The Assassin and the Empire

Page 13

And yet he was here, glowing like a beacon in the moonlight.
He was here.
And so was she.
She felt the warmth of the tears before she realized she was crying.
Then the unmistakable groan of bowstrings being pulled back.
The stag, her Lord of the North, her beacon, didn’t move.
“Run!” The hoarse scream erupted out of her. It shattered the silence.
The stag remained staring at her.
She banged on the side of the wagon. “Run, damn you!”
The stag turned and ran, a bolt of white light weaving through the trees.
The twang of bowstrings, the hiss of arrows—all missing their mark.
The guards cursed and the wagon shook as one of them struck it in frustration. Celaena backed away from the window, backed up, up, up, until she ran into the wall and collapsed to her knees.
The silence had gone. In its absence, she could feel the barking pain echo through her legs, and the ache of the injuries Farran’s men had given her, and the dull stinging of wrists and ankles rubbed raw by chains. And she could feel the endless hole where Sam had once been.
She was going to Endovier—she was to be a slave in the Salt Mines of Endovier.
Fear, ravenous and cold, dragged her under.
Beginning
Celaena Sardothien knew she was nearing the Salt Mines when, two weeks later, the trees of Oakwald gave way to gray, rough terrain, and she spotted jagged mountains against the sky. She’d been lying on the floor since dawn and had already vomited once. And now she couldn’t bring herself to stand up.
Sounds in the distance—shouting and the faint crack of a whip.
Endovier.
She wasn’t ready.
The light turned brighter as they left the trees behind. She was glad Sam wasn’t here to see her like this.
She let out a sob so violent she had to press her fist to her mouth to keep from being heard.
She’d never be ready for this, for Endovier and the world without Sam.
A breeze filled the wagon, lifting away the smells of the past two weeks. Her trembling paused for a heartbeat. She knew that breeze.
She knew the chill bite beneath it, knew the hint it carried of pine and snow, knew the mountains from which it hailed. A northern breeze, a breeze of Terrasen.
She must stand up.
Pine and snow and lazy, golden summers—a city of light and music in the shadow of the Staghorn Mountains. She must stand, or be broken before she even entered Endovier.
The wagon slowed, wheels bouncing over the rough path. A whip snapped.
“My name is Celaena Sardothien …,” she whispered onto the floor, but her lips shook hard enough to cut off the words.
Somewhere, someone started screaming. From the shift in the light, she knew they were nearing what had to be a giant wall.
“My name is Celaena Sardothien …,” she tried again. She gasped down uneven breaths.
The breeze grew into a wind, and she closed her eyes, letting it sweep away the ashes of that dead world—of that dead girl. And then there was nothing left except something new, something still glowing red from the forging.
Celaena opened her eyes.
She would go into Endovier. Go into Hell. And she would not crumble.
She braced her palms on the floor and slid her feet beneath her.
She had not stopped breathing yet, and she had endured Sam’s death and evaded the king’s execution. She would survive this.
Celaena stood, turning to the window and looking squarely at the mammoth stone wall rising up ahead of them.
She would tuck Sam into her heart, a bright light for her to take out whenever things were darkest. And then she would remember how it had felt to be loved, when the world had held nothing but possibility. No matter what they did to her, they could never take that away.
She would not break.
And someday … someday, even if it took her until her last breath, she’d find out who had done this to her. To Sam. Celaena wiped away her tears as the wagon entered the shade of the tunnel through the wall. Whips and screams and the clank of chains. She tensed, already taking in every detail she could.
But she squared her shoulders. Straightened her spine.
“My name is Celaena Sardothien,” she whispered, “and I will not be afraid.”
The wagon cleared the wall and stopped.
Celaena raised her head.
The wagon door was unlocked and thrown open, flooding the space with gray light. Guards reached for her, mere shadows against the brightness. She let them grab her, let them pull her from the wagon.
I will not be afraid.
Celaena Sardothien lifted her chin and walked into the Salt Mines of Endovier.