Page 5 of Keeper of the Word

Hux examined his fingernails. “I’ve made it my business to befriend the important people of Thorin Court.”

Tolvar wondered whose head he would have to take off later.

“May I?” Hux gestured to the chair next to him.

“By all means, I would not wish to take action without you.”

“Gladdened I am to hear that, Lord Wolf. I have a feeling that you might truly mean that at some point.”

Chapter

Three

ON THE DASEI MOORS IN THE SOUTH OF THE PROVINCE OF ASHWIN: ELANNA

She stood at the edge of the world. Nay, not the edge of the world. The edge of a thought foreSeen.

The thought did not belong to Elanna. But most thoughts did not belong to her: the vessel. The fourth of the Five StarSeers. Fourth, now that Roxa had deceased and gone to the stars. The new fifth StarSeer was a mere toddler, little Maristel, she was called.

In dawn’s light, Elanna scanned the moor she knelt upon. Giant boulders jutted out from the sea of grass, emerald green from the long winter’s rains. She did not remember how she had come to be here so far from the city of Ashwin. The horizon was never-ending, so unlike the thoughts placed before her.

She had dragged her mind as far across time as she dared. Beseeched the stars to show her beyond her own death. Beyond the death of all who breathed in air at this very moment in Tasia.

Further beyond that.

The visions of the stars blurred and rippled and wrinkled. ’Twas almost impossible to See that far into the future of the world without becoming tangled in a web of creases in time.

Almost.

But Elanna had prepared and trained herself outside the watchful eyes of the other StarSeers for over a year. She had finally bolted days ago from Ashwin City, mounting Rasa and whispering in the roan stallion’s ear, giving him incredible speed. After that, she could not recollect how she was here on the Dasei Moors. But she’d understood thatthiswas the night—the Nay Moon between the Gale Moon and the Dew Moon—when she would be able to implore the stars for the Sight. To finally discover what had caused an incessant pall of misgivings to press upon her for five years.

She knew of the darkness called the Befallen on the island kingdom of Deogol, of course. All StarSeers did. ’Twas her predecessors who’d bestowed upon Deogol the legend of hope over one hundred years ago: the Edan Lore.

But whateverthisshadowed fortune was that had shrouded unease upon her was not the Befallen, despite Elanna’s instinct that somehow they were both connected to the Curse.

The Curse of Adrienne.

And that is why she had dared to bend her oaths to her StarSeer sisters and ride away unprotected, unguarded, uncensored.

The new sun blazed on the horizon. Elanna squinted.

Hours before, when the last stars had glimmered in the sky, she had come to the edge of what she was permitted to See.

It had taken her this long to grapple with and smooth out the creases of the world’s future until she could See it before her like a long strand of a winding tale. She had fainted twice in her attempt. ’Twas a blessing from the stars that she had not lost consciousness more. But each time she regained alertness, her focus was as acute as before. She’d simply kept her thoughts not her own.

Not all foreSeen thoughts could she cling to. Not when it concerned the entire world’s fortune. But…

Abruptly, all too aware of her lungs, Elanna sucked in a breath.

Elanna knew. The edge of what the stars allowed her to See was in this final thought. It did not bring her comfort. It sliced fear through her.

For Elanna had Seen the end of the world.

Chapter

Four

IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF ASALLE, THE HEART OF THE CAPELLA REALM: TOLVAR