“What are you doing here?” she asked, her approach slow, cautious. We all thought you lost or dead—not that it much matters at this point, considering Thordin. Perhaps he’s not the only one.
“I could ask the same of you.” His eyes gleamed like deep water. “Are they yours, the ones who dwell here?”
Leinth quirked a brow. “Do you truly think me capable of such a thing? No. They’re not mine. They simply suffer me to live among them.”
Leviathan nodded slowly, stepping away from the line of his ghostly followers to stop a few feet away from her. They stared at each other across a patch of bare ground, wary as cats in unfamiliar territory. “It didn’t feel like your power anyway.”
“My power?” she echoed. Her stomach dropped. What’s he on about?
“Mm. I’ve slumbered beneath the waters to the west. I felt the earth move, and still I slept. The water rose and I was content. It grew cold, but all was still well enough, because the waters were alive even despite the chill. I continued to rest at peace. And then I felt something.” Leviathan tilted his head to one side. “The spirits grew restless and the power that lives beneath the waters stirred. It woke the powers, and so I to awoke.”
“So you came here?”
“I can feel the power here,” Leviathan said simply. “Are you going to tell me that you know nothing of any of this?”
“There’s power here,” Leinth admitted. “Even a fool can tell.” Her gaze drifted toward the army of ghosts at his back. “Why do you bring them, Leviathan? Have you come for a fight?”
“I pray not,” he said, his voice heavy with regret. “But if a fight there must be, then I intend to emerge victorious.”
