardvaen, and Amra wouldn’t be able to influence his rulings for the Elyrdin people if he banished or killed them for treason.
This was what Ezra meant about the game.
As long as Cornaith sat on the throne, they were all bound to follow his whims or face banishment or death. And if they killed him? They risked destroying everything.
Elyrdin’s fate depended on their restraint.
But what stopped Cornaith from continuing his tyranny from behind the scenes when Ezra took over?
34
CAUGHT
RAE
