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This feels like a private moment we’ve intruded on.
Aurick’s face is ashen. Sickly. His jaw is slack, his hands balled into fists, and those arctic eyes glisten with tears.
“No,” he repeats.
“I’m sorry,” Marilynn whispers. Although, her stoic eyes betray her. The tone in her voice betrays her. She isn’t sorry, not really. She speaks clearly, without a hint of emotion in her words. It isn’t because she’s cold and hardened on the inside. It’s because she comes from a place of duty, tradition, and honor. It’s plain as day on her face. She cared for Aurick, and maybe she still does, but her vows came first.
“How.” It isn’t a question but a demand.
“It’s a lot to explain. But—to make a long story short, I had to help protect them”—she nods her head at Dessin and me—“from your father. From you. You were becoming just like him. And my feelings were getting in the way of my true purpose.”
I realize Aurick knows nothing about the prophecies of her people.
He shakes his head, not understanding a word coming out of her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” she says again.
Aurick takes a step back, turning away from the love of his life, putting his hands on the back of his head while taking deep, controlled breaths. It dawns on me that he’s had to watch two people come back from the dead within the span of an hour.
“What’s this about a Prison Void?” Dessin asks, tightening his hold around my shivering body.
“We were told that the Fallen Saint would have the ability to create a prison in someone’s mind. A place where time doesn’t exist. Where the Fallen Saint is the judge, jury, and executioner.” Marilynn’s gaze remains on Aurick even as she answers Dessin.
“The—what? Fallen Saint?” Niles huffs out a laugh. “Is that what they’ve been calling Skylenna?!”
Dessin lets out a low warning grumble in the bed of his throat. Niles shuts up.
“Doing that drains your body of energy and heat. It can bring you to hypothermic levels,” she adds, ignoring Niles.
“So you’ve just been here this entire time?” Aurick seethes.
“Yes.”
He shakes his head like he doesn’t know her. He never knew her. And even though Aurick is on my hit list, I feel for him. I know what it’s like to be left in the dark.
“How often can she go to the Prison Void?” Dessin runs his fingers through my hair gently.
“Only Skylenna can know the limits of her mind and body. But it’s safe to say she shouldn’t do it unless absolutely necessary.”
“Did you go to your own funeral?” Aurick’s eyes are red rimmed now, exploding with building fury. “Did you watch me sit by your headstone for days? Did you get to see me drink myself into oblivion?”
Dessin and I look between them uncomfortably.
“Aurick, we can talk about this in private. But Vexamen has taken the babies of your city. And it’s only going to get worse. Let Skylenna and Dessin call the shots. Let them devise a plan and offer them whatever resources they need. We only have a couple of hours before there’s no chance of catching up to them. It’s now or never.”
Aurick looks at her in disbelief, mirroring all of our expressions.
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know. But they need to be armed and sent to the warshipsnow.”
Back in the Demechnef mountain, we’re armed and given the war room to plan strategy. The main objective is to get on the ship, get the babies off the ship and onto our boat, then find the boiler room and blow the whole thing up.
We can’t bring a whole unit on board. Only Dessin and me with one or two extra people to help us get the babies out safely. We even have comfortable baby slings on our chest and back, with multiple slots. That way we’ll be able to safely secure them off the ship.
“If you two think I’m letting you have all the fun, you’re blind and stupid.” Warrose blasts through the door, his big shoulder throwing the thick oak into the adjacent wall.
“I told you to wait outside with the others.” Dessin scowls.
“If Warrose gets to come, then so do I,” Ruth announces, poking her head through the doorway.
