Dawnrise by Christopher Husberg

Author:Christopher Husberg [Husberg, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan

* * *

As fate had it, no, there was not a way to turn the dagger off. Instead, it was up to Winter to figure out how to get back to Triah in a remotely timely manner.

“Some good this will do us if we end up having to sail back to Triah,” Winter muttered as she handled the dagger. She removed the blade from its sheath, testing the sharpness of it with her thumb. Not razor-sharp, as she might have expected for a magical item, but neither was it dull, as she might have expected for a millennia-old blade. The jewel at the pommel was dark blue in color, like the Gulf of Nahl on a sunny summer day. Black leather wrapped the hilt, and the blade itself was gray and surprisingly dark, as if it refused to reflect any of the candlelight around it.

Winter and Cova still stood in the Ceno meeting hall, near the strange black stone altar. The rest of the Ceno, including Dehra, had left them almost an hour ago, in yet another surprising show of trust in Cova.

Winter, however, was still finding it impossible to access psimancy while in the presence of the dagger.

“What do we know about it?” Cova asked, pacing in front of the altar while Winter sat directly on it, her legs dangling in front of the shiny black stone. She imagined the Ceno would not be happy to see her like that, but, well, they weren’t around to complain about it, were they?

“That’s got to be the fifth time you’ve asked that question,” Winter mumbled. She continued to stare at the dagger in her hands, as if she could shut off the thing’s power with her will alone.

“If it is, then this is the fifth time you’ve given me a dodgy response. Do we truly know nothing?”

Winter sighed. “Only that it was once Canta’s, and used by her to do whatever it was she did to the Nine Daemons.” Her fingers brushed against the deep blue stone in the pommel again. Something about the gem drew her to it; she was not sure whether it was simply the stone’s beauty, or something else entirely.

“It was used against my ancestors,” Winter said quietly.

“Your ancestors? You mean the tiellan monarchs that became the Nine Daemons?”

“Them too, obviously, but no. Millennia ago, humans somehow used this dagger against the tiellan psimancers. Against the original Chaos Queen herself, according to some tales.”

“Yes, I… I believe I once heard a story along those lines.”

Winter gave Cova what she hoped was a condescending glare.

“We did not learn much about tiellan history,” Cova said, without defensiveness. “It is something I am actively trying to remedy, Winter, but it is a remedy that will take a great deal of time, I’m afraid.”

Winter nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. And, honestly, I’m not sure what such a story could do for us. It’s the same as most others. The humans used the dagger to nullify psimancy. That doesn’t help us in our effort to discern how to get around that particular aspect.

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