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“If you listen to me, I promise we will transform the Vale into a place even the Grovesha come to respect and fear.”
I cock my head at the word, which means “the Outlands” in Atsunic. Hardly anyone ever mentions or thinks of that mysterious land beyond the Vale. It’s forbidden. A chill settles on my skin. Whatever Myrzeth’s motives, it’s clear they are far more complex than I realized. He was cunning to wait until my father had left Utsanek to reveal them.
“And above all else,” he continues, the blackness agitating and gathering around him until he holds everyone’s attention, “if you discover someone who poses a threat to the darkness, who may have a strange ability to repel it”—the ténesomni seems to emanate from his eyes—“bring them to me.”
Nothing in me wishes to stay and hear more.
As I beckon my brothers to me and escort them out of the square, a new burden weighs upon my shoulders, but I can’t slip this one off like I can a sack of books.
I know exactly the kind of person Myrzeth would be eager to eradicate.
22. Teron
TÉRON
THE SOUND OF WOOD SCRAPING STONE echoes in the dank room. I try to sit, but my head screams in pain, and the world pitches around me. My body falls against the cold floor, and I groan.
I have given up trying to figure out how many days I have been kept here. In fact, I do not care.
My mind is stuck in a nauseating cycle, one word swirling around again and again until it makes me sick.
Myrzeth.
It lingers in my mind like a filthy stain.
A thousand questions consume me, but one burns more deeply than the others.
Where has he been all these years?
I have tried for so long to bury the memory of the last night I saw Ellehra. How could I have worked so hard to forget the things that pained me most—adding layer and layer overtop, piling on new memories and passions and joys and sorrows, burying it all down deep—yet something could come along and disturb the topsoil, revealing heartache waiting right under the surface?
I thought I had moved past the hurt of Ellehra’s death a thousand times. I thought time would make me stronger. I thought I could be better for Amyrah.
But then the solas returned to the Vale, and I saw one die up close for the first time. Then my daughter grew in her passion for the light, and I could see my wife shining out through her eyes. Then this wicked relation returned, and every last bit of control I thought I had achieved washed away in a moment.
Now, I know the man I became was a lie. He has been cracked, broken, torn open.
Tears run down my face. They rush stronger than a river, flowing from the depths of my soul, stinging as they touch the parts of me that have lost every protective layer.
Yielding, I let the deluge take me, dredging up all these old recollections with it.
“You can’t expect me to sit by while this happens again.”
Frustration marred Ellehra’s beautiful face. She paced around the kitchen, her bare feet making hardly any sound.
“We are talking about a life, Téron. Not some instinctive animal, but an intelligent creation.” Her white-blond hair flicked around her waist when she turned her watery eyes on mine.
They usually had the power to untangle all my apprehensions, but not that day.
My head shook slowly from side to side. “It is the way it must be.” I gripped my spear tightly for a moment, then sighed and set it against the wall. Crossing the large room, I caught her by her hips and pulled her close, breaching that strange place where ténesomni could not reach. She kept her arms tucked between us and looked away from me, the fingers of her right hand curled into a fist against her lips.
“I wish you could understand.” Her teeth bit into her knuckles for a few breaths. “They are not the ones we should be afraid of.”
My hands released their hold and buried themselves in the roots of her hair. “What kind of husband would I be if I did not do everything in my power to keep you safe?” Her eyes flitted up to mine as my hand moved to her cheek. “What kind of father would I be?”
The tenseness between her brows eased a little as she covered my hand with hers. “But don’t you see? By giving in to the kaligorven’s demands, you allow this system of fear to become her future.”
My hand dropped, and so did my tone. “I will do what I am required to do, Ellehra, even if it means killing one of your beloved solas. Your brother says they are more dangerous than—”
