Page 109 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

Lorelei shot her a decidedly unkind look. Sylvia laughed. As they approached the Ursprung, she sobered. Sylvia knelt before it like apenitent before an altar. At both Lorelei’s and Adelheid’s touch, the water had lain dormant. But when Sylvia dipped her fingers into the spring, the entire cavern seemed to come to life. The air sighed across the back of Lorelei’s neck. Every strange, beautiful bloom reached toward Sylvia. Bands of glittering aether swirled around her wrists.

And when she raised the water to her lips and drank, it was as though she swallowed the moon itself. Light bloomed beneath her skin and radiated softly outward. Even her eyes glowed with the spring’s strange, wondrous power.

Mondscheinprinzessin.

No, you fool, Lorelei thought.Just Sylvia.

And yet, she remained on her knees until Sylvia helped her rise.

Twenty-Seven

THANKS TO ADELHEID, LEAVINGproved far easier than getting there. Rather than swim through nixie-infested waters, she’d carved an exit through the wall of the cavern. Water dripped steadily from the smooth stone walls. Thousands of years of patient erosion, over and done with in a single moment. Lorelei could almost find it in herself to be grateful.

Outside the caverns, the mist had thickened enough to swallow up the woods. It drifted in thick, heavy skeins and twinkled as if imbued with the Ursprung’s strange magic. Lorelei could barely see her hand a foot in front of her own nose. When she pushed against the curtain of fog with her magic, it felt like running into a solid wall. Clearly, it answered to only onemistress—orperhaps two.

“Can you do anything about this?”

“Not without considerable effort,” Sylvia replied, almost apologetically. Lorelei did not think she’d ever grow accustomed to the eerie, hallowed light that filled Sylvia’s eyes. “I’m still getting used to wielding magic again. And it feels like she’s holding on to it with all her strength.”

Perfect.

“Stay close,” Lorelei said. “I don’t want to lose you in this.”

They moved carefully over snaring roots and water-slicked rocks. Darkshapes—theforked limb of a tree, the drip oflichen—juttedinto thegloom every now and again, making monsters of their surroundings. Everything bristled, hostile and watchful as they passed.

A branch snapped.

Sylvia reacted immediately, pressing their backs together and gripping the pommel of her saber. Even now, with all the power in the world at her fingertips, she still reached for the solid comfort of that flimsy silver blade. Lorelei raised her hands, poised to rip the moisture from the air. A moment ticked by, and then another. The forest drew its breath and held it, and that eerie, impossible stillness settled over them again.

Lorelei let her arms fall, feeling foolish for leaping at nothing but shadows. Perhaps Adelheid was already long gone. It would be a simple thing to take thePrinzessinand strand them here, cackling all the way to Ruhigburg. It was what Lorelei would have done.

But she knew Adelheid better than that by now; she would take no chances in leaving them alive, and she would want to see Sylvia pay for what she’d done to Johann. The prospect of fighting Adelheid terrified her. She’d flung them about as though they were nothing more than dolls she’d grown bored of. Even ifSylvia—

“Lorelei, there!”

A shard of ice shot from the tree line, a thin needle of moonlight. Before she could even think to react, Sylvia drew her blade and swung. The ice shattered on impact.

Behind Lorelei, magic shivered through the air. She whirled around just in time to see a silhouette appear like a ghost out of the fog. “Behind you!”

Adelheid surged toward them. With a thrust of her hand, a great column erupted from the river and descended on them like a closed fist. With a swear, Sylvia seized hold of it with her magic and redirected it as best she could. Water crashed to theground—farcloser than Lorelei would haveliked—andsplattered them like blood. The grim reality of their situation set in. No matter how powerful she was, Sylvia still had yet to shake off the rust of five years. Adelheid, meanwhile, was in herprime—andfurious.

Adelheid recovered quickly. The puddles around them shivered, then leapt back into Adelheid’s hand as a thin sword of ice. Her face contorted with grim purpose, she thrust it at Sylvia’s heart. An adept magic user would have melted or vaporized it in an instant. But with a glitter of determined fire in her eyes, Sylvia met Adelheid’s blade with her own, bracing the hilt of her saber with both hands. Adelheid’s ice sword shattered on impact, and the sound rang out like the clap of thunder. With a shout of frustration, Adelheid drew her own steel.

Lorelei had never truly seen Sylvia in her element, with no reservations holding her back. She moved like the rush of a river, every motion fluid. Adelheid met her blow for blow. Between the two of them, it looked like a perfectly choreographed dance, too fast for her to track. She desperately sought an opening to intervene, but she couldn’t risk striking recklessly, or she might very well skewer Sylvia alive.

At last, Sylvia caught Adelheid’s sword, locking their blades together. She slid it easily down to the cross guard and, with a flourish, sent it sailing across the clearing. It landed in the river with a dullplunk. Adelheid let out a breathless sound of surprise.

“You never were much of a fencer,” Sylvia said, with a smile Lorelei would have once found infuriating. Now, it was almost dashing.Ugh. Sylvia swung her sword across her body, and water wicked off the end of the blade. “Surrender, Adelheid. Call off this plan, and I will spare your life.”

Adelheid smoothed out her expression. With almost bitter amusement, she said, “You’re not much of a channeler anymore.”

The mist around them funneled like a tornado and clotted into thick, angry clouds. Thunder rolled, and then the sky cleaved open. Rain drenched them in seconds. Sylvia’s hair snapped in the wind, and leaves flurried wildly around her. She called on her own power. Judging by the strain on her face, she was battling for control of the storm. The raindrops surrounding her and Adelheid froze in midair, shrouding them in a veil of water. It was as awesome as it was terrible to watch. For a moment, Lorelei believed they might truly be easily matched.

Then, Adelheid’s eyes flared with aetheric light. The suspended rainwater dropped like a stone. She launched a column of water directly at Sylvia, who staggered backward at the impact. When the second volley came, Lorelei attempted to divert it, but it felt like the reins of a galloping horse slipping through her fingers. This time, however, Sylvia was ready. She extended her hand just in time to cleave the water rushing toward her; it flowed past her on each side, like a stone in a river’s course.

Adelheid did not hesitate to retaliate. Another flex of her hands, and the rainfall overhead solidified to hail. Lorelei held up an arm to shield herself from the renewed gust and gritted her teeth against the cold sting of water in her eyes. Through her blurred vision, she could read the panic plain on Sylvia’s face. Where Adelheid’s magic was another limb, Sylvia’s was a crude weapon whose weight she was still testing. But Adelheid could not go on like this forever. Blood beaded on her temples like sweat and dribbled from one nostril.

Just like the king and his mirror, Lorelei thought bitterly. This power was killing her. Aether always strained its wielder’s body. No one could hope to channel this much of it andsurvive—especiallywhen it had been stolen.