The Lightstruck by Sunya Mara

Author:Sunya Mara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Our return home is a vague blur of spires and dark sand. Dalca and Izamal—with the aid of the collective muscle of the Nosca-Wardana—balance the crystal on a sprinter and haul it back to the tower, up the riser, and into an empty room that Cas—with barked orders at several Wardana—quickly turns into an ikonomancer’s workshop.

The neighboring rooms are cleared out—a defensible perimeter in case anything were to go wrong—and Cas sets to work.

For a good hour, I watch him as he pokes and prods the crystal, prying the melted mirror from it in small sheets, humming a song under his breath.

I cough.

He screams. Wide-eyed and pink-cheeked, he stares at me. “Have you been here this whole time?”

“Er, yes.”

“Go away,” he says. “I can’t work with you staring at me.”

I refrain from pointing out that he did just fine for the last hour. “Will—”

“Yes, when I have something to share, I’ll let you know. And no, you can’t help me—unless you picked up a specialization in materials ikonwork whilst you were slumbering these past years. No? I rather thought not. Goodbye.”

He ushers me out and shuts the door behind me.

“Goodbye,” I say to the wood.

Hadria waits in the hall. Has she been there all this time? “I think we’d better get some sleep,” I say.

She nods, quick and darting. She’s as taut as a bowstring.

Unease twists my stomach. “How are the others?”

“Recovered. Waiting to be cleared by the healers,” she says.

It’s good news, but—“They’re well so soon?”

“The healers think it affected Mina differently. She never could eat certain fruits—they never sat right with her—and maybe that’s why.” Hadria’s voice is quiet, but she’s nearly vibrating. She draws a breath and lets it out.

When she doesn’t speak, I ask, “Is there something else?”

“Cardel Maver. You called her Carver. She—she’s missing.”

I stop dead.

Hadria continues. “All signs say . . . she left of her own accord. We got a report of a girl leaving the courtyard at dawn. Doesn’t match Carver’s description . . . but that was Carver’s specialty.”

“You’re telling me Carver was lightstruck? The poisoner?”

“Yes.” She raises a shoulder. “Officially, it has not been proven. Not yet.”

My head spins. Carver was the poisoner . . . but, if what Hadria says is true, that Mina was an accident and the others are recovered, then she didn’t mean to kill anyone. But then why?

I realize I’ve said the last out loud when Hadria responds, her gaze fixed far in the distance. “To frighten you. To have you doubt your allies. To isolate you, until you feel too small and too alone to fight back.”

I mull that over as we walk. “What happened to your mother . . . I’m not making the same mistake again, Hadria. Let them know that I won’t order my guard to join me. But if they wish to be at my side when we face the King . . . I’ll welcome them.”

Days pass—days where a blanket of unease settles over the watchtower. The market

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