Onyx & Ivory by Mindee Arnett

Author:Mindee Arnett
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2018-03-19T04:00:00+00:00

19

Corwin

IN THE WEEKS THAT FOLLOWED, there were no signs or rumors of any daydrakes near Norgard, but a steady string of reports came in of sightings and attacks in the west and north. Some half dozen caravans had been attacked on the southwestern roads, and in Thace, many of the farmers were too frightened to venture out, leaving crops and herds untended. The city leaders feared the coming winter and what would happen if this new menace wasn’t stopped soon.

Corwin read each report desperately wishing he could do something to help—if only they’d captured the culprits in the woods. Even worse was that the reports themselves only served to deepen the mystery. Every time word of a new attack or sighting came in, Corwin marked the place on a map he kept in his chambers. He hoped to uncover a pattern, but so far there seemed to be none. If he hadn’t seen those drakes in that pit, it would be impossible to believe there was someone controlling them, considering the vast scope and randomness of the sightings. Either that or our foes are both widespread and powerful. A disturbing thought.

But it wasn’t one he had much time to dwell on, with the first uror trial looming. The morning it was due to start, Corwin sat alone at the desk in his room, reading his grandfather’s journal, which Minister Rendborne had given him. He wasn’t sure why he bothered given how maddeningly vague it was on the details. Borwin Tormane seemed far more interested in capturing his thoughts and feelings than offering advice for posterity. If anything, Borwin’s account only served to rattle Corwin’s already uncertain confidence.

When the first trial began, my brothers and I mounted the steps of Goddess Tor, all the way to the altar itself. Although we arrived together, I was separated from them the moment I stepped onto the stone. What happened next I cannot describe. I must not. But the test was greater than any I had ever faced before or even dared imagine. And yet the aftermath of it proved hardest of all, when they brought my brother Jorwen’s body down from the altar, broken from the inside.

The broken bit, Corwin knew, was his great-uncle’s heart, which had given out during the trial. Whatever it involved had exposed this fundamental weakness inside him. Corwin placed his palm against his chest, feeling each steady beat beneath, strong and sure. There is no such weakness in me, he told himself. Then again, perhaps Jorwen had felt the same before going into the trial. But no, Corwin suspected his own weaknesses lay elsewhere.

Fatigued by so much reading, he idly turned the pages until he reached the end, where his grandfather had put down his thoughts on winning the trial. Interested despite himself, Corwin read:

I felt it before I knew it. A sense of power and completeness I had never known before or since. The mark on my palm grew warm and began to glow. Like fire. Like the sun.

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