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Orell’s gaze held hers a moment longer than before, and as if he could no longer hold it in, he laughed.
“He is certainly not relevant to this decision any longer,” he said, smiling. “And he will be gone when this all ends, too. And for what? A deviation with… a junior scribe.” He chuckled. “After all he stood for. Tell me, Colwyn, we’re deeply intrigued to know how you changed the Umbralyn who had been planning this all along.”
The crowd looked at her then, and she felt the shift in their attention. She was no longer the scribe who had survived the wraith, but something more complicated.
Maia felt herself turning red but stepped forward. “He chose understanding over destruction. He stopped punishing people for others’ mistakes. I know how he felt, and why he felt it. But he saw past it. People don’t need to die, Master!”
Orell studied her. “You are not in a position to negotiate,” he said.
“I’m not negotiating,” Maia replied. “I’m asking. Please. We don’t have to do this. Caelith didn’t want it.”
“You do not have to follow, Miss Colwyn,” Orell said. “It is your choice. Now you have almost exactly three days to decide, say your goodbyes, or do what you wish. You may choose to leave Eryssan of course, but your fate will be left to the Fracture.”
Maia stepped forward again, fury and desperation radiating off her. Julen turned sharply. “Maia—”
Orell continued.
“Umbralyn control is now officially across Eryssan, so try anything and…” He glanced toward the place on the floor where Elgar’s wife still knelt. “Well.”
He turned to the door behind him at the top of the hall, robes flowing behind him. Umbralyn guards followed in pairs as they left the crowd briskly before anyone else started asking the same questions.
Maia did not react outwardly. She turned towards the doors before anyone else did, and behind her the voices rose again. What had been a distant danger, held back for generations by the Vow, had become something else entirely in a matter of minutes.
Selinne grabbed her before she was able to leave, her face stained by tears. “Now?”
“Now,” Maia said. “Like we said. While they’re still watching the floor.”
Selinne glanced back once at Elgar’s wife, then nodded. M
Maia did not look back. Not once. Because the Fracture was already pulling. And Caelith was already there, waiting for someone desperate enough to follow.
42
Escape from Eryssan
The doors closed behind her, and the noise of the hall did not fade. It followed. A rising, fractured sound, voices breaking apart, reforming and rising again. Fear, anger, disbelief, all of it bleeding together into one horrible sound.
Maia kept walking, the way she had trained herself to walk when everything inside her was not steady.
Selinne stayed by her for a few moments. She turned to Maia, holding her by her shoulders. “Maia. My mother is in the inner quarter,” she said. “She doesn’t know what’s happening. She can’t move quickly with her leg.”
Maia looked at her. “Selinne—”
“Look, Maia. I know what you’re going to do,” Selinne said. “And I really want to, but… I know I can’t come with you. Not this time.”
“But—”
“It’s all right” Her voice was steady, but only just. “You need someone here. Someone who knows what’s happening and isn’t going to submit or run. Someone who can help the ones who stay.” She looked at Maia directly. “That’s me. That’s what I can do.”
Maia reached for her hand. “If we don’t come back—”
“You will,” Selinne said firmly. “Because you have to.” She squeezed once, then let go. “Go. Before they realise you’re not heading to the submission line.”
Maia went. She didn’t look back at Selinne because if she had, she might not have kept moving.
The further she moved from the hall, the worse it became.
The corridors were no longer orderly. People were moving quickly now but without direction. Some pushed past her without looking, heads bowed low, as though they thought they could make themselves smaller.
