They meet together long after the orange sunset faded and was replaced by endless night.
"You've got the rings?" Lysandra asked.
"It's not as though we could forget them," Talia snapped.
"I put no limits on your stupidity," the princess replied. "Now, reach out to the sliver. Feel it. This will be easier for Talia, since she has experience with magic."
"I don't feel anything," Talia said after about a minute. "Not a thing. Maybe only humans can use it?"
"I can't use it either," Jasper replied.
"Press your finger to the ring," Lysandra suggested. "Feel it humming. Feel the current. The energy."
"Oh," Talia said suddenly. "This is so...different.I was looking for something like elfin magic but it's not. My power is like the wind, like flowing water. This is lava. It burns."
"It doesn't like you," Lysandra quipped. "Jasper?"
"Yes, I've got it."
"Now, reach out. On the other end of the sliver, there are people, right?"
"So many," Jasper said. "We're all connected. Like there's some current running through all of us, linking us."
"Exactly. That's the force of the magic. Now, pull." He reached out through the thousand intertwining strands and felt them go limp in surrender. This was the power that had held Myra. It sickened him.
"Speak to them. Speak through the bond. Command them."
They stood by the harbour containing the smugglers' ships. Jasper now commanded a quarter of them, Talia a further quarter. Altogether two hundred thousand of them, all at the mercy of the rings. He shuddered slightly and sent words down the threads that connected them. Come to the harbour wearing your armour and weapons. Come silently. Do not tell anyone where you are going. He drew in a deep breath of relief mingled with horror as a hundred thousand strands went limp again, submitting to the command. Talia nodded at him.
"You'll be able to command them that way until we get them into the hands of the Silver Court. Medea can unravel this pretty quickly—you'll need to move fast." Jasper and Talia nodded in understanding. "I'm going to leave now. You won't see me for a few months. Once the soldiers are here, you take off. Got me?" Jasper nodded and Talia grumbled in assent. Lysandra pulled two vials out of her pocket.
"What is that?" Talia asked suspiciously.
"Give one to Nala," Lysandra instructed him, pressing the pair into his hand. "Take the other one yourself."
"What is it?" Jasper asked.
"Elixir," Lysandra replied. "Immortality elixir."
"Why?" Jasper asked, bewildered.
"Thank you would be appreciated." Lysandra muttered. "Because you've been a good friend. Because I can't imagine a worse fate than watching Nala and all my other friends grow old while I stay young and I wouldn't wish that on anyone, even Myra Isidore."
"Lysandra, I don't know what to—".
"Just drink the thing! Unless you want to wait a few years, but forever twenty-two sounds nice to me."
ESTÁS LEYENDO
Queens & Liars-Sequel to Three Broken Kingdoms (Completed)
Fantasía'She was a blade, forged in the flames that had burned her kingdom.' Book 2 of the Lost Continent Asriel and Miras have fallen. Their legendary armies are gone, their cities burnt to their ground, their people enslaved or murdered. The Empress now r...
