I nodded my head absently, still clutching my arms to my chest. I knew better than most about sacrificing for the good of yourterritory.
“So, this is Fate’s dreamscape, hm?” Torin took a few steps so he was standing next to me, and my breath caught in my throat. He was more beautiful than I remembered, or maybe it just seemed that way, considering I hadn’t seen him in months. Those honey-flecked hazel eyes regarded me with such an intensity that I felt his gaze over every inch of my skin, heat singeing my flesh as his eyes licked over me.
“Yes,” he said as he tucked an errant strand of hair behind my ear before tearing his eyes from my face to look at the mountains. “Over there? I think that’s where the gods live—Fate, Solace, and Kaos, that is, which is why we can’t reach it. We have to be invited. At least that’s what the stories say.”
I nodded, remembering the tales my mother used to read to Peytor and I when we were little.
“If that’s their home, then what is this? And what is with the storm?”
“I’m not sure, to be honest. But I’ve been trying to figure it out for years now. Every night is the same. I wake up here, walk around for a bit, then run into Fate. I can never get any closer and there is never anyone here.” He turned his attention to me again. “Until you, that is.” His gaze was probing, and goosebumps ran down my spine as I unabashedly stared back.
“Same for me,” I whispered. “But the dreams only started recently. Just before my Awakening.”
Torin nodded his head absently. “That seems logical. That’s when they started for me, as well.”
“What does it mean?” I asked as the storm’s intensity grew, spewing tendrils of color from the clouds.
“I’m not sure, but I think we weren’t invited tonight. I think we forced our way inside,” he had to shout the last part over the increasingly volatile storm and winds. The lighting cracked in earnest, escaping the clouds to strike the ground, scorched earth left in its wake.
A bolt suddenly cracked from the sky, landing next to Torin and I, the blast of which sent us both tumbling away from each other. I flew through the air, jarring my head against the dry earth as my body sprawled on the ground.
I searched for Torin in horror, hoping to see he was uninjured. Our gazes met at the same time, the relief etched in his face mirrored my own.
“We need to go, Ell. We’ll meet here again, just give me some more time before you pull me in again. I have a theory, I just need . . .” I could no longer hear his voice over the sounds of the storm, but I nodded my head in earnest.
“I’ll wait, I’ll see you again,” I mouthed as a bright white light encased the dreamscape, throwing me back into my body in Hestin.
I woke fitfully,gasping for air, the smell of charred earth still heavy in my nose and the back of my head still smarting from where I knocked it. The dreamscape felt different, more sentient than ever. And, if what Torin had said was true, it was the entryway to the home of the gods.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with that information, just like I wasn’t sure what to do with the fact that Torin could also access the dreamscape.
I laid back on my pillows, gently pulling my magic into my hands.
Why did he not want me to put my magic into the dreamscape?
I fell back into a restless sleep eventually, with more questions than answers on my mind, and no way to access information that would answer those questions.
Unless I called on Fate, that is.
Chapter 45
Rohak
We woke early the day we were to leave for Vespera, each of us stuck in our own thoughts. Some of the Mages and Vessels talked about the villagers and the work they had to do to rebuild their lives, others reminisced about the ones we lost. What started as a company of twenty—ten Mages and their Vessels—was reduced to twelve, their bodies buried and marked along with the other souls who had lost their lives over the past few weeks.
While I mourned their loss, I had to harden my heart and separate my emotions. This was war, or it would be once Alois was debriefed on what happened here, and there would be thousands more deaths and hundreds of burned villages before it was all over.
I packed what was left of my camp—just my bedroll and a few odds and ends—before tightening the saddle on Balios and mounting. I turned toward the east, to see the sun just start to peek over the horizon and sighed.
She isn’t coming.
I thought for sure after our conversation in the fields that Faylinn would choose to come with us, I waspositivethis was a better life for her, more fulfilling at least, but apparently I wasalone in that thought.
“We ride out in ten!” I barked to my Mages, my frustration with leaving Faylinn creeping into my commands. If they heard my sharp tone, no one chose to comment. They were all still recovering, either mentally or physically, from the last few weeks, and were in no mood to push back. I took a quick stock of who was left, noting that Sol rode with Thandi, now, her back to his chest, his hand rubbing small circles on the outside of her thigh. She hadn’t said much since she woke, but there was a new connection between her and her Vessel, like they had some unspoken way of communicating. Sol was still shaky and would take a while to be back at full health, but I was heartened to see her recovery.
Lex, however, worried me. He was silent and broody, only answering direct questions, even from his Bonded, and only did so in one or two words. His mood was so severe that I’d seen Ilyas and Sasori exchange worried looks more than once.
I’ll check on him when we get home. He just needs a little more time.
