Page 40 of The Awakening of Essensia

She didn’t remember falling. Hard stone slapped against her side, the thunder of water growing muffled as her vision grew hazy once more. Someone called her name. She wasn’t sure who the voice belonged to.

Strong arms lifted her and she tried to help, but her body wasn’t responding, her limbs heavy and useless. Steady hands placed her upright beneath the shadow of the gorge wall. She shook her head slightly. Pain throbbed at her temples and she winced.

A hand found her shoulder again.

“I’m fine,” she rasped.

“You’re not,” Eli said. “You haven’t eaten. You should have said something.”

She tried to pull away, but her hands were still shaking. “I didn’t want to slow us down again.”

“Too late for that,” he murmured.

She glanced up, finding him glaring at her.

Jurah stood nearby, his eyes scanning the ridge above them. “We can stop for a moment. But only a moment.”

Eli helped her lean back against a patch of moss-covered rock. The cold seeped into her spine, but she didn’t move. The sensation helped clear her head.

Eli left her side, then returned quickly.

“Here,” he said, holding out some bread. She took a small bite. It was soft, and the buttery flavour brought warmth to her chest. Her stomach clenched, pain twisting for a moment before it eased.

“Can you ride?” Eli asked, his eyes darting upwards.

She nodded, letting him pull her up. “A pretty good spot for an ambush,” she said, walking slowly to where Millie waited.

“It is,” he said without looking at her. “But raiders rarely come this far north. Either the cold doesn’t agree with them or something about the capital scares them.”

“Probably all the big swords.”

Vaelira put her foot in the stirrup and pushed herself up and into her seat. She swayed once. Eli held out his hands as if he might catch her, his mouth dropping open. Vaelira slammed her hand over her mouth, attempting to stop a laugh from slipping free, but it was too late. Eli glared at her.

“Nothing about this situation is funny,” he gritted out, hands still held aloft. “What if we truly were ambushed right now? You are in no fit state to fight. You would merely be a hinderance.”

Vaelira closed her eyes, drawing in a slow breath. “I just need a minute.”

“You are not allowed to act a fool when it puts others in danger. Is that understood?”

Vaelira kept her eyes shut and swallowed hard. “Understood.”

The gorge began to rise steadily, the path curving upward and the river rising with it. Water rushed past them in the opposite direction, hurling itself down the slope in gushes of white froth. Snow tipped peaks glinted over the top of the rise, stark against the ever-deepening sky.

They rounded the crest and Vaelira brought Millie to a stop. Her jaw went slack as she took in the view before her.

A winding road unfurled like a ribbon through a vast field of swaying tall grass and tiny purple flowers. At its end, enormous iron gates stood within a wall that rested like a scar upon the earth, impossibly high even from this distance. The pale, ancient stone shone in the light, and rising above it, towers reached skyward with spires like frost.

The palace was far larger than she had imagined, its rooftops dusted in snow that shone gold in the late afternoon sun. Behind it all, a great mountain stood, dark and still, its peak lost in cloud. A silent sentinel.

She couldn’t breathe. The sensation grew more painful with each thrum in her chest. It wasn’t the lancing panic she had become familiar with these past days, but something more cutting. Her eyes burned and she wiped at them roughly. She had never put her faith in the gods, but the sight of this city awoke a sense of reverence in her. Guilt slithered beside it.

Jon should have been with her. Freya too.

How many times had they talked about this exact moment while eating in the barracks or lying under the trees in the orchard?

There was no one beside her now, just wind tugging at her braid, and Eli, silent in the saddle a few paces ahead as he continued down the road, his cloak billowing in the breeze.

Jurah rode up beside her, watching her from beneath his fur lined hood. She swallowed hard and straightened herself in the saddle.