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CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR

“You’re dying?” Sophia said, not able to believe her ears. The shock of it ran hot and cold through her, making her want to do something, anything, rather than believe it. Even when Sienne pressed up against her hand, the forest cat’s presence did nothing to bring back the reality of it all.

“You can’t be dying,” Kate said. “Not like this. Not after all we’ve been through. That wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.”

Sophia could hear the sorrow, and see the tears building in her sister’s eyes. That was almost as much of a shock as the rest of it, because Kate didn’t weep. She got angry so that she didn’t have to.

“Don’t cry, darlings,” their mother said, holding out her arms. Sophia left her seat to go to her, and found Kate doing the same. “This has been coming for a long time.”

“But we’ve only just

found

you,” Sophia insisted, as if that made a difference. She knew by now that the world didn’t work like that, but it should. It really should.

“You did find us though,” their father said from the side. “We have the chance to be a family again, even if it is for the briefest of times.”

Sophia saw him wince, his hand going to his chest. Until he did that, she didn’t understand quite how brief that time might be.

“Is there nothing that can be done?” Lucas asked. Sophia could see him trying to hide what he felt. She didn’t like that; she wanted her brother there, not a shell of him.

“There has to be something,” Kate agreed. “If I still had my powers, I could heal you. If I hadn’t lost them…”

“Then you would still be in thrall to one of the ancient things of our land,” her mother said. “This isn’t your fault, Kate.”

“No, it’s the Dowager’s,” Kate snapped. “Her and her followers. She’s dead, but they’re still living. I’ll find every last one of them.”

“Kate,” Sophia said gently. “This isn’t the time to get angry.”

“Why aren’t you

angrier

?” Kate countered. “What’s the point in having all this power if it can’t give us our parents? Why do we have to sacrifice so much all the time?”

Sophia could see that Kate wasn’t just thinking about their parents, but about all the other things that had happened in their lives, all the pain, all the suffering.

“We have to, because sometimes that is what destiny requires of us,” their mother said. “I know you’ve seen glimpses of what is to come, Sophia, and you, Lucas. I’ve had a whole life to see it. A time of great power in the world is upon us. I have seen a war, and the way that war turns out will determine the fate of the world.”

“We beat the Dowager,” Sophia said.

“And now the New Army stands on your shores,” her mother said. “The Master of Crows stalks them, killing as he goes.” She turned to Kate. “I’m sorry, darling, but Will is dead.”

Sophia felt the wash of grief and pain flare outward from her sister like some artillerist’s bomb. She went to hold Kate, and her sister pulled back, didn’t even let Sophia touch her.

“No, it can’t be true, it can’t be right,” she said. “Will… he can’t…”

“I saw it,” their mother said. “I dreamed of Ashton falling, and I saw the moment he gave his life so that others could escape. He saved Sebastian’s life, sending him on with Violet. He blew up the cannon he was defending, and the Master of Crows barely survived.”

Sophia expected her sister to break down then. Even Kate could only be strong for so long. She even reached out tentatively, mind to mind, but found herself faced with a wall built from white-hot anger, so cold it burned her thoughts to touch it. Kate stood there for what seemed like an eternity before she spoke again.

“How do I kill him?”

Those words had the kind of tightness that came from rage behind them.

“That is a dark path, Kate,” their mother said.

“It’s what should have happened from the start of this,” Kate replied.

Sophia saw her parents look at one another.

“There are things that the three of you need to do to prepare for the battle to come,” their father said.

“I don’t

care

about them,” Kate replied. “All I care about is making sure that the thing responsible for Will’s death dies!”

“You would need your power to do that,” their mother said. “The pathways to it are still there, but damaged.”

Sophia reached out to put a hand on her sister’s shoulder. This time, Kate let her.

“We’ll find a way to kill him,” she said. “Even without your powers, you’re still my sister, you’re—”

“If I’d had my full power, Will wouldn’t be dead,” Kate said. Sophia saw her look over to their mother. “How do I get them back?”

“There is a place,” their mother said. She bowed her head. “And it fits in with the rest of what I have seen. If you truly want to do this…”

Sophia knew there wasn’t even a choice now.

“We do,” she said. “We’ll help Kate get back her powers. We’ll defeat the Master of Crows.”

She saw her father shake her head. “This is one thing that you can’t do together. There is too much to do and too little time to do it. The world depends on the tasks you each have now.”

“What tasks?” Sophia asked.

She saw her mother grimace before continuing, briefly sitting back and closing her eyes. “The poison is getting stronger. I had… forgotten it hurt so much.”

“We have to do this,” their father said. He moved beside her, reaching out to take her hand. Almost as soon as they touched, a vision came into Sophia’s mind.

She saw Monthys, the ancestral estate sprawling in the countryside beneath the Mountain Lands. She saw it in a way she hadn’t seen it before, shimmering layers of force wrapped around it in weavings that were as intricate as they were powerful. They seemed to form a network designed to protect what lay within, and to reach out to connect to the land. Yet there were missing pieces in that network. Dull points stood out, and without those points, Monthys was nothing more than a ruin. Symbols floated over five spots, and as Sophia looked at them, she understood what each meant.

Stone, Ice, Fire, Shadow, Spirit,

her mother’s voice whispered to her.

Some of the oldest of those with magic believed that these were the things the world is made of, and gave each a home in the world

.

“Stonehome and Ishjemme?” Sophia guessed aloud.

And others,

her father’s voice said, joining her mother’s.

Each holds a heart, a source of power. Morgassa used to hold the place of fire, before its rulers decided that the heart was too valuable to leave in a desert. You will retrieve that, Sophia, and take it to rebuild.

The Ill Ysbryd is a strange place,

her mother sent.

Things are real and not real there. Lucas must go to retrieve that heart. He will only succeed with help, but must trust enough to go alone.

The place they call Si is more dangerous still,

their father sent.

I worry for your sister. She will find what she wants, but what then?

The vision broke, or at least, Sophia assumed that it did. It was hard to tell, because magic still seemed to be swirling around the room. She saw the outline of the world below them light up, the same way that the disc Lucas had brought had. They glowed with power, and five points of light seemed to burn themselves through the floor, standing out even against the rest of it.

Sophia stood up, staring at them. She could make out one burning brightly from her kingdom. Another stood close to it, in the spot where she knew Ishjemme to be. A third was near the middle of the map, clearly centered on the spot where it stood. Two more stood out: one on an island surrounded by coral reefs, another a city in a patch of hills at the midst of a broad plain. Nothing seemed to be within a hundred miles except a river running through it.

“They’re so far,” Sophia said.

Lucas nodded. “It is why we cannot go together. I will go to the place of the spirit, and seek the heart. I will not fail.”

“And I’ll go here,” Kate said, kneeling to jab a finger at Si. “If this has what I need to kill the Master of Crows, I’ll get it, and I’ll bring this heart thing back too.”

“Which leaves me to persuade King Akar of Morgassa,” Sophia said. It didn’t seem as difficult a task somehow, at least until she thought about the way he’d tried to keep them all from this forgotten place. Even the caravan that he had sent to guide them would have led them somewhere else. Put like that, it might be more difficult than Sophia had thought.

“You’ll do it,” Lucas said. “We will succeed.”

“I’ll kill anyone who tries to stop me,” Kate said, her eyes hard.

“Kate—” Sophia began, but her sister shook her head sharply.

“Don’t. I need this. I

need

to be angry, because if I stop being angry, there’s nothing left. I’m going to do this. I’m going to do everything that we need to do. Besides, it doesn’t sound as if there’s anything

nice

living in a ‘place of shadows,’ does it?”

“I guess not,” Sophia said. She looked at their parents, hoping for some other piece of advice, or maybe for some help in persuading Kate that there was a better way to do all this than through violence.

Their parents sat on the couch they shared, perfectly still, eyes closed as the magic worked around them. Sophia felt her breath catch, and she went to them, taking hold of her mother’s shoulder and shaking it.

“Mother, can you hear me? Mother, Father?”

They were both far too still. Even their chests had none of the rise and fall of breathing. Her mother’s skin felt cold to the touch, the warmth drifting from it along with the magic. How much had they put into this last spell? More to the point, how much of the poison had been able to use it as a link to them? They had shown the three of them where to go, but in doing it… in doing it they’d left themselves open to everything they had shut out for so long.

Their parents were dead.

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