She sighed heavily, her shoulders sinking. For a moment she had thought ... she had been given hope by his remark.
Once again she felt his comforting hand on hers.
"In your grief, Elishiba, you are forgetting one important thing, how vita
l and powerful your sorcery has become, nurtured as it is by the love you feel."
He seemed to be hinting at something.
"What are you saying?"
"I am suggesting that the gods favored Amshazar, and if he were here, the gods would be pleased. And if someone had the power to bring him here...” He glanced at her in that mischievous way of his.
"Bring him here,” she repeated.
Santor rested his fingers on his chin, thoughtfully. “How much do you desire it?"
She gave a breathless, frustrated sigh. “Santor, that is immeasurable. I would give my life for his."
"You do not need to do that. The fact you feel that way is, however, hopeful."
She flashed him a desperate glance, her heart beating hard. He bowed his head, but his merry smile did not escape her. She would get to the bottom of this riddle yet. “Why do I need to feel it?"
"The goddess who rules the higher emotions takes note of such things, and it is she who watches over you both."
"The Goddess Sevita?"
He smiled. “You might get accustomed to unraveling riddles yet, Empress."
She scrambled to her feet, sliding against the side of the dune as she moved to stand in front of him. “Santor!” Pleading beseechingly, she rolled her eyes. “If you have been observing me at all closely over the past few days—which I am sure you have, since you make such knowledgeable remarks—you will know by now that I am quite useless at solving riddles."
Santor stood, laughing heartily. “Believe in yourself, Empress,” he urged. “There is no harm in trying, after all, hmmm?"
"You really think I might be able to ... Is that why you said what you said in the temple, about there still being a chance for Amshazar? You mean now, don't you?"
He smiled. “I suggest that if you're going to create some sort of ... oh, fireball?” His eyebrows lifted suggestively. “You might perhaps do it in that direction, away from the spot where your friends are encamped."
Elishiba turned her attention to where he gestured, looking out at the expansive desert sand and the golden globe of the sun sinking on the horizon. Shimmering, it blazed across the sand.
Bring him back? I surely want that.
Could she really do it, though? If the gods had decreed it so, and she wanted it, what was stopping her, only fear that it would not work? She wouldn't let that happen. The back of her eyes pricked with tears, but she wouldn't let doubt cloud her vision, not this time. She stepped away from Santor.
He didn't follow. They both knew he didn't need to, not this time. Back in the temple of Hurda she hadn't been so sure. Now, she was. If it was possible, she would make it happen, because there was nothing she wanted more in the world than to have him in her arms again.
In her heart, she had everything he had given her, everything he had made her feel, and everything he taught her. She would use it all—she would give it all. She took a deep breath, her headdress falling back from her head as she lifted her face to the heavens. “Amshazar, I love you with all my heart,” she whispered.
Lifting her arms slowly to the sun, she summoned everything she had within, the immense love she had for him, the desire, the desperate need to be with him for longer than they already had.
The power grew in her chest, rolling into a ball of fire that burned and flamed within. She recalled the first time, how it had grown and thrived between them in Suzin. She held onto it for as long as she could, until it threatened to burst through the wall of her chest, then she opened her hands. Her body jolted, her palms blazing sheer white light into the path of the sun. It reached as high as the sky on either side of her, creating a channel of light. She pictured him there, willing it.
In the distance, she heard the concerned voices of her companions as they ran closer to see what was happening. She heard Yoshi call out that Amshazar's body was gone from the palanquin it was being transported in, and certainty flooded her. Nothing could distract her now, because this was everything to her.
Her energy fed into the sun and it flared and bled into the horizon, creating a shimmering path of pure white light across the sand. The light whorled in on itself to an eye at its center, and she recognized it as a conduit between her and the sun. Her arms were shaking with effort, her body hot and glowing.
"Amshazar,” she cried, calling out to him, remembering her strange dream and willing herself to complete the image and reach out to him without failure. “Amshazar. Hear me. Feel me. Find me!"
Her voice rang out over the land, echoing through the sky and across time, louder than thunder, fiercer than lightning. The sun's rays radiated further than ever before, shimmering out across the sky and filling her vision. She fought to remain focused on its heart, battling with the sheer force of her own vitality. And then she saw a dark shape forming there in the heart of the light. Her body jolted, a massive tug snatching at her, pulling her bodily across the sand.