Soulbinder by Sebastien De Castell

Author:Sebastien De Castell [Castell, Sebastien De]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2018-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

“Do you really cry?” I asked Butelios. “Or do they call it that because the shadowblack is seeping from your eyes?”

The two of us were on our knees, facing each other. The sun had drifted below the trees, the villagers gone now that they’d buried their dead and retreated to their homes to mourn. I was cold and it took an effort not to shiver. Diadera and the others, like me, waited on Butelios. “It is both,” he replied. “The shadows emerge from behind my eyes, but I must cry to bring them forth.”

“So you have to—”

“It’s easier if you don’t talk. Focus your thoughts on the squirrel cat.”

“Right. Sorry.” I glanced up at the others, expecting to find them all laughing at me. They weren’t. Only Tournam smirked, proving that while he might be on my side, more or less, he was still an arrogant jerk. “Do they have to be here for—”

“Tell me about your friend,” Butelios said. “What was he like?”

“I thought you wanted me to shut up and ‘focus my thoughts.’”

“That was before I realised you were incapable of silence. Close your eyes and tell me about Reichis. Encompass his being in a single word.”

Describe Reichis in one word? How was I supposed to do that? Thief? Liar? Murderer? Friend? He was all those things. Reichis was a wild beast who’d never submit to anyone, a terror to anyone who crossed him—including me. He was the exact opposite of what a familiar was supposed to be, and I had the bite marks on my arms and ankles to prove it. He refused to do what he was told. He didn’t make my magic any stronger. And he never, ever let me down. Reichis was all the things I’d been raised to despise and yet had proved to be the one thing I’d needed most.

One word. What a stupid way to try to encapsulate someone who would never let themselves be bound by anyone or anything. Reichis would have threatened Butelios with elaborate mutilations just for asking. Then he’d have looked up at me and said, “How about we ditch these losers, Kellen? Let’s sneak back into that stupid abbey and steal all their stuff.”

One word?

Soul.

Reichis was the soul I wished I’d been born with.

A soft, almost inaudible sob brought me back to the present. For once it hadn’t come from me. I opened my eyes. Butelios was still watching me, black tears drifting from his cheeks to swirl in the air before aligning themselves in a path that led off to the south-east, over the cliff and across the empty air. Azir kicked off his shoes and stamped on the cold ground. The darkness slid from the skin of his feet, stretching out and fragmenting as it led into a distant fog.

Butelios gripped me by the shoulders and lifted me to my feet. “Come,” he said, cheeks red from tears no longer black. “I will take you to your friend. I will show you where his shadow awaits you.

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