Tarashana Rachel Neumeier (top 10 motivational books TXT) 📖

He sat down, sighing with the effort, holding his arm close to his side, cradling that elbow in the opposite hand. Some bone in that arm was certainly broken.

I sat down too. That was not my decision. I did not say anything, of course, but he was obviously right. By no means was that eagle-warrior an ordinary shade. I could not think of any tale that explained what he was. My sister might know such a tale.

Raga might have known that kind of tale, if he had lived. I heard him again in memory, his voice calling out to me in horror when I left him to die, his scream when enemies cut him down.

Despite the anger that filled my heart, that memory was so vivid that Aras could not fail to hear it. I saw him flinch. If I had not known him so well, I would not have seen it.

I had obviously not known him as well as I thought.

No. I had. I had known for a long time, almost from the beginning, that when he set himself against an enemy, he would be ruthless, with himself and with everyone else, until that enemy was defeated. Even so, I could hardly believe what he had done to me. What he was still doing to me now.

He did not look at me or answer this thought. He said, his voice rough with pain and long effort, “If Inhejeriel is right about all this, then sunrise here ought to lift all those upon this stairway into the world of the living. I’m fairly certain that’s what she meant, and it’s consistent with everything I know and can guess. Inhejeriel’s task will end at that moment, whether she is finished or not. Only the people she has already called onto this ... this bridge between earth and sky will be redeemed. You’ve realized that the Moon has been holding her place in the sky, refusing to step toward the horizon. The gods are holding back the turning of the day, giving Inhejeriel time to redeem as many of her people as possible. Once the other Tarashana sorcerers have returned to the land of the living, they should be able to drive back the black tide, force the sunless sea back to its proper place, and restore the starlit country. If the Tarashana sorcerers can force the black tide back within the land of the living, then the shadow tide here should subside as well. Or ... Inhejeriel thinks everything should happen in something close to that way. If she’s wrong ... I hope very much she isn’t wrong. I’ve set everything on the hope that she’s right.”

He had most certainly done that.

He flinched. I was so angry that I had made sure he would see that thought, but now I had other things to consider as well. He had explained many things that I had wanted to know. Some of it I had guessed before, and some was new to me. But nothing in all this explanation addressed the questions that most concerned me. As I could not speak, I tried to put down my anger enough for him to hear my thoughts more clearly.

He said, “I’ve given your brothers’ names to Lalani. Etta’s mind is so far away that she can’t hear me. Inhejeriel is so caught up in her own task, she wouldn’t listen to me even if I could speak to her, which is actually quite difficult for me in any case. But Lalani is much easier. She should be able to give those names to your sister at the right moment, although ...” He paused. Then he said, “Inhejeriel wasn’t certain whether she, or anyone, would be able to redeem any living person who died here. You know that’s different from redeeming those lost in the shadow tide. Those of us on this bridge will probably be carried with it. Everyone else ... I don’t know, Ryo.”

No one living had set foot on this bridge but Aras and me. And my sister, and Lalani, so that was better than it might be. But no one else.

If Aras had not called Garoyo and Raga out of the empty darkness of the Saa’arii tide, they would probably be safe. Instead, they were probably lost. Hokino inKera and his son Arayo, the same. Suyet, who had been called from the dark tide only to die, hardly a heartbeat later, at the blade of the first Saa’arii shadow warrior we had met here, never understanding anything that had happened. Tano, who had only just begun to learn what kind of man he could be.

Aras had probably known he might be sacrificing them even before he called them. Thinking of this now, I was certain he had known it. He had intended it. He had meant to use them exactly as he had used them: to guard himself and Inhejeriel. There was no limit to his ruthlessness once he had determined his course.

I thought again of Raga, shouting my name in horror while I ran away and left him to die.

Aras pressed a hand to his mouth, took a hard breath, and let his hand fall. He said, without apology, “I needed them too badly to leave them in the shadow tide, even though, yes, they would probably have been safer waiting for Inhejeriel to call them. Just as I needed you so badly I forced my will on you. I can’t let you go just yet, Ryo.”

I had not expected him to let me go. Not yet. Not while he might still need me to fight.

I did not trust that he would ever release me. If he did, I would kill him. He must know that. If he could not see it in my mind, he would know it anyway. He could hardly fail to understand that his actions had been utterly unforgiveable.

If he