Urien stepped through the Gate. Nines and Seth followed. Neri looked back, just for a heartbeat. When his eyes met Ysira’s, he shook his head.
But those were not the eyes of a god. They were the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy, a terrified child.Herchild. And then?—
He was gone.
“Ysira.” Jacen had not let go of her arm, and she gripped his in turn, harder. Concern colored his tone. “Are you all right?”
No. She was not. But how could she explain that to himnow? The way she was questioning every choice she’d ever made,every word she’d ever uttered, every creed she’d ever believed or disavowed.
She could not sayI changed my mind. I want to go back. I was wrong.
I was wrong.
She couldnot.Because she saw the hope on his face, and the resolve, and knew that too much depended on Jacen Kheris. He was as vulnerable as he was powerful, a desperate addict in search of absolution, and she had seen in him the perfect instrument.
Don’t lose control.It was one of the last things Ogden had said to Ysira, and she owed that to him. She had set out to tear the old world up by its roots and build a new one, and that was a task with which she trusted no one but herself.
She could not break her prophet’s faith. She had no choice but to wield it, fan its flames, and hope it consumed only their enemies.
Instead of speaking, Ysira took Jacen by the shoulder and pressed her lips to his. First he was tense, but then he leaned in to her, cupping her face as he deepened the kiss.
They broke apart. He stroked her cheek. Breathless, he vowed, “Tomorrow, the sun will rise without a shadow.”
Jacen opened his tube and something like a grey-green beetle scuttled up his arm. He looked back at Ysira once more.
His face was radiant, beatific, as he stepped through the Gate.
41
ANAGNORISIS
JACEN
In the old Zal religion,godwas a concept too vast to be embodied in a singular entity. Their word wasAsal,and it encompassed three aspects:the Source—creation. The demon—destruction. The host—balance. To step through the Source was to step across the mind of the divine, traversing space and time as easily as a thought.
Jacen had read the words before, gleaned from forbidden texts he’d perused behind Brother Marez’s back, but as he walked through the Gate, he finally understood.
He barely felt the lesser demon’s appendages dig into him before it fell away. He saw stars and the space between them. Beings with too many eyes, all watching him. He knew their language but moved too quickly to understand what they said. When he emerged on the other side, the taste of Ysira’s lips still lingered on his tongue.
His head spun. He couldn’t focus, there in the presence of pure extradimensional energy, so concentrated, it was visible to the naked eye. This was Zal Fel—the center of the network,the very heartbeat of the canyon. The uneven stone vibrated with a low, bone-shuddering thrum. It pulsed through Jacen’s consciousness, unrelenting as the desert heat.
The next thing he noticed was the light. He had to shield his eyes.
After the Otavok temple’s dim-lit interior, it was blinding.
Soldiers of the Firstborn Empire surrounded them. They numbered at least a dozen, wearing suits and masks that obscured their features—a mercy. Jacen did not want to look too closely at any more of these strangers who were his kin, or to recognize pieces of himself in their faces before he condemned them to death.
They clutched their weapons, all pointed at the Gate. Jacen held his breath. Nines shivered anxiously beside him. Neri was unsteady on his feet, disoriented and clutching his head.
“That’s him,” said a soldier. “Don’t shoot.”
Though the Gate made it difficult, Jacen scanned the vicinity. He found scattered others out of sight, buzzing with anticipation, weapons at the ready.
“You. Firstborn.” Another soldier, who appeared to be in command, addressed Urien. “What’s your clearance?”
“I am a vassal of the great house Manengol,” Urien said smoothly. “I have been positioned undercover with the Zal insurgency for the last thirty years. I’ve broken my cover to bring back vital intelligence, and?—”
“How did you get through the Gate?” the commander demanded.
