Prologue
She is riding through the Midlands as fast as she can. She knows that if she and her sister do not make it through the boundary before the D'Harans get to them, all hope will be lost. Arrows begin to fly by her head. She turns and looks to find the D'Harans are closer then she thought and now they are shooting arrows at them.
She hears a voice in the distance cry out, "Take them down."
More arrows fly around her narrowly missing her and her sister. She presses forward pushing her horse as fast as it can go.
"Emma!" She hears her sister shout. She ducks just in time as she watches an arrow fly in front of her. If her sister had not have shouted that arrow would have been in her skull.
She hears the clank of metal and turns to see a soldier thrusting his sword at her sister. She ducks and narrowly misses the swing. Emma grabs a knife from her boot and throws it at the soldier piercing him in the chest. He falls off of his horse behind them.
They keep riding a pushing forward. She hears shouting behind them and turns to see her sister leaning forward on her horse with an arrow sticking out of her back. Her sister is struggling to stay on the horse.
"Hold on, Elsa. Stay with me. We are almost there." Emma shouts at her sister.
The forest breaks in front of them and she can see the sand of the desert right before the boundary. She keeps pushing forward. They are almost there. She turns to see her sister is no longer riding beside her. She turns around to see Elsa has fallen off of her horse and is rolling down a dune. She stops and jumps off of her horse and runs down the dune after her sister.
She reaches her sister at the bottom of the dune where a small river runs between the dunes of sand. Her sister is struggling to breathe. Emma is whispering her name. Elsa places something in her hand.
"Take it." She says between struggling breaths. "Take the book. Find him. This is more important than me. You know that. Please, Emma."
A stray tear rolls down her cheek as she holds her sisters out of the water.
"May the spirits protect you, little sister," Emma says as the tears threaten to roll down her face.
"Emma" Elsa pleads.
She looks up to find the soldiers at the top of the dune.
"Go," Elsa says.
Emma takes one last look at her and leans down to kiss her sister's forehead. She gets up and starts to run towards the boundary as fast as she can. She does not look back but she knows the soldiers are not far behind her. She must get to the boundary before them, she keeps telling herself over and over. It is the only thing keeping her going.
She keeps running until she is stopped by an invisible force that pushes her back. A green light begins to show itself in front of her. She has reached the boundary. The soldiers stopped a few paces behind her when they saw she reached the boundary.
"You have reached the boundary, Confessor. There is nowhere left to run." One of them shouts.
She looks at them defiantly while pulling an orb on a silver chain containing a night wisp from the belt of her skirt.
"She's got magic!" She hears another one of them shout.
She turns back towards the boundary as wisp opens a small hole in the boundary. She runs through the boundary at full force. She does not know how long it will stay open or if the soldiers will follow her. She must make it through.