Elantris: Tenth Anniversary Author's Definitive Edition by Brandon Sanderson

Author:Brandon Sanderson [Sanderson, Brandon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
ISBN: 9780765383105
Amazon: 0765350378
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2015-10-05T11:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

EONDEL and Shuden both insisted on going with her. Eondel kept one hand on his sword—he usually wore the weapon no matter what Arelene propriety said about them—and he watched both their guide and their complement of Elantris City Guards with equal amounts of suspicion. To their credit, the guards did a fair job of looking nonchalant, as if coming into Elantris were an everyday occurrence. Sarene could sense their anxiety, however.

Everyone had objected at first. It was unthinkable that she let herself be lured into the bowels of Elantris to meet with despots. Sarene, however, was determined to prove that the city was harmless. She couldn’t very well balk at a short trip inside if she wanted to persuade the other nobles to enter the gates.

“We’re nearly there,” the guide said. He was a taller man, about the same height as Sarene in heels. The grey parts of his skin were a little lighter than those on the other Elantrians she had seen, though she didn’t know if that meant he had been pale-skinned before, or if he had simply been in Elantris a shorter time than the rest. He had an oval face that might have been handsome before the Shaod destroyed it. He wasn’t a servant; he walked with too proud a gait. Sarene guessed that even though he was acting as a simple messenger, he was one of the trusted minions of an Elantris gang leader.

“What is your name?” she asked, careful to keep her tone neutral. He belonged to one of three groups who, according to Ashe’s sources, ruled the city like warlords and enslaved those who were newly cast inside.

The man didn’t respond immediately. “They call me Spirit,” he eventually said.

A fitting name, Sarene thought, for this man who is so much a ghost of what he once must have been.

They approached a large building that the man, Spirit, informed her used to be Elantris’s university. Sarene regarded the building with a critical eye. It was covered in the same odd, brownish green sludge that coated the rest of the city, and while the structure might have once been great, now it was just another ruin. Sarene hesitated as their guide walked into the building. In Sarene’s estimation, the upper floor was seriously considering a collapse.

She shot Eondel a look. The older man was apprehensive, rubbing his chin in thought. Then he shrugged, giving Sarene a nod. We’ve come this far.… he seemed to be saying.

So, trying not to think about the sagging ceiling, Sarene led her band of friends and soldiers into the structure. Fortunately they didn’t have to go far. A group of Elantrians stood near the back of the first room, their dark-skinned faces barely visible in the dim light. Two stood on what appeared to be the rubble of a fallen table, raising their heads a few feet above the others.

“Aanden?” Sarene asked.

“And Karata,” replied the second form—apparently a woman, though her bald head and wrinkled face were nearly indistinguishable from those of a man.

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