The Gates of Memory, стр. 107
But the emperor passed to the gate without incident. A slight mountain wind whispered its sorrow, but that was all. He had been one of the most powerful men in all of history, but when he died, the world took no notice.
Brandt allowed himself a moment to grieve. Then he stood and walked over to Regar’s body. He used the tip of his sword to cut away the prince’s shirt around his navel. There, just as the prince had once claimed, was a gatestone embedded in his skin. Brandt cut it out and held the bloody stone in his hand. He felt the power of it the moment he channeled even the slightest amount of his affinity into the stone. He looked up.
His body demanded rest. Just being near the prince and his father as they battled had been exhausting. He was certain that if he lay down and closed his eyes, he’d sleep on the burnt stone of the square for a full day.
But Ana was up there, and the queen was still in Faldun.
As much as he wanted to rest, this didn’t end with the death of the emperor.
It was a long hike to the gate, but that was where this ended.
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Alena pushed herself to hands and knees, fighting the nausea that made her stomach clench. Her body ached from the impact against the wall, but her true concern was her head. She struggled to focus her thoughts.
The bright light faded. The queen stood next to the gate, eyes closed, hand against the diamond of the weapon.
Alena didn’t know how long it took to control a gate. She couldn’t count on having much time. Soulwalking moved at the speed of thought, faster than the physical world. Anger wrestled with despair. The queen couldn’t have the gate, but Alena didn’t know how to stop her.
Alena channeled her will through her gatestone, desperate for any scrap of power she could acquire. She studied the room through a soulwalk, disappointed but not surprised to see a shield of pure force surrounding the queen, similar to the one her priest had created under Landow. Alena didn’t possess the strength to even crack that protection.
But she had to try.
She pushed against the bubble, then imagined herself attacking it with her father’s knife.
No matter how she struck at it, though, the bubble resisted every attempt she made. The queen mocked her through indifference.
Still soulwalking, Alena raged against the bubble. She stabbed and swung, over and over, screaming as she did.
Nothing.
She fell to her knees in the soulwalk, mirroring her posture in the physical world, her anger burned out.
All she could do was watch as the queen’s plans came to fruition.
Out of nowhere, a wave of power crashed over her, throwing her out of the soulwalk with physical force. Suddenly she was in her body again. Her head rushed toward the floor, but she got her hands in front of her in time to prevent a broken nose.
Bile rose in her throat, and stopping it was hopeless. She vomited on the floor, losing what little she’d eaten today. The stomach acid burned her throat and tongue.
Her heart pounded. What was happening?
The power didn’t stop. It filled every bone and muscle of her body. Her focus returned, sharpening details in the room. She felt every current of air in the room, heard the heartbeats of each of her friends.
To find answers, she dropped into a soulwalk. New connections had been anchored to her, strong threads that glowed with power. She followed those threads and found the gates at the other end.
For a long heartbeat, her mind was blank.
The emperor. When he had tied that weaving to her before they separated. Hanns had bequeathed his gates to her. She had control of both of the imperial gates. Why?
No answers came, but that didn’t change the facts.
She found her feet and clenched her fists.
Then she paused.
If she controlled the gates, Hanns was dead.
She grieved for his loss. They hadn’t agreed on much in his last days, but with the gift of these gates, Alena realized her arguments had hit closer to his heart than she expected. She wasn’t sure she could forgive him, but she understood him better than before.
Now that her choice had been taken away, a lightness settled over her heart. She would fight the queen, and they would see whose will was greater.
If the queen believed the only worthwhile rewards were gained through struggle, Alena would give her that struggle.
Alena looked down at her hands. She saw in two worlds. Both the physical and the soulwalk. She felt light and strong.
Alena studied the queen. The weaving she worked on the gate was more similar to Zolene’s careful threads than the rough lashings of the Anders. Even with the additional complexity, she looked to be nearly done.
Alena stepped up to the sphere of energy protecting the queen and laid her hand upon it.
It burned, but she did not flinch away. With a thought, the sphere shattered. With another thought, she blasted the unprepared queen across the room, using the same wind technique she’d just been the victim of a few moments ago.
The queen recovered before she hit the cave wall, using wind to slow herself. Her eyes were unfocused, uncertain.
Alena didn’t waste the moment of confusion. She didn’t believe she could win a fight in the physical world. Even with the power of the gates, she hadn’t trained the elemental affinities enough to challenge the likes of the queen.
But she could soulwalk better than anyone in the empire.
Alena dropped into the other world, connecting with the queen and dragging her along.
They appeared on the rooftops of Landow.
The queen had taught Alena one lesson she’d never forgotten in their first fight. In a soulwalk, it wasn’t physical skill that mattered. One was limited only by their imagination and will.
Here, it didn’t matter if she couldn’t throw a solid punch in the real world. If she could envision it here, she