Read Michelle West - Sun Sword 01 - The Broken Crown for Free Online Page B

themselves, roiling. Waiting.
    "A man came to me, to teach me of my gift. I did not know who
he was, but he knew me well, and he offered me great mystery, great
adventure, glory. It required a sacrifice, of course." She shook her
head, staring at the surface of the seer's crystal. "I was not as brave
as you, Askeyia. I was timid. He told me that I would have to walk a
path that no other man, or woman, had ever walked before. That I would
walk it alone and that it would take me across decades and centuries.
That, once I had chosen, I would be bound; I could speak of nothing
that had not yet happened. Offer no warning. But if—
if I
did all these things, I might avert the crowning of the Lord of the
Hells upon the mortal lands. I told you, Askeyia, that I was timid.
What would you have done?"
    Askeyia straightened her shoulders then, although her arms
were still tightly wound across her body, covering her breasts. "I—"
She looked at her lap. Swallowed. "I would have said yes."
    "I said no."
    "But you—"
    "And that night, that terrible night, the demons came. We had
no soldiers, Askeyia, except for one man who fled the Empire to forget
the Dominion Wars. We had no mages. There were no god-born children to
lead us or protect us.
    "And he came back to me at that moment, and he asked me again
if I would follow his path.
    "And I told him yes. Yes, because everyone that I
loved—precious few, but
precious
—was there."
    "W-what happened?"
    "I don't know," she told the young girl softly, more honest
now than she had been in decades. "I've never been allowed to go back.
I cannot choose where the path takes me. But it takes me where I need
to be. I did not know that it would bring me to you." She smiled, but
the smile was a bitter one. "I've lost them all. If I were to go back
to them now, they would never recognize me. My life has been given to
the fight, and taken by it."
    "And will it work?" Askeyia said softly, as if asking the end
of a story.
    "I don't know. But I have to try. What happened here, what
happened to you—it's not the worst thing that
will
happen if the Lord of the Hells rules all. Askeyia a'Narin, you carry
his child."
    "I won't for long."
    Evayne swallowed. "If you do not carry this child to term, we
stand no chance of winning this war."
    The silence. Oh, the silence.
    Of the two, it was Evayne who looked away, casting her gaze
stoneward.
    "And if I do? If I do, can you tell me that we
will
win? Against a
god'
?" Her voice was thin and high
and strained. But it was not mad, it was not hysterical.
    Evayne started to speak, and Askeyia cried out, "
Look
at me
!" and the words died on the older woman's lips.
    "No," she said, the lie that was so distasteful defeated. "I
cannot say that with certainty. I can only say that she is hope, and
she is our hope, as she is his."
    "She?"
    "If you have this child, this child will be a girl. And she
will be all that she was born to be."
    "How can you ask this?"
    "Because, Askeyia, she will be his daughter, but she will be
yours as well. It is only hope, yes. But it
is
hope."
    "And for me?"
    "I promise you that you will suffer no more in the birthing
than many others suffer naturally."
    "And will I go home? Will I be free?"
    Evayne rose, and in rising, she took the weight of her answer
with her, carrying it, burdened by it. She saw the clouds rolling in to
either side.
    "No," she whispered. "Just as I will never be. I cannot force
you, Askeyia, and I would not. But if a healer's vocation is to save
lives, you will be the greatest healer the world has ever had, known or
not.
    "And I promise you, before the end, you will be known."
    She heard Askeyia begin to cry as the path closed in about
her, taking her from the desperate young woman, and leaving her with
the burden of what she had asked, of what she would ask.
    She was Evayne a'Nolan.

    II: ASHAF
    15th of Wittan,
412 AA
The Terrean of Aver da, the Green
Valley
    She would always remember that he came at the break of dawn.
Not