Page 10 of Born of Starlight
Every part of my tower’s construction and design was to my liking. Amara had teased, “Are you sure about all this dark iron and stone? This is meant to be your home, not a fortress.”
The tower still felt like home, yet something stirred in me to leave—to do as the prophecy told me to.
“Go to the young Queen.”
Buthow? I couldn’t get far alone. Navigating the woods below and the highlands between here and Luz wasn’t an easy task for even the most well traveled, or so I had read. With so little experience, I’d be lost in a night.
The Queen hadn’t requested my presence. By the Sisterhood’s rules, I was not allowed down to the courts without a request from the ruler of my Corridor.
No request had ever come for me. My face wasn’t yet known to the people—two centuries of service, and yet I was unrecognizable to the masses.
I have to write the Queen.
The thought came so easily, making me pause in the middle of the foyer. Corresponding with the ruler of the Central Corridor without consulting the Sisterhood first left a pit in my stomach. But the prophecy had been very clear—
“Don’t tell the others,” I whispered, not trusting my resolve to keep the promise.
I stepped over to the spiral iron staircase, which circled up to my bedchamber on the second story of the tower, and ambled into the bathing chamber. The tower was already running a bath for me. It knew that when my mind was ailing, my body longed for a good soak.
“Thank you,” I murmured to no one. The tower knew how to care for me lavishly, yet no companionship could be found in charms and spells.
I stepped into the bath and attempted to calm my nerves.
What could be the harm in requesting an audience with the ruler of my Corridor, the woman I was duty-bound to protect?
Chapter5
Fenris
Through Van’s eyes, I could see the Plateau—a place where the trees of the northern woodlands abruptly ended and the land seemed to drop off into nothing. A great cliff descended into a seemingly endless sun-soaked canyon. The entry to the Wastelands.
The harsh contrast of evergreen against the brown sand and rust-toned rocks still shocked me despite having known what lay there. I’d only traveled there once since my binding to the woods didn’t allow Van and me to leave the treeline. Plus, nothing in those vast wastes looked enticing enough to venture further, even if I could.
Van had tracked the Lynx, staying out of their earshot and sight. I was sitting in my favorite suede chair in the cabin as I vicariously watched, and my hands gripped the tufted armrests.
Their feline bodies were pacing on the cliff’s edge as though searching for something. Rat-like noses inhaled dirt and expelled snot, wetting the ground. Van’s instincts were taking over, and he emitted a low growl.
“Shhh, Van,”I said to him through the bond.“Do not draw their attention. Just watch, stand down.”
The low growl ended, and Van sunk further down into the brush, stalking closer to the treelined edge. I’d instructed him to roll in a clay-banked river miles back. His black fur was undoubtedly dulled and caked in mud to help him blend better into the woodlands. Van’s eyes remained trained on the Lynx as they paced and howled.
One of the nasty creatures snapped its jaws at the others, a chittering sort of sound like a house cat that had caught sight of a bird.
We watched as the Lynx gathered around a particular point in the Plateau. There was what looked like a rippling in the air, like a seam of invisible curtains flailing in the wind and capturing the light of the sun.
“What in the Sources’ names…”
The Lynx continued to chitter and back away from the slash, which seemed to extend up to the sky. A rip. It was iridescent—only when the wind blew did I notice the slight shift in light.
The Wasteland wards were compromised.
An ache formed in my chest.Was it hope or dread?Part of me longed to see how those exiled had fared.
People crested the cliff’s edge on foot, along with carts pulled by horses. My excitement was laced with horror as they peeled back that rip to step right through. Nearly fifty men and women, all armed with broadswords, stepped up onto the Plateau and out of the Wasteland wards.
One man on horseback yelled out, “Follow the Lynx from here!”
He then turned his mount back toward the rip.
