Drasmyr (Prequel: From the Ashes of Ruin)
Page 59
Jacindra could hardly keep the joy from bubbling forth as she marched down the hall. She had defied Lucian and lived! Lived! What a beautiful, beautiful day!
It really wasn’t beautiful outside. In fact, it looked rather gloomy and oppressive, with a grey overcast sky and more snow on the ground than Jacindra had recalled seeing for years. But that didn’t matter to her; a day was what you made of it. And any day was glorious if you were thankful for your life.
It had been close. She had called Elri to her study and had been a word from sending him to the library at midnight, but she had resisted. Yes, resisted. She was quite proud of herself for that. Ushering Elri back to his room was the bravest, most difficult thing she had ever done; but she had done it. Capitulation was unacceptable, she had decided. Lucian could kill her, but he could not take her soul.
She stopped in midstride. Actually, he could; he was a vampire. Morcallenon had paid a visit to her late yesterday afternoon and given her all the details, far more than she had ever wanted to know. Lucian was a creature of the night, a beast that sucked the life from mortal men and was capable of sentencing her to a horrid existence which would mirror its own. She had been mortified by the discovery, but she had hid her fear as best she could and had even assisted with the collection of roses. According to Morcallenon, the flower of a rose could prevent Lucian from entering the guild. A boon beyond measure if true, but for the life of her, the sorceress of the air could not fathom how an innocuous plant could thwart such a monster.
Suddenly, Jacindra felt tired. Tired and worn. What had she been thinking? Lucian could unmake her being, and remold her soul in his own image—a fate far worse than death. She had only really been thinking of death when she had decided to betray him. Death seemed a small price to pay for the opportunity to spit in the face of evil. She had been ready to die last night, even expected it. Waiting in her chamber, watching the window in anticipation of Lucian’s arrival had been a cruel form of emotional torture. Fortunately for her, the vampire had never shown. He had appeared elsewhere in the guild, though, diving in through a window early in the evening, setting off a sigil, and even killing a fire mage during a brief scuffle; but he had never sought her out. She would have fought him if he had, of course, but she would have lost.
Jacindra stopped in the hall to look out a window. The sun hid behind a distant canopy of clouds, but she knew it was up there. Her protector. How she wished she could hold it there and keep it forever frozen in the sky. But it would edge inexorably forward and circle through its course. It would be driven ever onward until at last it sank beneath the distant horizon. Dusk would come and with it Lucian.
If she could only tell Regecon, perhaps she’d have a chance. Unfortunately, if she told Regecon the truth, how could she possibly explain her hesitation? She had kept the secret of this thing’s existence from Regecon and the whole council. That was a treachery which had very likely resulted in the deaths of several guardsmen and at least one student of magic. She could not face such shame.
A thin stream of sunlight broke through a part in the clouds. It streaked across the sky like the glorious touch of a god, and with it came a sudden realization. She was about to die, or worse, and she was afraid of a little shame? That was so absurd, it bordered on the ridiculous.
Jacindra smiled to herself. The promise of extinction, it would seem, could be a very liberating thing.