Total pages in book: 204
Estimated words: 193124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
As the echoes dissipate, I can feel Lalah looking at me.
Everything goes into slow motion as she opens her mouth. What comes out is a rough, strangled sound.
“You can do this,” I say quietly as I focus on the bruise at her temple. And then the ring around her throat. “You can bring down this wall.”
She stops. Reaches up to her battered face … then lingers her fingertips at the banding red mark across the front of her throat. As her eyes darken with pain, I nod gravely.
“Bring down the wall, Lalah,” I say in a stronger tone. “Bring … him down. All those years. All of it.”
I point at the wall. “Send the pain there.”
After a moment, the maid draws in a tremendous volume of air.
Then she opens up her mouth.
And screams.
The sound is hoarse, and it is ugly, and it gets uglier as the rage breaks out of the girl. Closing my eyes, I hear the suffering, shame, and fear leaving not just her body, but her soul. It’s all in there, the era of torment and agony, the cruelty endured, the helplessness of her life.
It’s hard to tell when exactly the tone changes.
But as I reopen my lids, the scream shifts into a something else. Lalah is singing now, higher and higher, the cliffs doubling and redoubling the sound. Louder, higher, louder, higher, louder—
Tears are streaming down her face, and as beautiful as the sound she’s now making is, she’s in terrible pain as she creates it. Next to her, the two working women have their hands over their mouths, their expressions full of regret, as if they knew what was going on with her and had had no idea how to handle it.
And wish they’d done more.
I am only dimly aware of the crowd around us, but one thing is certain. Lalah’s voice is finally getting heard, by all of them—
The first crack appears right in the center, where Lalah is standing. And then there are others, spidering in from where the barrier connects to the rock spires on the sides, weaving up from the base, coming down from the top.
“It’s going to shatter!” Merc yells. “Watch out! It’s going to—”
At that moment, there’s a great explosion, and I jump in front of Lalah and hold on to her, shielding her with my body as I’m pelted with shards of whatever the gate is made of. All around, there are shouts and screams, the horses rearing back, the carts being ground into the mountain’s flank, Thale’s beautiful grays jumping and trying to dart with their carriage still attached.
It’s the loudest thing I’ve ever heard, my ears registering it not even as sound, but as a penetrating sting that goes into my head. Musket balls and shards come at us in a wave, swamping our feet like a tide coming in, dust blooming like a sandstorm, debris landing and making both worse.
And then it fades.
Well, at least the sounds and the falling crystal splinters and the ground cover settle. The fine particles in the air hang around—
As Lalah’s legs go out from under her, I hold her slight weight as best I can, easing her onto the ground. Immediately, her sister is by her side, talking to her in their language.
I brush tears off her cheeks. “Just breathe … Lalah, just breathe…”
She turns her head to the side. “I … did it.”
Easing back from Emma, she sits up and stares at the great, gaping hole that’s revealed as a new wind enters the clearing from whatever is on the other side. This ushers some of the dust out, and I look at what has been exposed: It’s just more of the same, a trail, through high jagged mountains.
I expected there to be a treasure on the far side.
But as Lalah struggles to her feet, and holds on to me for balance as she looks straight ahead, I know that what she’s gained in this is better than any gold. This will have repercussions for her future. She is now more secure, and not just because she’s under Thale’s protection.
She has herself now, too.
“Let me take her back.”
I don’t recognize the voice at first. But then I see the top hat. Thale.
“Ride back in my coach,” he says softly to Lalah. “Your sister can sit with you. I shall drive the horses.”
With a careful hand, he draws her away with the other two women, and her twin stays at her side—
Lalah breaks off and bolts back toward me. I know she’s looking at my face fully, but I can’t … I can’t meet her eyes. I just can’t know that she’ll die by a demon some night soon after having survived so much.
What I can do is get to the Kingdom of the South as soon as I’m able.