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The squalls outside blew in pursuit of her. The frost crept in and tried to take hold, and she pushed it away. She fought it back. She reared up and bore down, feeling each snap within her, and though the pain was beyond description she pushed still, until there was no feeling at all. Just the absence of pressure, of fear, and the first brays of a baby, freshly born into a world not its choosing.

“Farra,” Thaddius murmured reverently, as though she were the Holy Mother Herself. His lips pressed to hers gently, for a moment. “You did it.”

“Take him, Yennes,” Annika’s voice bid her. But she could not feel her limbs. Could not command their movements.

Farra opened her eyes as Annika placed the form of a baby to her chest, then picked up Farra’s arms and wrapped them over its warm, slippery flesh.

“A boy,” Annika said, her eyes wet. “Your boy.”

Farra blinked slowly at the shape cradled to her chest and for a moment, her vision focussed. She looked long enough to see the warm hue of his skin, perfectly matched to hers, the exquisite dimples of his knuckles, the delicate slope of his small nose. He opened his eyes long enough for her to see that they resembled hers and that of her own Mother’s, and she smiled.

“Ryon,” she said, though she could not be sure her voice would carry. “Call him Ryon.”

She felt his heart, beating resolutely against her weakening one, and sighed contentedly. This child must be a design of fate, for how could something so perfect, so improbable not be?

She looked her last at her son, smiling weakly, and then the darkness reached up. It clawed her back down into its embrace. Farra was too weak. Too tired.

But she did not want to go. She wished suddenly, fiercely, to stay.

Death ambled, slow to collect her.

Life came in flashes of anguish. There was a glimpse of the night sky and the excruciating jostle of movement. She felt a moment of wind, lancing her cheeks, before the dark pulled her back. Over and over reality returned, and she clawed to stay each time. She heard the swoop of wings. Felt the shudder ripple through her as something collided. She heard a voice,hisvoice, giving desperate commands.

“Phineas, she isfading!”

“Hurry,” came the answer, then more jostling. More pain.

Doors closed, footsteps glanced off stone, and then a glow burned beyond her eyelids.

“Lay her down,” came Phineas’ hushed voice. “God, the blood. Quickly! We only have a moment.”

“Drink, malishka,” Thaddius told her, and she felt the press of metal against her closed lips, felt the strange matter press against her mouth, neither wet nor solid. “Please,” he said again more urgently, and she felt fingers pulling her chin down.

But suddenly, her ears were filled with swoops and clatters, a cacophony of activity. And she heard Thaddius moan in despair as his hands left her.

Her head hit the stone.

“Let go of me!” he shouted, his voice quaking the ground around her.

There were other shouts. Voices that made little sense, curses and braying anger. Only one other voice seemed able to usurp the discord and Farra recognised it.

Mother help them all, she knew that voice.

“Mesrich,” Vasteel said. His voice trembled with something deeper than mere rage. It was betrayal. It was pain. “You fool.”

There was a scrambling from behind, then a shout of pain.

“The time for struggle has passed, deshun,” Vasteel said. “Though I ought to tie you up and let you throw yourself against the chains for an eternity. I might, if I could bear the sight of you. Andyou,Phineas. What am I to do with you?”

Farra wrenched her eyes open. She found Thaddius, lurching against the Glacians that tried to restrain him. Their thick hands wound around his biceps and wrists, struggling to subdue him. Phineas stood alongside, ceding to his own detainers. “Thaddius,” he said, desperately. “Stop, brother. It’s over.”

“NO!” Thaddius roared, and he slipped the hold of his captors, lunging to Farra, his body caging hers where she lay on the floor. “I’msorry,”he gasped to her, his voice breaking, crumbling.

Then he was gone. She heard his screams as he was hauled away.

“Take him to the Chasm,” Vasteel said. “Phineas, too.”

“Not him!” Thaddius shouted. “He played no part!”