Heather Cylendar's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Heather rode home from Cyndi's fortress before dawn and slept only two hours before Bella's messenger came. Her sister wanted her at the crystal palace by breakfast. Heather kissed her three sleeping children on the forehead, told the nurse to keep them at the homestead until sundown, and left. The trust spell sat in her chest like a small cold stone. She could feel its edges every time she thought Cyndi's name. Bella met her in the long hall with the map table between them. "You look tired," Bella said. "Where were you yesterday?" Heather opened her mouth to answer and a vision hit her sideways. Black stone walls. A pulsing floor. Cyndi at a table stacked with dark books, her hand on a crown that did not yet exist. Heather saw her sister on Bella's throne, saw the palace guards kneel, saw the west field burning. She swallowed and the spell locked her tongue. "Visiting Cyndi," she said. That much she could give. "She is well." Bella watched her too long. "And?" Heather felt the second vision coming and turned away before it took her face. "I need a moment," she said, and walked out. She crossed the courtyard to the small crystal shrine at the garden's edge, a spire of pale blue facets ringed with white feather-shaped leaves. It was where she went when prophecy broke through in public. She stepped inside and shut the door. The vision finished behind her eyes. Cyndi crowned. Bella dead on the floor. Her own children scattered. Heather pressed her forehead to the cold crystal and cried once, quietly, then stopped. She drew the iridescent feather from her sleeve, the one she used to steady her voice, and turned it slow between her fingers until her breathing matched its edge. She had promised silence about the fortress and the chamber. She had not promised silence about the future. The spell bound facts, not warnings. When she stepped back into the hall she went straight to Bella. "I can't tell you where I was," she said. "I can't tell you what I saw there. Don't ask. But listen. Cyndi means to take your throne, and she is closer than you think. Watch the west field. Watch your own floors. Set Silver a guard tonight." Bella did not blink. "You're sure." "I've seen it three times since yesterday." Bella nodded once and called for her captain. Heather walked out through the garden without waiting to hear the orders. She had kept her word to Cyndi in the letter and broken it in the spirit, and her sister would know by nightfall. The homestead was two hours away. She meant to reach her children before Cyndi's answer reached her.