From Spirit and Binding: An Elements of Five Novel by Carrie Ann Ryan

Author:Carrie Ann Ryan [Ryan, Carrie Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter Nineteen

Easton

* * *

I draped my leg over the edge of the chair as I watched the others move around the room. I was exhausted. I didn’t really want them to know. Nobody could know. Though I had a feeling my uncles did. And Lyric. I couldn’t help but notice the way her eyes constantly met mine as if she knew exactly what I was thinking. The fact that, sometimes, even I didn’t know what I was thinking, however, meant that she may know more than I did.

I purposely didn’t look over to where Lyric stood with the others, instead choosing to focus on trying to remain upright in my chair. I was exhausted, but I wasn’t allowed to show it. Not even to the family or to the people closest to me. Every single person in this room.

I had spent the day walking through the court, talking to as many people as I could. I met with the farmers, the butchers, the weavers. I met with the soldiers and the infantry. With the other minor healers and teachers. I tried to meet with everyone so they could see their king, attempted to reassure them that we were finding answers, that we were one step closer to figuring out exactly what to do to protect them and their families.

I both hated and loved that part of my job.

I loathed the lying because I knew we weren’t any closer. Not really. It didn’t matter that we knew the prophecy. That Lyric was here as a beacon of hope.

We didn’t know what the next step was. And for someone who prided themselves on figuring out exactly what needed to be done in order to protect their people, I wasn’t doing okay with that.

However, the part of my job I did like was actually speaking to my people. They had watched me grow up as the queen’s child, the prodigal son. We weren’t light, we were of darkness—something that I never forgot. The world had cast its shadow upon us when we were in infancy. Said that our powers were of the dark, not the light. In reality, my people were the opposite. They brought the light; they brought purity to my kingdom. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t anyone in power. It was those who worked hard day in and day out to keep the crops alive, to teach their children and watch them grow into adults, into Wielders. Those hanging by the thread we were all dangling from as they tried to create new lives in a world where their powers could be taken from them at any moment as the crystal sparked its energy.

From the time I was a boy, I had watched my people start to deteriorate, even as they tried to stand firm and grow.

The Fall had occurred long before my birth, my mother’s father having lost everything, including his life, during the war with the former King of Lumière.

I knew of the atrocities each side had committed, although, in reality, my grandfather hadn’t been the worst.

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