“Child.” She rose from her crystal-and-diamond throne. As she did, I realized the throne sat off center. There had been a second throne up on this plateau once, now broken or removed—Cherthog’s, I assumed. “You’re on a quest, and it is a quest you cannot complete without help. If you will be so stubborn as to refuse the aid of your other mothers, then I’ll force my help upon you.”

I breathed deeply, ignored the way the cold air lanced through my lungs like knives. “I’m tired of being a piece in other people’s games.”

She walked over to me. Unnervingly, I stood taller than she did. Her pale blue cat eyes met mine. “So am I. But I watch and wait, and I act a bit touched in the head.” She smiled. “It’s not always an act, I admit. But they underestimate me. Oh, they’ve always underestimated us, have they not? We have behaved for so long. Played the good servants, the obedient slaves. It wins us no prizes, but they do think we’re beaten. Sooner or later, they let down their guard.” She reached out and grasped my hand. “Let’s see what we can do about that, shall we? Not long now, before all slaves are freed.”

“The prophecies?”

“Oh yes. Let’s be ready, for we’ll have little warning when the time comes.” And before I could dodge or pull my hand from her grasp, she grabbed my arm, drew me to her, and set her thumb against the center of my forehead.

My vision shifted, and I saw the universe differently. Suless didn’t stop there, though. I felt her slip into my mind, silken and cold and so very painful as she began to change contents. Rearrange thoughts.

Moving down old roads, long forgotten …

I’m standing just off from the main stage, waiting to go on, my nerves so taut I feel like they’re about to start making their own noise.

I look across the room and see A’val, and I smile at her even as I curse that she’s talked me into doing this. I never intended to go into politics … yet here I am.

“C’indrol, it’s time.” She motions to me, and then I’m walking in front of the Assembly to give my first speech …

I remember when the demons first come, and I remember screaming when they kill my sister and then wear her body like a skin while they chase down my family. I remember the pain and the terror. I escape, but I never forgive myself for living, when they didn’t …

An impossibly bright light flashes through my apartment windows. I run to the door leading upstairs to our rooftop garden. I manage to step through the door when the blast wave’s edge hits. Then I remember nothing …