The Bound (Ascension #2)(35)

“Indeed. He is a mystery.”

The pair made it back to the camp and stopped before entering. Avoca stayed silent for a minute as she stared at the ever-darkening sky. “Let me worry about the Braj. You focus on releasing the block from your powers. We will continue to do this every night until you get past it and find your elemental pulse.” She turned her gaze back to Cyrene and smiled a rare beautiful smile. “Just try to find it in yourself to accept the power. It is the life force of the world, and the Creator has entrusted us with it. The least you can do is use it.”



And so Cyrene spent the next day in her saddle, reaching for her powers. By midday, she was exhausted, had a terrible headache, and was beyond irritated. She snapped at everyone who spoke to her. All she wanted to do was find a way to reach her magic. If I can make this force-field burst that Avoca had talked about, how come I can’t duplicate it? How come I can’t even feel my magic?

They reached Gildan at nightfall. Orden got them two rooms at an inn on the outskirts of town. They would buy and trade for supplies in the morning, but until then, Avoca wanted to work with Cyrene to find a way to get past her block.

They spent half the night in the woods but to no avail. When they made it back to the inn, Cyrene could do nothing but collapse into a fitful slumber where she dreamed of Indres and Braj attacking her, which only forced her awake repeatedly.

Orden and Ahlvie completed the shopping before mid-morning. After waking, Cyrene took her time in a long bath, knowing she would not have another for a while, and she tried to listen to the pulse of the water. All she felt was it getting colder and colder.

She dried off and returned to her chamber to find new Aurumian dresses in a cheap itchy wool. Both were brown, and while they were of lighter material than the dresses she had packed, they would have to do if she wanted to fit in. The skirts were fuller, the waistline tighter, and the sleeves were large and voluminous at the shoulders before tightening around her wrists.

Aurum was a three-week ride from the northern town of Gildan. Orden and Ceis’f alternated with scouting shifts, and they continued their routine for watches at night.

Most nights, Avoca would haul Cyrene away from camp and spend an hour or two thinking of ways for her to figure out her powers. But, if they were still there, neither girl could find a way to access them.

On nights when they were most annoyed with the fact that they weren’t getting anywhere, they would return to the men. Nearly two weeks into their journey, Cyrene and Avoca came back early to camp to find Ahlvie instructing Ceis’f on a dice game.

Cyrene warily eyed him. “Dice? What are you wagering?”

When they had been in Albion, Ahlvie had gotten them into trouble by wagering Cyrene as his wife in a dice game with a tavern owner, who hadn’t taken too kindly to losing.

“No worries, Cyrene. Just coin,” he said with a wink. “We’re playing All the King’s Men.”

“Don’t let him steal all your money, Ceis’f,” Cyrene warned. “He’s a dirty cheat.”

Ceis’f laughed callously. “I’d like to see him try. Besides, I’ve played this game before many years ago. It was called by a different name in my village—the Serpent’s Luck.”

And, to Cyrene’s shock, the game was evenly matched. By the end of the first game, the two men were playing jovially together. Ahlvie was reminiscing about stealing a man’s money right out from under his nose at a tavern, and Ceis’f seemed to forget that he was enjoying himself with humans for a time. Orden even joined in on the game and lost some coins to the two of them.

Cyrene just hoped the good cheer of their journey would last once they reached Aurum. Much depended on what happened once they arrived in the capital city.





All day, on the last leg of their cross-country journey, Aurum stood out like a beacon on the horizon. The giant stone castle stood atop a hill, overlooking the red, cream, and brown buildings of the seaside city. Five large lanes cut into the city and went down to the central port, which was filled, day and night, with hundreds of ships of various shapes and sizes from all around the world.

Halfway through the day, Orden and Ceis’f returned from scouting and informed the rest of the party that the road seemed to be clear of Royal Guard. Cyrene was glad for that, but she didn’t think it put them out of harm’s way. If Kael hadn’t made it to Aurum yet, there was still time for him to get there.

By mutual assent, they split the group up when they entered and then reconvened at The Lively Dagger, an inn that Orden swore had higher repute than the name suggested. Orden disappeared first, and after an hour, Cyrene set out with Ceis’f. She wished that she could have been paired with Ahlvie or Avoca, but she and Ahlvie couldn’t be seen together, and law dictated that she had to be with a man.

A cool breeze was blowing in from the Lakonia Ocean, shepherding in the first cold weather of the season. In Byern, snow would already be blanketing the mountains, and in a few weeks, it would be down in the city. It would be another month before the temperature dropped that low in Aurum.

Cyrene tried not to stare too obviously at the beautiful new city she was in. She felt more at home in a burgeoning metropolis than in the country, but this was so very different than her home. In fact, she was surprised to discover that the city itself was larger than the Byern capital. Byern was sequestered between the Taken Mountains and the Keylani River, which halted outward growth. Aurum had no such limitations and had grown up and out around the marina and the castle.