Page 107 of Born of Starlight
“I could do nothing to stop it. I was so weak then. I justwatched. How pathetic is that?”
I’d crossed the room before realizing it, and my hand found the top of hers—it didn’t come naturally to offer someone comfort, but I found myself wanting to comfort her.Fen’s sister…his only remaining family.Yet I didn’t know the words to ease her guilt.
She would never work with Firose.
“Who sent you here, Elsie?”
“I work for King Darvanda. Still following in my brother’s footsteps, I suppose. He used to work for him too before the Great Wars.”
My mind had snagged on the name.King Darvanda, where had I heard that before?An excerpt that I’d memorized about Fenris the Destroyer. King Krait Darvanda was the King to order the attack on Phynx.
“The King of Brennax?”
“Once upon a time, yes. Darvanda rules a different realm now.”
The Wastelands.My heart snagged to think that Fenris had left out that very important detail…Did he know?
I shivered. The exiled King of Brennax led the Wastelands. And Elsie worked for him.That seemed a bad omen.
“The necklace…where did you get it?”
“The North Tower,” Elsie answered with a shrug. “I was on an errand for Darvanda, and while rifling through some things, I came across it—I knew the stone immediately…You see, I’m not an assassin, but Iama talented thief.”
So Firose had taken the stone back from Amara.But when?Last night, Fenris had explained what Amara had told him—of attaching his power to that star, saving him. My guess was she’d given it back to Firose after that, a keepsake that Firose didn’t deserve.
“It was a family heirloom. I thought that maybe if Fenris saw the stone, he might know I was there—foolish, really. Men never piece together what you want them to. Or maybe I’m the fool for putting such a horrid memory back into his head.”
I asked, “What did Darvanda want in the North Tower?”
“Information.”
My lips turned up—she wasn’t going to make this easy. “Information about?”
“Firose has angered my lord with her careless pursuit of power—she’s weakened the wards to our realm and recruited the lowliest of our forces to her army. You and he have a common enemy.”
So it seemed the Wastelands did not answer to Firose, at least not all of them. “How is Firose pulling forces from the Wastelands?”
“Many magic-wielders in the‘Wastelands’still resent Henosis for outcasting them. Many there are willing to fight for her, to seek vengeance. Ironic, isn’t it?”
“I fail to see the irony.”
“Our people are defecting to her whenshe’sthe one who put them there. She’s the one that bled Henosis dry of magic, of power, to keep it vulnerable. She locked away all the spell books in those towers and recruited you and your Sisters to do her dirty work. She thinks we do not know what she is up to—but we have been watching ever since the wards were compromised.”
A thiefanda spy. Something told me that Fenris might, in that moment, be proud.
I shuddered to think she was right. For centuries, Firose quelled any unrest, enforced the strictest of policies against magic use and crippled the five Corridors. She was a black widow who carefully built her web, spinning history to her whims before snaring what she desired.Power.It had always been power.
Elsedora’s eyes widened as I found the key to uncuff her.
When her hands were free, she rubbed at her raw wrists and stared at me in disbelief. Dark red waves were loose over her shoulders.How had I not seen the resemblance immediately?
“Why help me?”
“You are Fen’s sister. Despite what King you serve.”
Elsie’s lips creased into a smirk, and she took me in as though trying to size me up. “When I was in the North Tower, collecting myinformation, that is when I found the memorandum on Firose’s desk. I thought it might be a trick.”
I swallowed hard—my foolish actions were to blame for the lives lost at the celebration.My blood ran cold.
