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My shoulders heave forward as a silent groan rips from my soul.Elyon, you’ve led us this far. Don’t let me despair now.
A familiar melody sweeps overhead, carried on golden wings that flutter impossible hope into my heart.
Belwyn’s hands grip me almost painfully. I glance at his awe-stricken face.
A warm sound that shouldn’t come from me emerges. Laughter.
“That’s my sola, Belwyn. That’s my wren!”
He glances down at me, confused, but a disbelieving smile soon claims his features.
Stamina renewed, shadows forgotten, we follow the sola up and over one last embankment. The shining songbird sits perched on a lonely pine at the top, waiting for us.
Belwyn makes it up first and reaches back to give me a hand. He pulls me up easily, and we stand together, chests heaving, on the welcome reprieve of a long, level surface stretching beside the stream—now more of a river. It bends to the east, flowing from higher up in the mountains.
“The darkness,” I gasp, a chill washing over me. “Do you feel it?”
The ténesomni is thicker up here, and it reaches toward me as if desperate to stake its claim.
He nods, holding out his hand and letting the shadows slide across his arm. I shiver.
But the bird sings again, calling us higher up, further into the safety of the mountains.
On legs threatening to give out, I walk forward, Belwyn at my side.
The shadows crowd in around us. They whisper words of doubt into my soul. My hand finds Belwyn’s, and we cling to each other as the ever-night—the darkness I’ve known my whole life—tries to keep us within its clutches.
As I consider all we’ve lost and those we’ve left behind to come to this point, my courage threatens to flicker out. But Belwyn’s fingers tighten around mine, sending a dose of kindness to my aching heart.
Like one being submerged in a hot spring, we step out of the ténesomni and into incomprehensible light.
I draw in a shaky breath and fall to my knees.
Brilliant oranges, pinks, and purples fill the sky, anointing the heads of leafy trees far down below with breathtaking halos. At once, I understand what the word ‘dawn’ means. I can see farther than I’ve ever been able to before.
For a while, we bask in the delicious light pouring in from the east, painting our faces with warmth and hope. I raise a hand as I try to behold it, but it is brighter than any sola there has ever been.
“Burning Star,” I say in hushed syllables.
Belwyn walks ahead, mouth agape, as he takes it all in. “I didn’t know this much color existed anywhere in the world.”
Looking over my shoulder, I shudder at the raging wall of black shadows. But it only reaches about fifty feet into the sky. It does not go on forever.
The sola, a burning star itself, hops in the treetop overhead and flutters its wings.
A laugh tumbles out of me, surprising me again as it pushes through the veil of grief that enshrouds my soul.
I always knew I was never meant to dwell in the night.
EPILOGUE
“WHO’S THERE?”
The voice makes both Belwyn and me start. He comes to my side and helps me up, wrapping an arm around me protectively as we turn toward the west. My heart jumps to my throat when I see a small hut nestled in between a copse of conifers. But I am more surprised by the two people standing outside it.
They wear tattered clothes, mended in multiple places, and careworn expressions that tug on my heartstrings.
Belwyn’s grip around my shoulders tightens as they approach.
