Page 443 of Of Empires and Dust
Farda leaned forwards and rested his forehead against the tree. “We let an entire city burn because the ones who burned it had a kingdom built atop a sapphire mine. I lost my girls that day, but hundreds of thousands of others died… and we just stood by.”
Ella took a step closer, Faenir at her side. “Why are you telling me this?”
Farda drew a deep breath and pulled his hand away from the tree. He turned to look Ella in the eyes, the scars on his face catching the purple glow from above. “I know you hate me – rightly. But I needed to thank you.”
“Thank me? For what?”
“For listening… and for giving me back my pain.”
“I didn’t give you anything.”
“I’ve taken so much from you…” Farda’s voice trembled. “I’d not thought of Hana and Valyianne since the day Shinyara died. It’s like they were wiped from my heart. I’d forgotten the reasonI was even fighting. I didn’t care– I couldn’t care. Shinyara took everything. But you gave me back my pain. You returned it to me.”
“Farda, I didn’t?—”
“You did. I didn’t understand it at first. But I see it now. You remind me of them. You remind me of Hana’s fire, of Valyianne’s heart. Watching over you gave me purpose again. I can’t feel the cuts on my flesh, but I can feel the ones within.” Farda’s eyes glistened. “You let me remember the day my heart broke, and I’m so sorry that I’m the one who broke yours. But… I remember who I was now, and that is your doing whether you knew it or not. You gave me back my pain, Ella Fjorn, and that is a debt I can never repay.”
Without another word, Farda stepped past Ella and walked across the bridge, and all Ella could do was stare after him.
Her legs felt weak, as though Farda’s words had taken their strength. Faenir pressed his side against Ella’s and held her upright, a low rumble in his chest. He tilted his head up and licked her chin.
Ella rested one hand on the wolfpine’s head, scratching at his fur, then placed the other on the trunk of the Ilyienë tree.
Thump.
A heartbeat pulsed beneath the wood. The tree’s heartbeat, rippling not through the mortal plane but through Níthianelle, through Ella’s soul.
“Ella…”
A shiver ran across Ella’s skin at the sound of her mother’s voice.
“Mam?” Ella pressed her second hand to the tree. “Mam?”
Every bone in Ella’s body told her to reach out, to step into Níthianelle, but fear cut into her heart. What if she fragmented again?
At the thought, the strangest of words came to her mind. Words from a long time ago. Erdhardt’s words before The Proving.
“Everything you seek lies on the other side of fear,” she whispered.
Beside Ella, Faenir growled, his hackles rising, and he stood to face away from her. Images and emotions flooded from the wolfpine to Ella, and she knew the meaning of his heart: he would protect her. He would keep her safe. He was her keeper.
The wolf within Ella howled, demanding she cross between the planes. Something inside it yearned to stand in the Sea of Spirits, and so Ella made her decision, whispering the words her mam had said to her before Tamzin had pulled her away. “Trust in the blood.”
Ella called to the wolf in her blood, acquiescing. It howled in answer, and the world shifted.
Chapter 102
Loyalty Above All
27thDay of the Blood Moon
Tahír un Ilyienë, Aravell – Winter, Year 3081 After Doom
Farda had reachedthe entranceway to the Tahír un Ilyienë when a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him, followed by a fist slamming into his face.
He staggered backwards from the force, nose crunching, the taste of blood in his mouth.
“Go near her again, and I swear it will be the last thing you do.” Tanner Fjorn stood before Farda, a black tunic draped over his excessively large frame.
