The Prince and the Blight by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV033040/REL091000/JUV033110
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2022-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Merlin

A thundercloud tore open, and a torrent of icy rain pelted the ship. Lily felt a sudden yearning to return home.

“Lily, it’s not your fault,” Adam said, reaching to hug her. His sudden touch startled her, and she recoiled from him as if withdrawing from a hot stove.

“Leave me alone. Please, just leave me alone!”

“I’m sorry, I just—”

“Leave me alone!”

“Come, come now, Miss Lily,” Cedric said, “It’s not your—”

She turned and fled. Halfway down the gangway she slipped, and then slid down the plank on her back, suffering scratches along her spine. She winced at the pain but didn’t stop. She ran from the ship and ducked out from the light that the reconstructed spires cast upon the ground. Her foot sank into a puddle, drenching her leg to the knee in muck, and then she slipped on the rocks and flailed her arms to keep her balance. Finally, in a dark shadow cast by a crumbling wall of the castle, she slumped to the ground. There, in a puddle of mud, she hugged her knees, buried her head, and cried.

Rigel perched on her shoulder and nudged her cheek, but she didn’t even notice. The rain had soaked through her shirt, and cold pierced her bones. Her fingers felt numb. She wished the numbness would penetrate deeper, into her heart.

It’s hopeless.

Lily didn’t know if the words sprung from the foul mouth of Eymah or from within her own breaking heart, but as she sat in the mud, with the rain beating her face and blurring her vision, she felt to the core of her being that they were true. She longed for her father’s stories, her mother’s hair against her face as she gathered Lily into her arms. She missed Gran’s scent of lavender soap and the glint in her eyes whenever Lily brought her a cup of Earl Grey, with half a teaspoon of sugar and milk, just a splash. What am I even doing here? she thought with dismay. She felt the scar on her palm. I’m not a hero. I’m no special artisan. I can’t even save my friend.

She heard footsteps, and suddenly something heavy and dry covered her. Lily blinked against the water streaking her face and looked up to see Barth standing above her, his great horns silhouetted against a flash of lightning. He had wrapped a cloak around her.

“Running away will not change what happened,” he finally said. “Neither will it erase what needs to be done.”

“You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not a real artisan. I don’t belong here.”

“You are an artisan, Lily.”

“Well, I don’t want to be one anymore.”

“We all have a role to play, whether we choose it or not.”

She looked up at him, and her bottom lip quivered as she spoke. “Is Jaggers going to be all right?”

Barth sighed. “I don’t know. Cedric, Nyssinia, and Adam are rushing him inside, to see what Octavia might be able to do.”

“I couldn’t heal him, Barth. I created him, and I couldn’t even heal him.

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