“The mountain falls under my fists
The sea dries at my touch
The flame dies on my tongue
The night howls with my anger
The light darkens in my shadow
The earth fades beneath my feet
I do not break or bend
I cannot be silenced
I am everywhere”
—The Wind Rite
As first uttered by Saint Ghovan the Fearless, patron saint of Ventera and windsingers
Rielle sat on a throne in the center of a dark room.
A narrow light illuminated her from above. Beyond lay a vastness of shifting shadows. She sensed that pieces of a world just beyond her reach were rearranging themselves, whispering to one another how best to play tricks on the foolish lit-up queen who thought she was something.
The throne beneath her was made of knobs and ridges that bit into her thighs. A voice whispered to her, Look.
“At what?” Rielle peered through the darkness. Doing so made her dizzy. “I see nothing.”
Look closer.
Rielle obeyed. Days passed. Her eyes burned; she did not sleep. Voices whispered from a distant realm.
She rose from her throne. Desperate unseen hands grasped at the hem of her cloak. She tasted a sour ancient rot on her tongue.
“There is nothing here,” she insisted. Time had shredded her voice.
Keep going.
She walked for centuries. The whispering voices grew bold. They became a conversation, then a din. They spoke in an unfamiliar language, but still she understood what every word meant and that all were spoken for her:
Maker.
Queen.
Liberty.
Rielle.
At last, she saw a spot of light in the distance and cried out. Was this finally the end? She had tired of walking alone. She wanted no more of these voices calling for her, of sensing the nearness of others, but not being able to find them.
When the light came into full view, she saw it was one she already knew—the illuminated throne.
And now she understood why it had hurt her to sit upon it.
Exhausted, elated, she sank down onto it. She clutched the throne’s smooth white arms and knew them for the bones of those who had once tried to cage her.
“What is this place?” Rielle demanded. “I deserve an answer.”
Shadows slithered around the bright solid wall of her throne, then coldly across her cheeks, her breasts, the curve of her scalp. She closed her eyes; her mouth fell open to receive a kiss.
The shadows became a man.
“This is where we have lived for an age,” he whispered. He pressed his lips to the curve of her ear. “And where we will soon no longer be if you have the nerve for it.”
“Corien,” she breathed. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
He inhaled deeply. His mouth moved against her cheek. “Don’t make me beg.”
Rielle brushed her lips along the line of his jaw. “What if I want to make you beg?” she whispered. “What if I want you at my mercy?”
“Then I shall happily obey.” He moved one white palm down her body, across the flat of her stomach. His knuckles grazed the tops of her thighs, and she leaned back to make room for him—
Rielle awoke with a choked gasp, her fingers already working between her legs. Three quick strokes, and she came apart, quietly pulsing around her hand. She turned her face into her pillow, seeking relief for her flaming cheeks, but the pillow was drenched in her sweat.
She sat up, her body trembling. Eyes squeezed shut, stomach in knots, chest tight around her heart. Fear chasing pleasure, pleasure chasing shame.
Then she realized how strange it was that she would have woken up in such a state, and Evyline would have said nothing.
“Evyline?” Her voice sounded like it had been run through with razors. “Evyline, are you—”
Something hard struck the back of her head.
She crashed to the floor. Pain throbbed through her skull and coursed through her body in waves. Cheek pressed against the plush carpet, she found the prone form of Evyline across the room.
Hands yanked her up from the floor. A dark heavy cloth came around her eyes. Someone tied it behind her head, too tightly, then fisted a hand in her hair, pried open her mouth, and forced a bitter liquid inside. She choked, tried to spit it up. Her attacker clamped her mouth shut. She was forced to swallow, coughing up as much as she could. Her nose burned; her eyes watered behind the blindfold.
People were talking above her head. Whispered instructions, distorted and monstrous. Bizarrely, she was upside down. She could feel her head lolling and large arms cruel around her body.
Wake up!
How strange that anyone would tell her to wake up. She was awake; she had simply been poisoned. She tried to speak, made a terrible inarticulate noise. A gloved hand struck her hard on the temple. She hardly felt it. She was a girl made of fog.
“Don’t kill her,” came a voice. Rielle thought it sounded familiar, but the poison was clogging her ears and her brain and every pore of her skin. “I want her to feel it when she dies.”
• • •
It was very cold, wherever they had gone. Cold and howling.
Strong hands pinned Rielle’s arms behind her back. Her teeth were chattering; her nightgown was nothing against the wind. Under her bare feet was frigid, rocky ground.
For God’s sake, Rielle, wake up!
“I am awake,” she managed to mumble.
“Not for long.” A thin, nearby voice whispered, “I’m sorry to say you won’t be able to save yourself this time.”
The blindfold was ripped from her eyes, and her mind exploded with fear. She blinked into sheer brilliant white: snowcapped mountains. Sky and a fine mist of clouds. A cliff’s edge.
Oh, God.
“All hail the Sun Queen,” whispered that mocking voice, and then the hands holding her arms flung her off the mountain to her death.
• • •
The wind punched her helpless body through the air as she fell.
She had no chance to scream—and no breath for it. Freezing wind slammed up her nose and mouth.
Save yourself! Corien’s voice was frantic.
She was in the world, falling through the mountains, and she was also on the ground before her throne in that hollow dream realm. Corien scooped her limp body into his arms and tried to breathe life back into her.
Fight this! Fight it!
She knew he was right. She could fight this.
She forced open her eyes; the cold pulled thick streams of tears down her face.
I do not bend or break, she prayed. I cannot be silenced.
But the poison had formed an immovable wall between her body and the empirium. She reached for its power and found nothing.
She knew, then, that she was going to die.
No, you’re not! Corien cried. God, Rielle, no, please!
Beside the throne, his face raw with grief, Corien cradled her body against his chest. The endless dark world around him sent up wailing, terrified screams.
A rush of swirling cold gusted up from below Rielle, spraying her with snow. A spinning ocean of gray peaks sped toward her.
When she closed her eyes, she saw Audric and Ludivine, and her heart clenched painfully with despair, and she wished, and she wished—
She slammed to a stop so sudden that it knocked the wind out of her.
But she felt no pain.
And she was rising.
A creature beneath her let out a piercing cry, part hawk, part horse, part…some unearthly, lonesome thing that sent a pang of longing through Rielle’s heart.
She finally let herself understand the truth:
A chavaile—a godsbeast—had caught her midair and was now climbing up through the sky with Rielle nestled safely on its back between two massive black wings.
Stunned, still gasping for breath, she finished her prayer in the brilliant light of the morning sun:
I do not break or bend.
I cannot be silenced.
I am everywhere.
