Page 182 of Winter's Echo
“What do you know about that?” she asked me, her tone light and conversational, content with the knowledge that she held all the power here.
“I know only fools try to go to Iskaeld in winter.”
She smiled. “Then the tip I got must be correct, and you must be the fool I’m looking for, Amarya.”
I swallowed hard. She knew my name. “Tip?” I asked, hearing the tremor in my voice. “What tip?”
Had Vorn told her? No. Vorn was dead.There was only one reason there was no mercenary here to save me from imprisonment.
She saw my look of understanding atwhohad betrayed me, and she smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
She turned to the stern-looking soldier. “I won’t be needing you. She’ll come with me.” She turned to look at me, her hand rising and making a come-here motion. “Come, come, don’t dally.”
The urge to back into the wagon and close the door in her face was strong.
“Amarya, I won’t ask again.”
Slowly, I got out of the wagon and walked toward her. I saw the carriage and the four guards on horseback. Two in front, two in the rear, a driver seated in the front of the carriage in the same blue uniform.
The Verei Kahn symbol on the carriage door was overkill in my opinion, but no one was asking for my opinion.
“Come.” She turned, and with a flick of her wrist, the carriage door opened.
The ease with which she displayed her power nauseated me.
At the carriage step, I hesitated.
“Come, Amarya, you have a lot to tell me.”
I really didn’t.
I looked behind me, at the soldiers who’d just been robbed of their prisoner. To the prison wagon, the door was still open, but the contents were now gone.
I looked up and saw it.
Blue sky.
The whole sky was blue. It was so big. So… empty. I couldn’t catch my breath.
It wassoblue. Not a cloud in sight. It was mesmerizing.
“Amarya, stop gawking. You’ve seen the sky before. Come! Time is wasting, and you’ve already wasted enough of my time. Come, girl.”
I looked at her, and slowly, I got into the carriage. The door swung shut of its own accord, and I heard the soft snick of the lock, louder than any cell I’d ever been in.
The driver cracked his whip, and the carriage began to move.
“Now,” she said, giving me a small smile. “Tell me everything.”
Everything? I had nothing to tell her.
“I have nothing to tell you,” I told her. “Except I should never have come south. I should never have taken the trail. I should never have looked up.”
She frowned. Then a look of understanding crossed her face, and she reached over to pat my knee.
“You’re in Florlunia now, and we’re going to the capital, to the Verei Kahn Institution in Lyfelona, where you will be tested to be Chosen. It’s okay, my girl. Winter is over.”
I stared at her. So many things were wrong with her statement. But one thing was true.
Winterwasover, and spring was stirring.
