Dreadgod (Cradle Book 11) (10)

She continued prattling, but Kerani was paying more attention to her bound spirit. Enemy? she asked. The simpler the message, the more clearly the spirit would understand.

Burning Swan’s mental impression was firm. Enemy.

His thoughts focused on Terkell.

Kerani wondered if she should take Swan to a Soulsmith. Maybe a drudge could figure out where his senses had gone wrong.

Terkell was harmless in every sense of the word. Not only had she once wept when she accidentally shut the door on a lizard’s tail, but even if she did go mad and suddenly attack, she wouldn’t be much of an opponent.

Kerani wasn’t a fighter, but she had still been forged through years of hard work. Terkell was soft, frail, and much older.

The supervisor had one bound spirit of life and one of dreams, which she used to monitor and coordinate her workers. Kerani was in more danger from burning her skin on an overheated bolt.

Even so, she decided to play it cautious. Just in case. “Terkell…you haven’t had any strange dreams, have you?”

Only days ago, after the sky had turned black and the world had panicked, one-eyed leaves had drifted throughout the city and whispered reassurance. The voice of Emriss Silentborn, the Monarch, spoke to the citizens directly and told them they were safe. Protected.

Everyone Kerani knew had gotten the same message. Probably everyone on the continent had.

But the Monarch had left a warning as well: to remain on guard in their dreams. If they met a stranger there who asked to enter their minds, they should deny him.

That had been strange, of course, but it was the warning of a Monarch.

Terkell gasped when Kerani asked about her dreams. “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! I have had the best sleep of my life lately. I have this tea that you drink before bed, and Emriss take my lips now if I know what they put into it, but the second I close my eyes I drift right off…”

She kept chattering, but she didn’t say anything about meeting a stranger in her sleep. Kerani didn’t hear anything wrong.

A wary voice came to her again. Look! Burning Swan commanded.

Kerani’s senses shifted somehow, in a strange direction that she didn’t have words for. She opened her Copper sight and looked at the world, but only a little. She extended her perception halfway too. This felt like Burning Swan had forcibly made her open an eye in her spirit halfway.

The sensation was hazy and frustrating, even uncomfortable, but after only a moment Kerani saw something. A glimmer of white light hovering behind Terkell’s head. Like a halo or, perhaps…

A crown.

Kerani’s breath died and for a moment she couldn’t even speak.

Then she bolted for the exit.

She took the metal stairs two at a time, leaving Terkell sputtering in confusion behind her. Kerani dashed down the metal catwalk, reaching out her perception for a script on the wall ahead of her.

The emergency alarm.

Kerani triggered it with a flow of madra as she flew out of the room, slamming the heavy door after her. She panted as she leaned against it. Through the thick glass of the round porthole at the center, she saw Terkell heaving her way up the stairs.

The enthusiastic energy that had filled the supervisor earlier had wilted, leaving a heavy weight of disappointment that hung visibly on her.

Her muffled voice came through the door. “Kerani, whyyyyy? This isn’t funny!”

Tears filled Kerani’s eyes. She didn’t quite know what to do.

She had heard the rumors of what happened to people wearing that crown. The legends, really. But Terkell seemed fine.

She didn’t know what to do, but that was all right. She didn’t have to know.

Security arrived a moment later, wearing thick tanks on their back and their limbs covered by the energy of their bound spirits. They strode up to Kerani as she stammered out her story.

“Terkell, she—my supervisor…crown! I saw it! My spirit warned me!”

Enemies, Burning Swan said.

And this time, Kerani heard the distinct tones of despair.

Dreading what she would see, she once again half-opened her spiritual senses as Swan had shown her.

Both guards had a faint white ring floating behind their heads.

She backed up against the wall as the alarm died and the door slid open. A panting Terkell made it through, turning to glare at Kerani.

“What has gotten into you? If you don’t want to have dinner with us, I’m not going to force you. Is it my cooking?”

Terkell still seemed normal, disturbingly so. Kerani glanced down the hallway toward the exit. She’d never make it, not with security here. You didn’t get to be a company guard by only getting mediocre grades in your arena classes.

Terkell knelt at her side and gave her a kindly smile. “Poor thing, so frightened! What do you think is going to happen to you?”

Kerani shivered and didn’t answer.

“Come on, then. Shoo, boys, leave her alone. Let’s talk in my office, sweet girl.”

Terkell led Kerani down the hallway, but at the first corner they rounded, Kerani shrieked.

There was a body lying in blood-soaked carpet. He wore a tank on his back and a security uniform, but without seeing his face, she didn’t recognize him.

The first guard strode over the body, the second stopped at the sound of her shriek, and Terkell turned with a frown.

She was standing with one foot casually braced on the man’s skull. “Are you still scared? You’re safe with me, Kerani, I swear.”