Cast in Conflict by Michelle Sagara

Author:Michelle Sagara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2021-04-23T12:39:54+00:00

16

What is the shape of Sedarias’s fear? Hope asked as he tensed beneath her.

The answer seemed clear: the battlefield, and beneath it, the barren, rocky emptiness—through which water still flowed.

Yes. And?

But there was no necessary and. Kaylin understood, before Sedarias became visible to her eyes, what the shape of her fear was; she understood it because she had lived it and passed—mostly—through it. It wasn’t the fear of isolation; it wasn’t the fear of betrayal, although Ynpharion hadn’t been wrong.

It was the certain sense that this was the only home of which she was worthy. This is what she deserved. The others? No. Even Terrano with his obsessions about the new and different had a spark of life or joy—ah, that word: joy.

Barren rock and the detritus of battle was what Sedarias had.

“Terrano!”

“I’m kind of busy,” Terrano, disembodied, replied.

“How much control do you have over this space?”

“What? Me? I told you—it’s Sedarias’s space. It’s her.”

But Kaylin shook her head. “All of you are part of it. All of you. She’s angry right now. I get that. But you’re part of her space. You’ve got as much right to control it as—as she does.”

“Dangerous and stupid at the same time. Well done.”

“I mean it!”

“Obviously. It’s not that simple. There are things Sedarias can do that we can all forgive because we’ve seen her and we know who she is. But there are things she’ll never forgive.”

“Does she hate Alsanis?”

“What?”

“Does she hate the Hallionne Alsanis?”

“I know who Alsanis is. I can’t even make sense of the question. Maybe try it in Barrani?”

“I need you all to do something.”

“To do what?” The skies, as they approached, were a vivid green-gray; the clouds had rolled across a clear, blue sky.

“To change the shape of this place. She’s afraid—this is about one fear. We need to remind her—”

He laughed, the sound both reckless and wild. “What in the hells do you think we’ve been doing?”

Kaylin lifted her arms; the marks had lifted themselves off her skin, surrounded it in a moving nimbus of light. Terrano understood. Which was frustrating, because once again, Kaylin didn’t.

“I like Sedarias,” she said, and she felt the base of her throat swell, as if the words were song. “I want to smack her, but I want to smack Mandoran most days. And you,” she added.

“I won’t feel left out if you don’t.”

“I don’t know all of you. But I’ve liked all of you. I think I envied what you’ve built, what you’ve made—because I saw the outside of it. Until yesterday. Until today. I didn’t understand that it’s work, right?” The light her marks shed was blue, not gold. “But I love Helen. She’s my home. Sedarias can’t keep doing this to Helen.”

Terrano didn’t argue.

Helen remained silent. But Helen was doing something incredibly important for both Sedarias and cohort, and Severn.

“Hope,” she said, “drop me in the middle of the storm.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.