Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series Read Free Page A

knew. The behest for light. “Àlaich las.”
    Her request granted, the wisp appeared, creating a soft glow around Eloryn’s hand and illuminating the girl across the tunnel. Her strangely trimmed hair, short, ragged and roughed up at the back and long at the front, was rich black and... pink? Could hair be pink? She cast her gaze over the girl’s face and its odd metal pins and gems, pierced through nose, lips, eyebrows, sparkling against obvious bruising. The injuries weren’t from their recent chase. The yellow swelling of the girl’s jaw and purple around her eye had matured a good few hours. The hand the girl pressed to her forehead had fought some battle, with grated knuckles and blood around her fingernails. She moved with stiffness and hesitation that told of other pain throughout her body.
    Worry nagged at Eloryn. Just moments out of his care and she already longed for Alward’s guidance. She remembered tumbling through the Veil, turning to wait for Alward to follow, and instead seeing this girl. Screaming. Shimmering in and out of existence.
    How, how could she possibly have appeared there, caught in the Veil like that? None of this makes sense. How could I begin to guess her motives? Eloryn pulled her shoulders up to her ears to fight off a chilling shiver. No, she’s no older than me, just a girl, scared and lost. And it’s my fault she’s here. At least I won’t be alone.
    Eloryn smiled at the girl and tried to keep her voice level. “We should keep moving, if you are well enough to.”
    The girl didn’t respond. She leant against the rough stones, half bent over, chanting under her breath. Eloryn listened closer, but the girl wasn’t using the language of a behest. Shaking violently, she willed herself over and over to wake up, to wake up from this horrible dream.
    “Let me help you.” Eloryn reached out but the girl shied away and edged farther along the rock wall.
    Her head flicked up. She glared at Eloryn with oddly familiar eyes rimmed in thick black that ran down her face in dried tears. “What have you done to me? Why can’t I remember anything? Not anything! Have you used some kind of… magic on me?”
    Eloryn backed away. Did you do this, did you bring me here? Was it magic of yours? She’d made similar accusations just moments ago. Now on the receiving end, they hurt.
    “It wasn’t me, I, I didn’t...” Eloryn said. “You don’t remember anything at all?”
    “No!” the girl snapped back. The sharp word echoed against the rocks around them.
    A deep growl answered from the darkness, reverberating like distant thunder. With a turn of her hand Eloryn shifted the light. They stood in a twisted crack of tunnel that opened into a large cavern. The rough ceiling hung with dry and broken stalactites, the floor scattered with their fallen remains like a rocky bone yard. Deep amid the shadows and gloom, she swore she saw movement.
    “We have to go,” said Eloryn. “We’re not safe here.”
    The girl made no effort to leave. She put her hands over her ears and sank further toward the ground.
    “Please!” said Eloryn.
    “I don’t even know my name,” the girl said, her words broken by a shiver.
    “I’ll give you a name,” Eloryn promised in desperation. She’d never had anything she needed to name. Things spoke with her as she could speak with them. They already had their own names. Only one thought came to her. “Memory. Your name is Memory.”
    The girl looked both horrified and amused. “You’re cruel.”
    “I’m sorry.” Eloryn tried to think of an alternative, but the girl – Memory – stood up.
    “No, it’s... it’s OK. It’s better than nothing.” Her voice still shook as much as her hands, which she wedged under her armpits, but the glaze of confusion had left her eyes.
    Eloryn nodded to Memory, then turned and took a tentative step forward, crunching twigs that had gathered at the mouth of the cave.
    The scattering of pebbles echoed back. Something