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As Heru’s wingbeats become faint, the last remaining Underlings wake from their stupor. One manages to cut my arm, but I cannot feel the pain. No. Only pure, unfiltered elation flows like honey through my veins because I performed the highest duty of protection I was sworn to uphold.

They are safe.

She’s safe.

48

The Last Promise

Esther trembles in my arms, weeping into my shoulder as the ground drifts away rapidly.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I reassure her. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.” I ignore the pain lancing throughout my own body.

Her body shudders, then stills.

“Esther?” I gently shake her, and her head lolls to the side, her strawberry blonde hair falling away from her temples. Her face is pale as moonlight. “Shit! Esther, wake up!”

She doesn’t respond. Was she injured and I didn’t notice?

“Come on, come on, come on,” I chant as the young woman before me fades. I raise a finger to her neck. Her pulse flutters weakly.

I gulp down the brisk night air just as that unfamiliar sensation pulls once more, guiding me to the ancient, powerful relic, like a moth to a flame, instincts roaring for me to hurry, hurry, hurry... “Heru, fly west!”

Anywhere in particular, Starheart?

I scan in the distance where the dark outlines of mountains loom, still too far for me to make out. “I can’t see any details.”

Describe it to me. Human eyesight is far inferior to ours.

“Um…” I close my eyes, and in an instant, the images arrive, waiting and ready. “There is a mountain that looks as though it’s been cleaved in half at the top. A waterfall the color of midnight and… and an arch made of stone.”

Heru tucks a wing and banks to the side at such an angle that would throw even the most experienced of riders, our cage of massive claws gripped firmly.

Esther moans.

“Esther!”

Her eyes flutter open. “I just had the strangest dream. We were camping, then all of a sudden, the Jord attacked and—”

She cuts off abruptly at my expression.

I pull her in tighter, removing any space that was between us. “You’re alive!”

Esther grins, although it looks strained. “Of course I am. Who else is going to scribe the great adventures of the Starwatcher?”

It’s those words that make the tears fall, a wild current breaking down a flimsy dam. Her ministrations have been growing on me all year, and by the Sun Goddess, I was actually scared for her for a minute.

She looks taken aback by my tears, brows raised.

“Well, you better get your notebook ready, because we are headed to the Cave of Silence.”

Esther sucks in a breath then immediately starts coughing, hands clutching her sides. Speckles of blood splatters across my chest before she covers her mouth.

Almost there, Heru reports.

“We will be landing soon. Can you handle the impact?”

Esther gulps down air, finally suppressing her wet cough. “I suppose I don’t have any other option,” she says.