Tarashana (Tuyo Book 3) by Rachel Neumeier

Author:Rachel Neumeier [Neumeier, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2021-03-10T05:00:00+00:00

-19-

Rightly is the shiral called the whip of the gods. This time, the blow was so unexpected and fell so hard, it seemed to shatter the whole world. Tano clung to me, and I wrapped an arm around him, but we were torn apart almost at once. I tumbled, curling myself into a ball, expecting any moment to smash into stone, but the rain had followed the wind, so violently that if some other blow struck me, I could not tell it.

Then the storm was past, rushing away into the distance, the cessation of violence almost more shocking than its arrival. I was lying on the ground, on some surface, clenched tight in a knot, my face against my knees. My ears were ringing with the stunning silence the shiral leaves in its wake. Uncurling myself, I staggered to my feet, as stiff as though I had been beaten all over with clubs, but I could stand. I still held my sword, somehow. I had tucked myself tight around the weapon. I was lucky I had not cut myself badly. I would have been wiser to throw the sword away when the storm struck, but now I was glad I had not lost it and brought the blade up to a guard position, looking quickly all around the place where I stood.

But I found no enemy to face. The shadow enemies, the strange Saa'arii warriors, were gone, destroyed or scattered by the storm.

Tano was gone as well, which I had known. I did not see anyone, nor anything I recognized. I stood now in a valley meadow, with only a little snow lying here and there across the grasses. It might have been the valley where we had rested, except there was no waterfall or stream, and when I looked again, I saw this valley was wider. On all sides, mountains reared to the sky, pale stone streaked with milky ice. If one of those mountains was Talal Sabero, I could not tell it.

Now that the shiral wind had passed, the sky was clear, luminous with moonlight and starlight. The Moon, still enormous and very bright, had finally shifted her place in the sky. She had come down at least a handbreadth, but I could not tell whether she had stepped toward the west or the north or the east. I could tell nothing about where I stood in the world. I was completely lost.

I began to turn in a circle, meaning to look as carefully as I could until I saw something, some shape of stone against the sky, the ugly smear of the shadow of the Saa’arii tide, anything at all that might look familiar. But when I moved, I realized I felt a sharp pain. I looked down. My shirt was slashed to bloody ribbons across my stomach. I had hardly felt the injury until that moment, but of course I felt the pain far more vividly as soon as I saw the blood, as one will. The injury felt serious enough now.

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