From behind Rielle came a terrified cry: “Save him!”
Ludivine.
Rielle whistled for Atheria, power rushing down her limbs to pool in her palms. Atheria dropped from the sky, raced low across the clifftops.
Turning, Rielle whipped her arm in a circle. The metalmasters flew back from her, their weapons crashing to the ground.
She spun back to Audric, thrust out her palm. A blast of wind slammed into him, sent him flying back through the air right as Atheria passed by the cliff’s edge. The chavaile maneuvered sharply to catch him, then climbed back into the sky.
“Rielle, no!” Audric reached back for her as Atheria carried him away to safety. “Rielle!”
What a delightful development, Corien crowed. I would say how noble of you that was, Rielle, but we both know the truth, don’t we?
Rielle raced past the people Audric had been protecting and threw herself into the knot of metalmasters. They’d recovered, retrieved their weapons. Their eyes gray and clouded, they lunged at her. Daggers came flying. She pivoted, dodged them. An angry tongue of metallic-tasting magic wrapped around her foot, yanking her down. She slammed her palms to the ground; tremors cracked the earth open. The metalmasters stumbled, and she leapt up, ducked under a chain’s angry lash, then thrust her forearm at the group and watched them fly. Some skidded off the cliff’s edge.
She turned, searching wildly for Ludivine, found her and Garver Randell helping the survivors down a cliffside path.
“Lu! Over here!”
Ludivine looked up, hair mussed and cheeks bloodstained. Their eyes locked; Ludivine smiled breathlessly at her.
Then, an enormous metal-tipped hammer spun across the space between them, slammed Ludivine in the gut, and knocked her screaming over the cliff’s edge.
Furious instinct took over Rielle’s body. She spun on her heel, punched the air so hard that the metalmaster who’d thrown the hammer flew back one hundred yards. His skidding body carved a furrow into the ground before slamming into the mountainside.
Rielle stumbled to the cliff’s edge, searching the ruins of the maze far below for signs of Ludivine’s body—and finding nothing. The smoke was too thick, the distance too great. Shock swept through her in waves. She clung to the rock, her vision rolling.
“Lady Rielle,” said Garver Randell, approaching carefully up the cliffside path. He extended his hand, Simon watching wide-eyed behind him. “Please, my lady. Come with us.”
Oh, my darling girl. Corien’s voice was as gentle as it ever had been. Let me comfort you.
Rielle stood, pushing Garver’s hand away. She turned, unsteady, and gazed through tear-filled eyes across the hilltops.
Where? Her thoughts felt sluggish. I can’t… Corien, she’s…
Follow the sound of my voice.
She did, running first slowly and then frantically. A terrible clouded grief yawned inside her, threatening to swallow her whole, but beneath even that was the pulsing need—to see Corien, to know that he was real.
To stop him from doing anything worse.
His trail led her into a cave beneath a large hill. She ran through a nest of cramped stone passages, the walls trembling on either side as the fight behind her continued.
At last, she rounded a corner into a circular cave. Tree roots snaked up the walls. A small opening in the center of the ceiling gave her a glimpse of the sky.
King Bastien rose from a boulder against the wall. Lord Dervin sat on the floor. Gray clouds clogged each man’s eyes.
At the sound of footsteps, Rielle turned to see her father walking toward her out of the shadows.
She hurried toward him at once. “Papa, you’re all right!”
“You found me.” Her father’s mouth curled into a slow smile. “Well done.”
Rielle froze. He extended his hand, gray eyes unblinking on her face. She brushed past him, searching the room’s shadows.
“Manipulating my father’s mind,” she declared, “is not the way to win my heart.”
“Shall I release him, then?” murmured a voice.
She whirled at the sound. A column of still black watched her from the corner. Her mouth went dry; her heart skipped up her throat.
“Release all of them,” she ordered.
“As you wish.”
A ripple shifted through the room. Lord Dervin looked around in confusion, his eyes clearing.
King Bastien shot to his feet. “What is the meaning of this? Why are we all here?” He glared at Rielle’s father. “Armand?”
“I don’t know, my king.”
At the touch of her father’s hands, Rielle turned to face him. “Papa, I’m so sorry.”