Page 165 of The Sun King's Noon

Too late, Richard saw where the circle of blood had not been finished. A gap just by Briony’s knee. “Briony, wait!”

She slammed her palm onto the dais and jerked it to smear her blood across the gap. Every rune around the rim flared a livid green. The dais within the circle opened, the wood replaced by a glowing, viridescent portal.

Corwin and Briony fell through.

Richard reached in time to grab Corwin’s right forearm, the weight almost forcing him to his knees. Briony clung to Corwin, weeping into his neck.

“Take her!” Corwin yelled at Richard. “Hurry! Take?—”

Vines erupted from the portal. Galdran’s vines, Richard recognised, despite the panic clogging his throat. Green, thick and thorned, they whipped about Corwin’s arms and chest and hooked deep. Corwin let out a pained cry as he was yanked further into the portal. His back slammed against the circle’s edge, and blood burst from his mouth.

Briony screamed, hugging Corwin’s neck tighter.

“Elara!” Richard shouted, his arms feeling as if they were tearing apart.

She was suddenly there, staggering, reaching into the portal to wrench Briony away. As the girls tumbled backwards, rolling down the dais’s steps, Richard pulled Corwin’s hand harder. Thevines that curled up to Corwin’s wrist ignored Richard, one even nuzzling Richard’s thumb.

“No!” Richard growled, tightening his grip on Corwin’s hand—now slippery with blood. “You will not have him! Do you hear me, Galdran?”

“Brother.” Corwin’s eyes were bloodshot. A vine had hooked into the meat of his left bicep, and another pierced his ribs. His yellow shirt was now a wet maroon.

“Hold on.” Richard hated the tremble in his voice. “I have you. I will not let you go. Hold on?—”

Corwin’s teeth chattered, his face paler than Richard had ever seen. “Brother.”

Elara returned, barely able to stand, and grabbed Corwin’s wrist. Her hands smoked, but no fire came. She pulled, half-sobbing, half-screaming Corwin’s name.

“Brother.” Corwin’s voice was very small. “Sister.”

Richard hauled. Every muscle in his back screamed. The vines hauled back, and Corwin’s chest slid inch by inch over the circle’s lip into the green.

“She is only little,” Corwin rasped, coughing more blood. “We mustn’t be cross.” His eyes locked onto Richard’s. “She’s our sister.”

The vines heaved. Corwin sank another hand’s breadth, up to his clavicles now.

“DO NOT LET GO!” Richard bellowed in time to Elara’s wail. “HOLD ON!”

Corwin stared up at them, smiled faintly, and wrenched his hand free.

Richard’s fingers closed on empty air. Elara shrieked and lunged. She caught a fistful of his sleeve, but it tore away in her hand. Corwin’s head went under, and then he was gone, his brother was gone, the portal was gone, the circle solid wood again.

Elara howled. She threw herself onto the dais and beat at it with both fists. Her words were barely intelligible. Richard could only make out Corwin’s name in there somewhere. Her fists smoked and sparked, and her nails ripped at the floorboards until her eyelids sagged shut, and she slumped forward, unconscious.

Briony clambered onto the dais, her dress tangling around her shins, and her breath coming in wet, hiccoughing gulps. Her forefingers had gone into her mouth, but she pulled them out to shake Elara’s shoulder.

“S-Sister. Sister, wake. Sister.”

Elara’s eyes stayed closed, her cheek flat against the dais, mouth open with a string of saliva hanging.

“Sister, please?—”

Richard shuffled to the dais’s other corner. He sat and drew up his knees. Above, the dome’s roof creaked.

There was blood on his hands. He pressed his palms against the wool of his trousers and dragged. Some of the red rubbed off, but streaks remained, having settled into the lines of his palm.

Richard frowned and tried again. When it didn’t help, he used his thumbnail to dig it out. It worked, shifting a tiny segment, and he gave a satisfied hum.

A small hand jostled his shoulder. He turned and blinked to see Briony’s face so close. Her eyes were huge and red-rimmed, with large, heavy bags, and her nose streamed. She was trying to speak amid sobs.