Soulwoven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

~38~

Ryse Lethien felt nauseous. Her fingers lay on the smooth, silvery bark of a tree. The air wrapped warm and soft around her. Leaves rustled in the boughs overhead. Green-gold light flowed over her from above. The scent of ildarflower filled her nose.

And she was cold.

She held a strong link with the soul of Reif Graywater. She shouldn’t have been feeling her body at all.

In her mind’s eye, the ancient soulweaver stood dripping with sweat. His broad hands gripped one another tightly. His brows slanted downward until they practically bled into the copper in his eyes. The soul of the tree hovered behind him in the darkness.

Ryse had told him what had happened in Du Fenlan and what had happened with Litnig on the Rokwet. She could feel the wrenching slick of his unease.

The Heart Dragons of Aleana are broken. You think little of your chances of reaching the Sh’ma. Yenor’s eye.

Reif’s image jerked forward, and Ryse had the sensation of him gripping her arm. His fingers burned like river ice. His eyes shone wide and white with fright.

Ryse, you must not let the seal be broken. You cannot—the world cannot—

The tree shook.

The destruction, Ryse, you cannot imagine the destruction.

The coldness on her arm spread through her whole body. Sharp fragments of his memories slipped into her mind like a hundred tiny knives. A metropolis of white marble and sandstone glittered in the setting sun, burning as the earth it sat upon slipped into an angry sea. An army of humans, Aleani, and Sh’ma quaked with terror on a wide, golden plain. Thousands of roaring barbarians charged through shield walls like they weren’t even there. Above the battle, a shadow—

Reif—stop.

—a black shadow raced through the sky almost too fast to be seen. It opened its mouth and screamed a scream like the shearing of iron that drowned out the sound of steel on steel and the shouts of the dying. There was nothing but that sound, that terrible, awful sound, and two crimson slashes deep in the shadow itself that saw her, saw through her, began to move—

Stop it!

The words tore desperately across her mind. She wrenched herself from the grasp of Reif’s soul, cold to the very core of her, colder than a winter night with no shelter and no fire, and she shook so hard she could barely stand.

Why? Reif, what—why would you—

But Reif was pale and shivering. His eyes were blank as naked parchment, and they weren’t looking at her.

His mouth worked open and shut, open and shut, and his voice came out as a croak when he spoke again.

I…I’m sorry, it’s just—

His sigh struck the tree like a great gust of wind. He wrapped his arms around himself, closed his eyes, and breathed deep.

But you know. You know my fear of that creature. There is no more to say.

He touched his forehead with one shaking hand, and he began to move back into the darkness that was his home.

Ryse watched him go. Her heartbeat felt heavy and erratic. She could feel a fever replacing the cold in her bones.

Reif turned back to face her.

Your friend, Ryse—the red glow in his eyes. I have seen it only among the Duennin.

Fear tore like quicksilver through Ryse’s mind.

And as he faded, Reif’s voice echoed in her thoughts.

Only there, Ryse.

Only there.

The ancient soulweaver’s image bled away.

Ryse became fully aware of her body again. Her fingers had dug into the tree’s bark hard enough to leave furrows. She’d broken three nails. Her hands were cold and stiff. Her head was sweating. Her lips were numb. Her legs buzzed and wobbled drunkenly beneath her.

The link between her and Reif had passed out of her control. Connections had formed in places they shouldn’t have. For a moment, he’d been inside her body, inside her mind, and his withdrawal had left her feeling empty and poisoned and shaky and feverish. A part of her remembered the warnings, the dangers of linking two human souls—

But she didn’t care about those things.

She’d known, somewhere inside of her, about Litnig. She’d known ever since his recovery in Du Fenlan.

Duennin, she thought. Born to burn the world.

She stumbled away from the tree. Quay clasped her forearm, his fingers warm where Reif’s had been frozen. He asked something. She tried to mutter a response.

Her knees buckled. The world spun.

And then her body gave out and her mind let go, and there was only darkness.

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