Chapter 40 #2
Whenever we halted, he would unhook the skin and pass it to me without a word, never dictating how much I was allowed to drink.
Even so, I found myself following his example, taking only the smallest sip before handing it back.
The mouthfuls were pitifully small, barely enough to wet my tongue, and I was always thirsty afterward.
The rests were a welcome reprieve, but they came with their own misery.
The moment I stopped walking, the cold descended in earnest. I would wrap my arms tightly around myself and hunch against the wind, my teeth chattering as the cold settled deeper and deeper into my bones.
The draining of my magic only made it worse.
At one particular stop, he held out the skin and our fingers grazed as I reached for it. Nothing happened. Nothing stirred, nothing moved. I fought my rising panic.
Rìan's eyes swept over my face before settling on my mouth. “Your lips are blue.”
I attempted a shrug, stepping away before he could say anything else. I was too cold and exhausted to speak. After a moment, he corked the waterskin and resumed walking. I stumbled after him.
Ahead of us, the city remained a distant darkness at the edge of the world, no closer than it had seemed that morning. Dismay rolled through me at the sight. I found myself praying that what I was looking at truly was Illyra and not the ridge we'd left behind.
Then the rain truly began.
A heavy deluge crashed from the sky, shattering the reflection beneath our feet into millions of rippling circles.
Water pooled across the flats until the distinction between puddle and solid ground vanished entirely.
More than once I stepped where I thought the surface was level only to plunge ankle-deep into a hidden depression, icy water splashing up my legs and soaking me even further.
I pulled my hood tighter over my head and braced myself against the downpour, but it made little difference. Water found its way through everything.
The world had become gray.
Gray sky. Gray rain. Gray water.
I couldn't tell whether darkness was falling because night was approaching or because the storm clouds had swallowed what remained of the day.
The constant drumming of rain became a maddening sound, a steady hiss and patter that came from every direction at once until it felt as though it were hammering directly against the inside of my skull.
When a cluster of boulders finally emerged ahead, Rìan stopped. He turned toward me, his dark hair plastered to his forehead and neck, looking almost black in the fading light. Water streamed down his face and dripped from his chin.
“Rest,” he commanded. “We're stopping here.”
I was too exhausted to argue. Clambering onto the nearest boulder, I drew my knees to my chest and wrapped my cloak around myself, desperately trying to create warmth where there was none. The stone beneath me was cold. The rain was cold. The wind was cold.
Everything was cold.
At some point, warmth appeared beside me. Even half-conscious, I found myself leaning toward it instinctively.
In my dreams, it was Aedric. The chill receded as I drifted toward the familiar heat of him, as comforting and inevitable as a hearthfire on a winter night.
“Up.”
The low command stirred me from the miserable sleep I'd fallen into.
For a moment I remained curled tightly around myself, reluctant to move, every part of me aching from the cold and the endless march across the flats. The numbness hadn't entirely left me, though the needling tingle had faded. My magic was completely gone.
I lifted my head—and forgot every discomfort I'd been feeling.
The rain had stopped. Sometime during my fitful sleep, the storm clouds had broken apart, revealing a night sky so breathtaking that for a moment I could do nothing but stare.
Stars. Thousands upon thousands of them.
They filled the sky in glittering rivers, reflected in the flooded salt flats with such perfect clarity that the constellations burned as brightly beneath my feet as they did overhead.
For one dizzying moment, it felt as though the earth had fallen away entirely, leaving me suspended in the heavens themselves.
I felt impossibly small beneath it all, yet there was comfort in that smallness—in being so insignificant against the infinite expanse above.
A few yards away, Rìan stood motionless, his form a patch of absolute darkness against the glittering sky. Sensing my attention, he turned.
The movement sent ripples through the shallow water around his boots, shattering the night gathered there.
His face remained largely hidden in darkness, but starlight caught briefly in his eyes.
Not their usual silver—there was no silver left in him.
The salt had stolen his magic, too. And yet something luminous lingered there all the same.
His gaze traced the lines of my face, and only then did I realize I was smiling. Not a carefree grin, but something quieter. Wonder had found its way past exhaustion and fear and settled softly on my lips.
For a heartbeat, the corner of his mouth lifted in return.
Something passed between us then, delicate as spun glass. Perhaps it was the salt, stripping away our magic, or perhaps it was the beauty of the night itself. Whatever the reason, the impending war, the Gates, and everything that stood between us suddenly felt very far away.
He took a step toward me before catching himself and stopping short.
“I can chart the way forward by starlight,” he murmured, breaking the spell. “We need to travel while it's clear. Before the rain starts again.”
I followed his gaze and found a wall of darkness gathering low on the horizon. My heart sank, but I nodded and rose to my feet. Wordlessly, I climbed down from the boulder and stepped back onto the flats, sending constellations rippling around my ankles.
Side by side we set off once more, wading forward through a sea of stars.