Her gaze left his to look down at the collar, knowing full well he could easily overtake her and place the collar around her neck in a single breath. Unlike her first collar, this one would be her choice. He had placed the safety of his soldiers, and possibly the lives of those who lived in the red city of Carn, into her hands.
The collar’s silver circle was thinner than her original collar, its circular clasp at the back which held the starstone, smaller. It lay unlatched and open in his hand, but even at that distance, she could feel the starstone’s pulsating buzz. It brought with it unwanted memories of her life before the wind had followed her from the forest, from a time before Athan and Jenny and the people of Lee’s Mill. From a time when she had held no magic, had been trapped in a tower, kept from the world, and kept safe.
She reached for the collar.
The wind howled. Men raised their arms up to shield their eyes. Some lashed out at it with their swords. Commander Aldric remained unmoving, the collar held within his open palm.
“Stop,” she called to the wind as her hand hovered over the collar. “Please! He means only to help!”
The wind pushed between them, strong enough to make even Aldric lean slightly to the side. The metal collar trembled in his palm, threatening to be blown away. One soldier in the circle lost his footing and fell onto his back.
“Don’t hurt them!” Dnara shielded her own eyes as the wind swept through her hair and tried pulling her away from Aldric.
Her eyes looked to the soldiers as they tried to remain in place, fighting an enemy without flesh nor form. Some shouted, others swung their swords madly to bat away debris. Torches sputtered and many fizzled to smoke. The wind roared like the beast and Dnara covered her ears as the sound shook both her heart and the ground beneath her bare feet.
It was all madness, and she wanted it all to end.
Centering the maelstrom, Aldric kept his gaze on her, pleading with her to accept the choice offered. She met his eyes and felt her soul anchored by his resolve. Her fingers touched the cold metal and stars blinded her vision.
Dnara floated on the endless black sea. Before her lay three paths, outlined by the stars. On one path, she accepted the collar and Aldric’s promise. On another, she turned the collar down but followed his men into Carn. On the third path, she walked alone. Each of these paths flowed outward through time, crisscrossing and overlapping in places and greatly diverging in others. Ghostly images appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye, too many to make sense of them all, but too few to deny the incomplete stories they told.
Going alone meant death. Refusing the collar meant the death of Aldric’s men, with her own survival uncertain. The only path that led safely to Carn, drawn like a paved road through the stars, was the one in which she wore a collar around her neck. The images from this path were hazier than the others, as if trapped within a thick fog, but she could see within the great hall of the Red Keep a carved dragon throne of white Elvan hartwood and a young man seated upon it, a golden crown of rubies and sapphires adorning his head.
Her fingers curled around the collar.
A flash of gold flew through her hair next to her ear with whispers carried on the wind. This new path joined the others in the sky above the black sea and drew a straight line to Carn, without ending in death and with imagery the clearest of them all. What she saw emblazoned in the stars terrified her.
There, she stood alone but unthreatened, head held high with the wind in her hair, fire from her palm and shadows following in her wake. In this path, all who came before her with sword or spell crumpled to their knees, mouths and eyes agape in the agony of death. A crown of sapphires fell from the stars to circle her head, and behind her the dragon roared. With undaunted footsteps, her fearless visage carved a clear path to Carn and came before the king of the Red City. The young king arose from his throne with a deeply set scowl and ordered Aldric to stop her. A loyal soldier to the last, the commander followed his king’s order and fell to cinders and ash at Dnara’s feet. The last haunting wide-eyed question of ‘why?’ etched in Aldric’s gaze as he fell would be forever seared onto Dnara’s heart.
No, she thought, even as the wind urged her onto this assured path. On this path, none would threaten her. On this path, she would be safe and reach Carn to discover the truth of Ishkar’s words. On this path, she would be free from the collar and all she feared, but at what cost?
“A cost too great,” she whispered as her mind resurfaced into the windswept clearing where soldiers yelled and Aldric waited with collar in hand.
The wind blew with gale force, lifting the collar from Aldric’s palm. Dnara snatch it from the air and snapped it around her neck. All at once, the wind died. Leaves floated down to the forest floor like softly drifting snowflakes. The men stopped their flailing and gazed around in hushed uncertainty. No ashbird called, no tree branch moved and stillness sheltered the clearing.
The collar around Dnara’s neck buzzed with an unfamiliar tone. It grated on her mind and made her dizzy. Every muscle in her body constricted so tightly her bones ached. A breath became a gasp. Fog entered her vision, and she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness. Dnara realized
