The eyes are the same.
“Eldy!” I scream. “Get Ezryn!”
The last thing I see is the little bird flying away before I plunge under the water and slam into something hard. The breath falls out of me and then there’s only blackness across my vision and fire in my lungs.
75
Ezryn
I leap to my feet.
Kairyn tucks the blanket tighter around my father’s shoulders and quirks his helm. “What’s wrong?”
“I … I don’t know.”
But something is terribly wrong. I feel it in my chest, as if my heart has lost its cadence. Squinting my eyes close, I rub my armor, wishing I could feel my skin. A chill runs through me and my lungs feel like they can’t get enough air.
“Brother?” Kairyn stands and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Sit back down. Your erratic movement is disturbing Father.”
A flutter sounds through the air. A small wren flaps its wings desperately, swooping back and forth as it speeds into the open-air healing garden. It heads straight for me; its flight is so off kilter, I snatch it in my hands.
The bird opens its beak. “Your Highness!”
I jolt, nearly dropping the thing. As familiar as I am with talking animals, I’ve never seen one do so during the day. And that voice…
“Eldy?”
“There’s no time to explain!” the bird cries. “It’s Rosalina! She fell into the river! She’s drowning, sire!”
Not a single moment passes before I’ve dropped the bird and sprinted across the healing garden. This feeling in my chest…
It wasn’t my fear. My pain.
It was hers.
Sounds fade away. My brother calls after me. Something about summoning the guards to find her, but I can’t stop.
“I’ll lead you to her!” the bird cries, but I’m faster than its tiny wings.
I don’t need him, anyway.
My heart knows the way.
I run faster than I’ve ever run before, surging through the keep, shoving guards out of the way. My boots pound against the stone, as fast as my heart against my ribs. How could this have happened? She was in her room when I last saw her. She was with Astrid and Marigold. Eldy said he was going to look after her.
I promised I would keep her safe.
Sickening bursts of fear course up my body, but I can’t give in to it. Not now. I’m out the gate and sprinting through the streets within seconds. The city streaks by me. The river … It runs down Mount Lumidor and empties out into Sylvanita Lake.
Empties via a waterfall.
I have to get Rosalina before she plunges into the rocks.
Hold on, I cry in my mind. I’m coming!
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but there’s no response.
The city gives way to the mountain trail. Every muscle feels alight as I push myself beyond any speed I’ve ever run before. The river rages beside me, white and spitting. I jolt to a stop at its shore, looking up and down.
West. My heart thunders the word, and I follow the river at its command.
“Rosalina!” I yell. The water is nothing but bubbling swells and slick rock. “Rosalina!”
She’s here, I know it. I must be faster than the river to catch her.
The wind seems to answer my call, pushing on my back and sending me forward. My feet fly over the craggy riverbank.
“Rosalina!” I cry again.
And then I see her. A slip of pink roiling in the waves. Her head is tilted out of the water but her eyes are shut, hair spread like tendrils. She looks like a ragdoll being smashed from rock to rock.
“Rosalina!” Catch her. I have to catch her. The river widens up ahead and the roar of the impending waterfall booms like war drums.
Down below lies Sylvanita Lake, the death place of my mother.
I will not let it be Rose’s, too.
The ground lifts beneath me, my magic working subconsciously, raising the earth to shoot me forward. I’m not running—I’m bounding, the earth propelling me toward her.
I won’t let anyone, or anything take her from me. Not the monsters that prowl the Briar or the demons that masquerade as men. I will be damned if my own land steals her away.
Breath rages through my throat—precious breath that she must have so little of. A few more bounds, and I’ll be beside her.
One step. Two. Three.
I throw myself to the ground and stretch out my hand. Water spits up and splashes into my helm, blurring my vision. My arm strains so much, I think my shoulder may have popped out of the socket. But she’s drifting past me. My fingers catch the strap of her dress—
Her legs smack hard against a bulging rock, and she rolls under a swell. The strap pulls free of my fingers, and she’s gone. Tumbling away to the middle of the widening river. Ahead, the waterfall roars.