“My word,” Brighid muttered. "Everyone’s touchy tonight.”
I released a shaky sigh. “Can you blame them? I am, too.” I dropped my boots back onto the floor. “What if I’m not the Diath you think I am? What if they aren’t even real?”
“All that might be true. I am making an educated guess, from scraps of forgotten history.” Brighid placed a hand on my arm.
The world shifted around us, the inn melted away. Darkness engulfed me, and flames rose like pillars into the sky.
In the silence of our shared world, I steadied my breathing and calmed.
“When I heard you’d been chosen,” Brighid whispered. “I rejoiced. Women have been crushed underfoot by men for too long. Whatever it takes to see you recognized—I will do it. Should we fail in Tirnanog, we will find another way.”
“I . . . ” I hesitated, unsure what to say. “But you don’t even know me.”
“Trust me. I feel as though I do.” Brighid glanced away. “I cannot save myself. But I can try to save the girls who have not yet been born. So that . . . ” She sighed, voice cracking with pain. “So that they might have hope, if nothing else.”
She released me, and the darkness fled. We were back in the noisy inn.
“Get a good night’s rest.” Brighid rose. “We tread into darkness, tomorrow.”
I sat forwardon my horse, waiting for my home to appear on the horizon. Never in my life had I traveled this far into the Tornaeth plains, toward Tirnanog.
It began as a faint color in the firmament, a glow of violet and pink. The great tree’s silhouette grew beneath the vibrance, tall as the heavens. Myriad colors danced in its leaves: electric pink,every shade of purple one could imagine, and the deep blues of storm clouds.
Then, I saw it: the endless storm cradling the city in its embrace. Lightning streaked through the air, persistent and swift. Thunder rumbled through the ground, like booming drums played by a distant god. I could see the swirling wind, powerful enough to uproot trees, from the debris it carried in its grip.
Even a mile out, the wind tore my hair from its bonds and sent it flying. Covering my eyes, I lurched and nearly fell as my horse reared, refusing to go any further.
Liam’s coattails slapped across his face as the wind threw them wild. “Well!” He shouted above the storm. “There it is. I say we stop here.”
“Brighid?” Bláth called, somewhere behind me. “Do you have a plan?”
I glanced at the woman riding to my left. Her hair whipped around like a raging flame. “We have to get closer.”
Reese’s white horse trotted between us. “How?” He asked. “Killian could barely make it any closer.”
“Killian,” Brighid said sharply. “Did not have me.” She turned to me. “We’ll go forward on foot. Are you ready?”
Fear had dogged my every step since setting out for Galasvar. But not today. Sliding off my horse, I drew Cierthine from its hilt.
Reese leaped off Lady and caught my wrist. “I can’t let you go in there.”
“Brighid thinks we can make it,” I said. “Do you trust her?”
He glanced up at the noblewoman, fingers tightening around my arm.
“You said it yourself,” I continued. “I could slay a dragon, and they would still reject me. I’d work twice as hard for half as much respect. Every wound you take would be a noble sacrifice,but mine would be a sign of weakness. I need this, if I’m to have a chance.”
Reese’s brow furrowed tighter as he studied my face. “Then I’ll go with you.”
“I think not,” Brighid interrupted, slipping off her horse. “I can create a shield, but it will be taxing. Covering you just might kill me.” She nodded at me. “Cierthine is the key to this. I’m certain of it. I only need Mare.”
Cierthine was the key. That’s what Brighid had told the others.
When in truth, she thought it was the Diath. Me.
I gazed up at the storm. Magic had not come easily to me. Nothing stirred in me at the sight of storms, at the brush of wind.
Was I really who she thought? The most powerful Stormborn, heart melded as one with the tempest’s fury?
