Spark by Anna Holmes

Author:Anna Holmes [Holmes, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780578493367
Publisher: IngramSpark
Published: 2019-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

A Rosalian counterpart once complained that Elyssian naming conventions are too on the nose. The Shoulderswidth Valley is not an exception. Caelin attempts to brace me as we trudge through patches of early snow, but in places she winds up needing to squeeze on ahead of me and walk backwards to do so. I can’t imagine Tressa would have an easy time of it if she hadn’t volunteered to stay back to watch Jori.

The rock walls tower above us, throwing our footsteps back at us. I imagine that the crack between the two is larger than it seems, but from here thirty feet below, it’s amazing to me that snow made it all the way down here. “Good on Nuthatch for landing that thing down here,” Caelin comments. “Must be like trying to thread a needle with an airship.”

“The machine is a wonder,” I agree. “No cryst at all, so no difficulties over the ocean. I’ll say this for him—he knows how to leverage a connection.”

“It’s a Rosalian ship, isn’t it?”

“From fifty years ago. They all use cryst now, to my knowledge.”

“Irresponsible of them, given they don’t have any in their territories.”

“More like a hint at what they’re playing at,” I answer with a sigh. When I joined, I had thought it was a good thing. More nations uniting under the banner of choice. The people elect the proxies, the proxies elect the princes, the princes the kings and the kings the Archon, all is well in the world.

If that were the case, there wouldn't be so many dead. I wish I had seen that earlier. People killed and lives upended so people on a different continent can enjoy resources without paying for them. I did not realize that for other nations, there was no choice. Elyssia was taken in a bloodless coup, and the war seemed a result of people who couldn't abide change. Other countries suffered the war upfront. Change came whether they liked it or not.

Caelin purses her lips and carries on, still supporting my forearms on hers. It seems almost perfunctory these days, but I assure her, “There is a lot that I wish I’d known. It seems Nuthatch figured it out much quicker than I did.”

“Yes, well,” she says a little tautly. “He ran off with his tail between his legs and got people hurt for it. You stuck around to fix what could be fixed and ease what couldn’t.”

“He’s here now,” I offer.

Caelin still doesn’t seem mollified, but doesn’t argue. “You’re awfully quick to defend the man responsible for your current predicament.”

I shrug a shoulder briefly before wobbling back into her grasp. “He could have been me, if things were different.”

“You think so?”

“Gods know I followed more than a few arbitrary-seeming orders only to find out their real consequences later. They teach you that everything is in the service of the Legion, and the Legion is righteous and good, so therefore everything they ask must also be righteous and good.”

“You have never struck me as the unquestioning type.

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