Who would she be?
Who did shewantto be?
Thunder shook the earth as they marched her across the meadow, closer to the cliff edge. While lightning slithered across the sky, Eris tried to estimate the distance from the top of the scarps to the water below. Unlike the chalky white cliffs near the scrin, these were red clay and considerably higher. No jagged-tooth rocks lay below. Or if they did, they were hidden beneath the sea.
If there weren’t any rocks below those crashing waves, itmightbe possible to survive a fall from this height. The likelihood was certainly higher than what the empress had in store for her.
But Eris didn’t have time to contemplate the idea. The soldiers swung her around, so her back faced the sea, and forced her two hands onto a long stone slab, slick with rain. In the light of their spluttering torches, she saw that the ground beneath the slab was dirt, as if nothing had grown there for years. And straight in front of Eris, some kind of steel bar had been curved and fitted into the slab, though for what purpose, she couldn’t say.
Leandra stood opposite Eris, a wicked-looking sword sheathed across her back. More soldiers stood behind their empress—some of them watching Eris, the others watching the perimeter.
The thunder bellowed and the lightning flickered. As the rain lashed down, Eris thought about that drop from the cliffs to the waves.
Possible,thought Eris.But not probable.
A Lumina soldier stood across from her, holding the chain fastened to her stardust steel cuffs, keeping her hands squarely on the stone slab. Another Lumina stood behind her, keeping himself between her and the cliffs.
Leandra drew the Severer from its sheath at her back. Eris had never seen it before, but she knew the stories. A stardust steel blade so sharp and lethal, it could cleave through bone in one fell swoop.
The empress’s hair dripped with rain, her gray jacket clinging to her frame. And as she stepped up to the slab of rock, Eris knew what came next.
They couldn’t afford to keep her alive. She was the only one who could set the Shadow God free. The only one who couldsave the Star Isles from the liar on its throne.
It was why they’d brought no medic. Nothing to cauterize a wound.
They were going to sever her hands and leave her to die.
Eris couldn’t let that happen. Contemplating that thousand-foot drop at her back, she calculated what it would take to get there. Before the Severer came down, if she could create some sort of distraction, she might be able to pull her chain free, then fling herself off that cliff and pray she survived.
As the empress readied herself, Eris’s eyes met the soldier before her—the one who held the chains of her manacles. When his mouth stretched into a wicked grin, it was the motivation she needed. She launched herself over the altar—straight into him. He grunted as her small body knocked the air out of his lungs. In his shock, he released her chains. Recovering her balance, Eris looked to the cliff and the sea and the sky beyond it.
Freedom.
She flew for it. Ready to jump. Ready to fall. Ready to be dashed upon the rocks if it came to that—because at least it would be a death onherterms, not the empress’s.
Someone grabbed the back of her shirt before she reached the edge. The collar choked her hard, halting her momentum. They swung her back and threw her violently down, holding her cheek against the cold altar stone with their weight pressing down. Crushing her.
“Hold her still,” Eris heard the empress say as she gasped for air. “We’ll do this one at a time....”
At the empress’s icy touch her left manacle fell open. For onedelusional moment, she thought the empress had changed her mind. Was setting her free.
But when the pressure on her back disappeared and Eris tried to move, to rise, to run again, she found she couldn’t. The manacle that had enclosed her left wrist a moment ago was now locked around the curved bar fitted into the altar. Keeping her prisoner. Preventing her from running.
No, no, no...
Panicked, Eris tugged and twisted and strained against it, her eyes filling with tears as she realized there was no escape.
Forty-Seven
The storm worsened.
As Safire and Asha flew through the rain, the clouds darkened to black. Soon the thunder was over them and lightning seemed to strike wherever they’d just been. Any moment now, it would strike Sorrow and Kozu, too.
“We’re not going to make it!” Asha shouted above the rain. “The dragons can’t fly up there without risking all of us.”
Safire kept her gaze fixed on the smooth red cliffs in the distance. The rain stung Safire’s face and hands. She was losing feeling in her fingers.
“Get me as close as you can,” she whispered, clicking to Sorrow, who propelled her forward through the storm.
