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“There, through the gap in the tallest branches. It’s the constellation, Soryn. I seek it out everywhere I go. My home in Hathrowyn has a back porch angled just right so I can spot it through the trees. It’s claimed to be a lifeline. A path to hope for those lost.”
Tenah was still trying to process the shift in their conversation and the ease he touched her with. “What, did they teach you astronomy in killing camp?”
“I learned it from my father,” he said, unfazed. “It guided me out of the darkness when his death threatened to crush me. It took years for me to learn that he could still have a role in my life. Just because your guardian no longer walks this plane doesn’t mean he’s gone.”
And just like that, while her chest tightened with sorrow, Renton shut down. Rising to his towering height, he fetched his blades. “We should keep moving.”
She stood, the demons of the last few days settling heavy on her shoulders. At least her stitches held thus far. Her limp was still prevalent, but when she’d rewrapped her wounds with clean strips of cloth as Renton retrieved firewood, she’d marveled at the skin already knitting back together.
Soon she could direct all of her energy on ending her father.
* * *
Tenah had been mentally fading in and out while the hunter walked several paces ahead when a flash of silvery white light sprang into her path.
Pulse quickening, she approached it with cautious steps, unnerved by the way it seemed to dance. Her fingers tingled with heat before she even touched the light’s vibrating edges. Almost as if she’d been the one to cast this magic.
The hunter turned around. Judging from his kneaded brows, he was just as perplexed by this sudden disturbance.
“Is that…” he trailed off, his mouth opening and closing as his mind still processed.
She dipped a hand into the magic and gasped as it disappeared up to her wrist. Whatever existed on the other side was cold and potent with thrumming magic.
“A rift,” she murmured, recalling how the death king had referred to her as a Void Walker. There wasnopossible way.
“Tenah, that’s…that’s very rare,” Renton said, his tone heady with warning.
Did he honestly believe she’d carved it? Then again, did it matter? She could slip through and vanish. Hide out in the Void. Escape the hunter and run home.
She locked eyes with him. He seemed tuned in to her wild thoughts, his entire body going rigid and a hand twitching as if in need of his blade.
Tenah bit down on the inside of her cheek. What if she became trapped inside the Void? What if it spit her out somewhere farther away from Vozar and her father? What if she found herself surrounded by feingrot she’d only ever glimpsed through astral projection? Or worse, sources of dark magic hell-bent on mutating her?
Regretfully, she let her hand fall back to her side. She walked over to the hunter. His tension hadn’t uncoiled, and she felt the urge to reach out and comfort him. More than that, she wanted to blast him off the edge of the isle for making her care.
“Answer me,” she said. “Why are you escorting me south and not to the High Court? If you suspect me Corrupt, why not cut me down right here?”
Renton’s eyes took their time circuiting her face. “High Court policy requires swift execution of Corrupt, but my current contract is with the councilman of the Boglands. He wants you and your father alive.”
Tenah held back a shiver of revulsion. Had her father pissed off a councilman or something? She wasn’t aware of any business he’d conducted with the Boglands. “Did you happen to ask why?”
Pain flickered across his face.
“You don’t care, do you?” she whispered. “You just deliver bodies to him without asking.”
His jaw clenched, muscles flexing. “Asking unfavorable questions would result in punishment.”
Her eyes dropped to the scar along his neck. Horror gripped her at the thought of an isle leader carving it there. The same leader that wanted her alive.
Renton didn’t wait for another question. When he strode away, for some bewildering reason, she silently followed.
Trees thinned, and the sky yawned before them, revealing a massive bridge that spanned the two miles between Inner Sanctum and the Boglands. Her heart soared. How she’d craved this. Open spaces. Bright sky and rippling water and fresh air that made everyday qualms insignificant. There was no reining in her longing for exploration when she’d spent her childhood trapped behind grim walls.
Renton was making a habit of watching her. She sensed his gaze as she placed a hand on the guard rail of the bridge. Crafted from the roots of ancient trees, it hovered thousands of feet above the solemn gray waters of Kilgriff Ocean and Aranma, the mainland.
The isles had once been a part of Aranma centuries ago, before the Greater Elementals had carved them out and cast them into the sky for their bloodlust. Five villainous kingdoms, banished. Shortly after, the Greater Elementals had sacrificed themselves to exile their brethren, Xith, the root of Chaos in the shadow world.
Hathrowyn had become the sixth kingdom, formed by the elders, powerful casters determined to reunite the kingdoms and restore peace.
