Page 67 of Beyond the Shadowed Earth
“My mother didn’t make it up the Rise,” said Morin in a choked voice. “I’ve only known since yesterday. I told Tainir this afternoon.”
Eda’s own dead paraded through her mind: her parents, the Emperor,Niren,all jumbled up with the slaughter in the great hall. “I’m sorry.”
He just shook his head, waiting for Tainir to join them before starting to move again. The track wound ever upward, clouds scudding across the stars.
“Why are you helping me?” Eda asked. “How did you know to pull me from the great hall? How did you even get to the monastery before me?”
Morin glanced back. “Tuer sent me a vision, up on the cliffs. I’ve been preparing for our climb all day.”
Unbidden, Ileem’s words slid into her mind.Rudion came to me in Halda. He gave me a vision.Unease twisted through her. “What did he show you?”
“The girl I gave the map to stolen by a creature with dark wings. The whole world being swallowed up by darkness, unless I found her, and brought her up the Mountain. But he didn’t show me why. Why are you here, map girl? Why are you searching for Tuer?”
“Because he destroyed me. And because I cannot kill a shadow.”
“Tell us,” said Tainir behind her. “Tell us everything.”
And so she did: the story her father had told her as a child, the deal she’d made with Tuer’s Shadow, her ascension to the throne, her squabbling Barons. The temple. Niren’s death. Ileem’s betrayal.
Morin and Tainir listened in silence.
The words poured out of her, and when she was done, she felt entirely empty.
“Are you sure the gods have wronged you?” said Morin then, almost apologetically. His boots crunched through the gravel. “Tuer kept his promise. He made you Empress.”
“And then he ripped my Empire and Niren away from me.”
“But maybe it was never about you. Maybe becoming Empress was just a distraction. Maybe Niren’s life was never yours to give, and the gods were always going to take her, without any regard to you.”
Guilt pierced her, and so she was cruel. “Did the gods have need of your parents, too?”
His jaw tightened. He didn’t answer.
The silence was awful, after that.
They went on, and despite the icy wind, sweat trickled down Eda’s shoulder blades. She had nearly worked herself up to an apology when the trail came to a dead end against a sheer cliff wall.
“It’s called Tuer’s Face,” said Tainir, waving up at the rock. “Catch your breath for a few minutes—it’s a hard climb.”
Eda tilted her head back as far as it would go, but the top of Tuer’s Face was lost somewhere in the night. “We’re climbingthatin thedark?”
“No way around.” Tainir shrugged out of her pack and started digging through it. “This is the shortest way up.”
Morin glanced up at the sky, the clouds clearing away, the moon starting to rise. For a moment, he seemed to stare intently at something behind them, but then turned back to Eda with a forced smile. “There should be enough light to see by. How are you at climbing, Your Majesty?”
She didn’t understand why, but it irked her to hear her title from his lips. “I’ve never done it before.”
“I’ll show you.” Morin unpacked climbing gear, which looked to Eda like nothing more than a mess of ropes and buckles. To her surprise, he carefully explained the harness, and helped her put it on and tighten it around her. Next went her pack, with pouches at her waist for climbing spikes and a mallet to drive them into the rock. He demonstrated how to use them, and had her practice on level ground until he was satisfied she’d be all right on the cliff. He avoided her eyes the whole time.
Tainir flashed Eda a tight smile. “Gods keep you—see you at the top.” And then she leapt onto the cliff like a mountain goat, quick with her hammer and spikes, a dozen feet up before Eda could even blink.
Morin waved Eda up next, and he came behind her.
At first, it wasn’t so bad. She fell into the rhythm of the rock and the hammer and the spikes, the cord of the rope and the strain of hauling herself slowly upward. Sweat danced on her forehead, her shoulders and arms aching.
And then she made the mistake of glancing down at Morin, and saw how high she’d climbed already.
She yelped and pressed herself against the rock, heart slamming, head wheeling with terror.
