—

After dinner, Lord Elan told Lady Shirrad he wanted to retire to his rooms to rest. Jae followed him, anticipation and anger warring under her skin. She shut the door behind them, and for a moment, fear colored everything around her. Being alone with him in his chambers…

He tossed himself down onto his cushion and gestured to her to sit. She made herself as comfortable as she could on the flat bench of the windowsill. There was no breeze coming in, but she liked the feeling of the empty air behind her, and knowing that the garden and fountain were below.

“I want to find the Well,” Lord Elan said. “You said you can sense water. See if you can sense that.”

Jae nodded, resenting the order even as she shut her eyes. But the Curse started thrumming in the base of her skull—despite her immediately obeying the order. She’d had plenty of practice at ignoring pain, but the Curse shouldn’t have punished obedience.

When she opened her eyes, the world was glowing. It only took her a few moments to separate out the brighter shine that she knew was water. The cistern in the corner was lit like the sun. She stared at it until her stomach dropped and she was seeing double, until she adjusted and let her mind float above the estate. From there, she could see the jugs in the basement and the kitchen, and when she widened her gaze, she could see the reservoir.

“Are you doing something?” Elan demanded.

It sounded as if he were calling from far away. When Jae looked at him, she barely saw him at all, just a ghostly glow where he was sitting. Her stomach swooped again as she saw both with her eyes and with this other-vision. The Curse echoed in her mind, pulling her back and compelling her to answer. She snapped, “I was. I need to concentrate!”

If he was angry that she dared yell at him, she couldn’t tell. She couldn’t make out his expression like this, only the Curse in her head. Even that felt distant, like fingers tapping against her skull instead of its usual hammer.

A faint glow pulled her attention not to the reservoir itself but under it, to the aqueduct that connected the reservoir to the Well. The reservoir was bright with water, even if it had run low, but the aqueduct was barely damp. There were traces—Jae could feel the power that had once run through it—but the magic had faded almost entirely. No wonder the reservoir hadn’t filled, if the magic that called water to it was so dim.

There was still enough magic for her to follow with her mind. She let the remnants of power pull her out into the desert, where she saw almost nothing at all. There was a different kind of energy out here in the sand and in the few scraggly plants that held on despite the drought. There were even animals, foxes and reptiles and insects that looked like glowing specks.

Finally the trail she followed brightened, widened, and joined up with another trail—another aqueduct. It must have come from another estate, branching off from the main duct Jae was following toward the Well. If she followed it, she might be able to find the central cities, or at least another estate.

But instead of following the branch, she continued along the main duct, farther out in the desert. Away from civilization, toward the Well. It was easier to track now that there was more water, and she skimmed along it quickly, out of breath, as if she were running. Another branch joined up, and she knew she had to be close, with this much water. More water than she’d ever seen before, than she’d ever imagined existed—

Searing pain hit her.

She was used to the Curse feeling like a hammer to her skull, but this was more like something trying to pull her apart. She gasped, barely able to get a breath, and tried to pull away, but it gripped her, yanking, as if it wanted to pull her mind out of her body entirely. She toppled forward but couldn’t catch herself. The Curse still pulled, ripping her, tearing her apart, but there was something beyond it. She spread her hands on the floor, fingernails scraping stone as she grasped for something just out of reach—

The sense of whatever was near faded, her mind too awash with pain to latch on to whatever it had been.

The agony was too much. She gave up and let go of her other-vision, crashing back into her body. She was staring up at Lord Elan. Not a glowing imprint of him but his face, eyes dark and full of concern. He knelt next to her, a hand on her shoulder.

She recoiled reflexively, and the world kept spinning even after she’d gone still. She shut her eyes to it, heaved, and vomited. Some of the pain began to fade. Not much, not enough, but it dulled around the edges. She opened her eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the late-evening light.

“What happened?” Lord Elan asked.

The question set the Curse off, focused it into a throb at the base of her skull. At least that focus freed up the rest of her body. She panted, her chest still aching a little, and managed to say “I was following an aqueduct, looking for more water, but…the Curse, it…it was too much.”

She pushed herself up until she was sitting, facing away from the pool of vomit, and wiped her mouth with her hand. Elan screwed up his face and gestured to the cistern. “Take a drink— No, wait. You look like you’ll faint. Sit; I’ll get it.”

She dragged herself farther away from where she’d been sick, sure she’d be the one who’d have to clean it up, and sat against the wall. Elan dipped his mug into the cistern and carried it to her, pressed it into her hands. It was damp against her chapped skin, and she drank gratefully, reveling in how it cooled her throat and washed away the taste of vomit.

She caught her breath as the Curse’s throbbing tapered off. Elan’s face had gone red by the time she’d finished drinking and could breathe easily again. He didn’t say anything, just stared at the mug in her hand, and she realized slowly that the Highest probably never fetched their own water. They certainly didn’t serve it to other people—it was given to them as a gift, a sign of respect to the families who maintained order. This might have been the first time one of the Highest had ever fetched water for a Closest.

“Thank you,” she mumbled, pushing up to her feet slowly.

Elan nodded, then cleared his throat and demanded, “Tell me everything.”

Jae groped for an answer before the Curse could force one out of her. “I can sense water,” she explained. “I could feel where the aqueduct is buried. I followed it— It’s hard to explain— It was as if I was flying, but I could still see every detail. Smell everything, taste it. And then I reached some kind of barrier….”