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Aislinn hesitated. I decided to end her suffering.
“I stopped them,” I told Igraine.
She made a sound with her tongue.
“You risked the resistance,” she said.
“What good is the resistance if it fails to protect fae?” I asked.
“When Lord Aster eventually succumbs to torture by the queen’s mind magickers and reveals the identity of our members, will you be able to protect them as well?” Igraine asked. She didn’t sound accusatory, just curious.
“I...” I hesitated. “He didn’t have to die.”
“He will die,” Igraine said. “The queen will kill him once she gets all the information out of him.”
“Unless we stop her,” I said.
“The resistance is crumbling, boy,” Igraine replied, anger flaring in her voice for the first time since I’d seen her. “All because of his capture. Everyone is afraid now. They are discussing whether to disband the resistance. Some say the queen might pity us if we give up, now.”
“You can’t give up!” I shouted. “The queen is evil. And now, we have the hero. She can...” I stopped myself when I realized what I was saying. Was I willing to push Jasmine forward as the hero and risk her life?
I felt ashamed of that thought. Jasmine wasn’t the sort to escape from a fight.
“Jasmine is the one in the prophecy,” I said, my voice calm and deep as though it did not even belong to me. “She will do what needs to be done.”
“Your sister?” Igraine asked. “You saw her?”
I nodded. Then, remembered that wouldn’t work in the dark.
“Yes,” I said. “So if the resistance gives up now, it was all for nothing. You can’t give up just when we are about to win.”
“Win?”
A deep voice reached me from the back and instinctually, I took a step away from it. We were in a dark room made up of water and yet, I hadn’t heard him come in.
“Eamon,” Igraine said. “Welcome. I was afraid no one would show up.”
“They’re coming,” Eamon said. “What is happening? Why did you risk this meeting?”
“The boy is the diviner who had the rest of the vision,” Igraine explained. “He says he knows who the figure in the prophecy is.”
“I never considered the prophecy to be of any importance, Igraine,” Eamon replied. “You know that.”
“I do,” Igraine said. “But you were vehemently against the disbanding of the resistance.”
“I still am,” Eamon replied.
“But you don’t believe in the prophecy?” I asked him.
“I don’t,” he replied. “Prophecies are vague. Most of the time, you understand what they meant only after the fact.”
“That’s...” Aislinn sounded offended. “You are against divination?”
To my surprise, Eamon laughed. “Not really. You can have visions and they might be helpful. But prophecies concerning the realms...” he paused for a moment as the sound of the water splitting once again reached us. More fae came in, but Eamon resumed speaking without greeting them, “...at large tend to be rather vague. I don’t see the point of pursuing them blindly. Prophecies leave too much room for interpretation.”
“Did we come together tonight to discuss divination theory, Eamon?” A man asked. I could not tell if I had met him before. A murmur rose, and I knew that more fae had come in with him.
“Not really, Hani,” Igraine replied instead of Eamon. “The boy had the prophecy.”
