Page 15 of Shadow Queen
Just then, something drew Norah’s eye. Her pulse quickened.
The door—the door that had been locked and that Nemus couldn’t open.
This was what she had come for. This was it. Nemus hadn’t been strong enough to help her, but Bhasim could be.
Norah left Bhasim and moved to it, her heart racing. She reached out and grasped the knob, giving it a turn.
It clicked open.
It was so unexpected that it almost made her jump.
That was it? So easy now? Without even a struggle? Her breath shook as emotion swelled within her. To have her memories back, to have everything back—she couldn’t even imagine.
She pushed it open. So easily.
And stepped inside.
The first memory she saw was one she was already familiar with—her and Alexander lying on their backs on the hill, in the summer sun. Where they’d made their plans. Where they’d dreamed.
And then the memory that had broken her—them under the tree before her father had taken her away, and Alexander telling her goodbye. It still tore her heart. Tears threatened, but she pushed them back. She wasn’t here for this memory. She was here for the others.
Except there weren’t others.
Norah stepped forward, but only darkness hung in front of her. “Where are they?” she breathed. “Where are the others?”
“There are no others,” Bhasim said from beside her.
She shook her head. “No,” she said, her voice shaking. “They have to be here. This is the door that wouldn’t open. They’re here. They have to be.”
“There’s nothing more here,” he said.
Norah turned and ran back into the stone-columned hall of memories. Maybe she’d been mistaken. Maybe it had been another door that had been locked. “There has to be another.” She charged the hall, searching, praying, pleading. There had to be another door.
“North Queen,” Bhasim said, “there’s nowhere in your mind I cannot see. There’s nothing else of your past here.”
That couldn’t be. There couldn’t be nothing.No. She felt the threads of desperation weaving their way into her being—growing, spreading, taking over. But she stopped and swallowed back the hopelessness. This wasn’t defeat. This wasn’t the end. It couldn’t be.
He wasn’t powerful enough, she told herself. She would find a way to get her memories back, just not here. She forced her mind to calm—she’d find another way. She told herself that over again. It was the only thing keeping her from the edge of complete defeat.
Then, an image caught her eye, and she stepped toward it. It was her, sitting on a bench in a garden. She didn’t recognize the place. It wasn’t Kharav, or Mercia, and it wasn’t a memory, she was sure. “What is this?” she asked.
“Sometime in the future,” Bhasim said. “Not all visions are of significance. Some are beautiful. Quiet. Peaceful. These are my favorites.”
Norah watched herself as she sat on the bench. Her image held out her hand, and a butterfly landed on her palm. She smiled as she studied it, then she let it flutter into the air.
It brought her back to a place of calm, and she appreciated his showing it to her, but she shifted her attention back to the present, to visions thatwereof significance. “Will you show me what you showed the king?”
Bhasim gave a nod, and the image of her in the garden faded. The rooms fell into darkness. After a moment, a faint light came from one, and she drew closer to it. Something moved in the distance and started toward her. Norah squinted her eyes against the light.
A horse.
Horses.
Horses galloping toward her.
Norah stumbled back as a wave of mounted soldiers flooded past her. Their numbers were in the thousands. Blue—the color of Aleon. The soldiers held their weapons high in attack. She whirled around to see them clash against a sea of green—Japheth.
The scene changed. The same battle? A different battle? White mixed with blue, Mercia joined with Aleon. To her right, Kharavian forces battled another army she didn’t recognize.
