Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass, #6)

by Sarah J. Maas

Hafiza watched her for a long moment. “The day you walked into this room, so terribly thin and covered with the dust of a hundred roads … I had never sensed such a gift. I looked into those beautiful eyes of yours, and I nearly gasped at the uncut power in you.” Disappointment. It was disappointment on the Healer on High’s face, in her voice. “I thought to myself,” Hafiza went on, “Where has this young woman been hiding? What god reared you, guided you to my doorstep? Your dress was in tatters around your ankles, and yet you walked in, straight-backed as any noble lady. As if you were the heir to Kamala herself.” Until Yrene had dumped the money on the desk and fallen apart moments later. She doubted the very first Healer on High had ever done such a thing. “Even your family name: Towers. A hint at your foremothers’ long-ago association with the Torre, perhaps. I wondered in that moment if I had at last found my heir—my replacement.” Yrene felt the words like a blow to the gut. Hafiza had never so much as hinted … Stay, the Healer on High had offered. To not only continue the training, but to also take up the mantle now laid before her. But it had not been Yrene’s own ambition, to one day claim this room as her own. Not when her sights had always been set across the Narrow Sea. And even now … it was an honor beyond words, yes. But one that rang hollow. “I asked what you wanted to do with the knowledge I would give you,” Hafiza went on. “Do you remember what you said to me?...