The Usurper's Crown by Sarah Zettel

Author:Sarah Zettel [Zettel, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780007114016
Goodreads: 189165
Publisher: Voyager
Published: 2001-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

Ingrid watched herself fall unconscious into Avanasy’s arms. She watched his eyes widen with alarm as he caught her.

Avanasy! cried Ingrid. Avanasy!

But she could make no sound, and, all unbidden, she felt herself drift away like smoke.

No! No! She tried to scream, tried to dig in her heels, but she had no sense of place. No touch of the world seemed to reach her. She was air and vapor, and the wind blew her away into the night, out over the seas, faster than thought, until she could not see land, until she could not see stars.

Avanasy!

But for all the force of will in it, her cry was soundless. Darkness of earth and darkness of sky merged, and Ingrid was nowhere. From blackness thick as sleep, dreams emerged, strange flashes of images. She saw a young man and woman wearing clothes stained and wrinkled from long travel. They shouted at each other with heartbreaking fury. She saw herself as a child, holding onto the waistband of Grace’s skirt so Grace could lean out over the edge of a bluff and spread her arms into the wind coming off the lake, pretending she could fly. She saw herself as she was, standing on the deck of an unfamiliar ship, leaning far too far over the gunwale and reaching down for Avanasy, who stood on the shore.

And she saw a stranger, a young woman with auburn hair and strong features that reminded her sharply of Avanasy. The woman stood beside a trio of gravestones and struggled not to weep. Ingrid’s heart went out instantly to the stranger, but she could not tell why.

The images all faded, and instead a formless light shone from the darkness. Ingrid started and tried with all her strength to reach it. She found she could move, but it was like wading through syrup. The light was bright as the sun and slowly it took shape. Now it was a horse and rider, both shining so brightly Ingrid felt she should not have been able to look at them. They trotted away from her. Unable to bear the idea of being left alone in the darkness any longer, Ingrid strained forward, reaching with all the force she possessed, and the light grew brighter, and brighter yet, until the darkness retreated, and Ingrid could see.

She stood under the branches of an ancient birch tree, its branches tossing this way and that, although Ingrid could feel no breeze. A brook ran fresh and free at her feet, but it made no sound. On the other side stood a woman in working clothes and thick boots. Ingrid looked into her brown eyes and saw … herself.

The woman on the other side of the brook was Ingrid’s double. Hair for hair, thread for thread. Ingrid realized she should have been afraid, but she could not be. All she felt was anger radiating at her from her twin, or, was this more than twin? Avanasy had spoken of Ingrid as a divided soul, with a portion of herself in the Land of Death and Spirit.

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