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I notice a glow ahead that can’t be attributed to three little lanterns. We stop. Father calls for the hunters to come near, and we spread out on either side of him. Gasps break the stillness.
A massive pit lies below us, filled with a blinding form that paces the bottom. The other hunters circle around the opening, holding up hands to shield their eyes. Though the light enters my pupils like daggers, I am too awestruck to do anything but stare.
I think it’s a stag, or something resembling one, but it’s twice the size of any deer I’ve seen. A swell of delicious warmth exudes from it, creating an updraft that sweeps my hair from my brow. A kingly rack of antlers like a twisted tree spans nearly the entire width of the pit. Confined within the dirt walls, its ribbons of light have the appearance of a roiling sea. I wonder how the creature does not drown in them. Illumination tumbles over itself, teased by the snaking ténesomni grasping at it from above. In the midst of its sleepless intensity, the animal’s mournful face inclines to regard us. And looks right at me.
It is the most exquisite thing I have ever seen.
“Here is your sola,” says my father, drinking in the astonished faces surrounding him. As the air around us starts to swirl and flashes of light fill the sky, fingers clench tighter around weapons. A greedy glint passes around the circle.
“Take aim.”
Some alien force animates my body, makes my feet stumble backward. A wild thumping fills my chest—is it the thunder or something else?—as a burning question possesses my mind.
Will killing the light truly free us from the darkness?
My head shakes, no. No, no, no. It won’t, it can’t, it won’t.
I should do something to stop this. This is wrong.
But I keep stepping back with a reckless desire to get as far away as possible. Yet I am unwilling to turn my back on the scene.
“Ready.”
I am going to intervene, if only my legs would obey. I am.
As my father opens his mouth to say ‘fire,’ a geyser of light shoots upward. Confused, I think it’s a bolt of lightning until all the hunters around the pit react, throwing their spears and shooting their weapons blindly. A scream erupts as an arrow flies and embeds itself in a man’s shoulder. Lightning strikes nearby, so close I can feel its heat. I blink several times, trying to focus my mind on what is happening. But there is no time to think, because the gigantic sola stag leaps toward me through the gap I left in the circle.
“Kill it,kill it!” my father bellows.
A primitive instinct bursts inside me. I see Rhun’s white eyes. I feel my father’s crushing hand clasped around my jaw. I hear my mother’s death wail. My bow is raised, the arrow straight. As I pull the bowstring to my cheek, my arm shakes from the strain. With a scream that tears my throat to shreds, I let the arrow fly.
It finds its mark, disappearing where the creature’s gilded neck and chest meet. An impossible shot. The beast continues far enough to collapse at my feet. The moment it hits the ground, all its light escapes from it forever, blasting the bow from my hands and eviscerating every last good thing inside of me.
Lightning flares, nothing more than a flicker in comparison.
I no longer blame Amyrah for being afraid of me.
I am afraid of myself.
14. Amyrah
AMYRAH
STEAM CURLS IN SEDUCTIVE RIBBONS from the tea in my mug. I slide it close to my chin and breathe in the spiced aroma.
“You didn’t have to do this, Orlagh. You’re so busy.”
Her eyes flit to mine between pounding and folding the large lump of dough on the table. Capillary waves spread out across the surface of my tea with each thrust of her flour-coated hands.
“Never too busy for yeh.”
A grateful smile spreads across my lips. I know.
The hot liquid flows over my tongue, teasing it with warmth and spice and sweetness. The perfect brew.
“But what about yer father? Why haven’t I seen him lately?”
I set down the cup and slip my fingers around its circumference. “He’s ... not well right now.”
