Энтони Райан - Queen of Fire

“The Ally had touched it once before, I hadnʼt. Perhaps it knew the difference.”

“He spoke of something looking back…”

“He spoke of many things, brother.” There was an edge to Erlinʼs voice now, a patent weariness of questions. “And all best forgotten.” He brightened, slapping his knees and rising. “I think I shall seek out a sailor with some wine to spare. Care to join me?”

Vaelin smiled and shook his head. He watched Erlin disappear into the shadowed recesses of the hold and wondered if persuading Lyrna not to kill the ancient and now-giftless man would one day prove to be something he regretted.

“The future is ever uncertain,” she had said at the docks, fighting anger at the non-appearance of Weaver, an anger that was all too genuine today. “Find your deepest mine and bury it there, the location to be known only to you and myself. The Orders are never to learn of this thingʼs existence.”

He waited until the captain advised him they had reached the deepest part of the Boraelin, whereupon he told him to trim his sails. It was only a little past dawn and he was alone on deck save for the night watch. They looked on in bafflement as he set aside the sledgehammer he had borrowed from the shipʼs carpenter and cut away the rope binding the canvas. It duly fell away to reveal the smooth, unblemished surface of the black stone. He stepped back, hefting the hammer and lifting it above his head.

“Stop!”

It was Alornis, huddled in a blanket near the hold, staring at him, eyes wide and appalled.

“I have to,” he told her.

She frowned, puzzled, then shook her head. “Not like that you wonʼt.” She pointed an implacable finger at him. “Donʼt move until I return.”

He watched her disappear below, standing uncertainly with hammer in hand as the crew looked on, curiosity or amusement on their faces.

“Iʼd never be able to face Master Benril again,” Alornis said, reemerging from the stairwell with her leather satchel on her shoulder. “Letting you break a stone like that.”

She placed her satchel on the deck and undid the straps, choosing a small hammer and a narrow iron chisel from the rows of tools.

“Donʼt touch it,” Vaelin told her as she approached the stone.

“I know.” She made a face at him. “Reva told me.”

She placed the chisel in the centre of the stone, tapping it until a small crack appeared in the surface then delivering a series of well-placed blows with the hammer until no more than a few inches protruded. She retrieved two more chisels from the satchel and repeated the process, placing them on either side of the central peg and hammering away until the stone featured a crack across its surface about a half inch wide.

“As you will, brother,” she said, stepping back.

He stared down at it, seeing the way the surface seemed to swallow the light, suddenly uncertain. You donʼt know what this thing is! he had said. I looked into that world… and something looked back, something vast, and hungry. Touch it once and receive a gift…

He raised a hand, extending it to the stone, letting it hover over the surface, almost touching. What will it give me? Another song? The Allyʼs gift?

“Alucius told me he loved me,” Alornis said, drawing his gaze. She held her blanket tight, blinking as the wind drove tears from her eyes, tracing across her pale skin like molten silver. “The freed slave came to me with a message, his last message. He said he loved me and begged forgiveness for not telling me sooner. He said he had done many things he regretted, but that was the worst. And he told me not to hate, Vaelin. He said there was sufficient hate in this world and he wanted to look at me from the Beyond and see at least one soul untouched by it. But I couldnʼt… They killed him, and I hated them, and I burned them.”

“You did what we all did, sister,” he said. “You, the queen, Reva, Frentis… Alucius and Caenis… The woman I would have married. We won a war that needed winning.”

He looked down at the stone and withdrew his hand. His thoughts were full of many things as he raised the hammer, many faces, some gone, some still living, all changed or damaged. He thought of the battles he had fought and the brothers he had lost, and he thought of Dahrena. You are my Beyond now. For me to endure, so must you.

The first blow drove the central peg deep enough to split the stone down to its base. It fell apart, thumping heavily onto the deck. He raised the hammer and brought it down, again and again, heaving with tireless fury as a cloud of black dust rose around him. Some drifted away on the wind but for the most part it settled into a pile on the deck, glittering in the fast rising sun. When the last fragment had been pounded to powder he ordered it all gathered up in the canvas and cast over the side. The stain of it roiled their wake, lingering for only seconds before fading completely as they sailed on, carried home by the westerly winds.

Lyrna Al Nieren—Queen of the Unified Realm

Iltis Al Adral—Sword of the Realm, Lord Protector of the Queenʼs Person

Benten Al Grey Gull—Sword of the Realm, Protector of the Queenʼs Person

Orena Al Vardrian—lady to the queen

Murel Al Harten—lady to the queen

Hollun—brother of the Fourth Order and Keeper of the Queenʼs Purse

Vaelin Al Sorna—Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches and Battle Lord of the Queenʼs Host

Alornis Al Sorna—artist and sister to Vaelin, later Lady Artificer to Queen Lyrna

Dahrena Al Myrna—First Counsel to the North Tower

Caenis Al Nysa—brother of the Sixth Order, Sword of the Realm and Lord Marshal of the Thirty-fifth Regiment of Foot; later Aspect of the Seventh Order

Count Marven—commander of the Nilsaelin contingent of the Queenʼs Host

Adal Zenu—captain of the North Guard, later Lord Marshal and Sword of the Realm

Kehlan—healer and brother of the Fifth Order

Orven Al Melna—captain of the Third Company, Kingʼs Mounted Guard; later Lord Marshal and Sword of the Realm, husband to Insha ka Forna

Insha ka Forna (Steel in Moonlight)—Eorhil warrior, wife to Orven

Harlick—brother of the Seventh Order, Archivist of the North Tower; later First Librarian to the Great Library of the Unified Realm

Nortah Al Sendahl—friend to Vaelin, later Lord Marshal of the Queenʼs Daggers and Sword of the Realm

Snowdance—war-cat

Sanesh Poltar—war chief to the Eorhil Sil

Wisdom—sage elder to the Eorhil Sil

Ultin—mine foreman at Reaverʼs Gulch, later captain of the First Battalion of the Army of the North

Davern—shipwright and sergeant in the Army of the North, later Master of the Queenʼs Yard

Furelah—guardswoman in the Queenʼs Daggers

Atheran Ell-Nestra—Meldenean sea captain and Shield of the Isles, later Fleet Lord to Queen Lyrna

Carval Ell-Nurin—Ship Lord and captain of the Red Falcon

Cara—gifted resident of Nehrinʼs Point

Lorkan—gifted resident of Nehrinʼs Point