“Pelageya knows what she speaks of.” His mother was speaking quickly, her voice low. She knew whatever they said would return to the king. She cast a suspicious glance toward where the wall met the ceiling, the likeliest of locations for eavesdropping spells. “I can’t help you, Serefin, you know that.”
Serefin felt cold. “What has he done?”
Klarysa shook her head. There was fear in her eyes.
She can’t tell me, he realized. If she tells me, he’ll kill her, too. What did she know that he had yet to figure out?
“Give me something,” he pleaded.
“Your father has always been a monster,” she said. “But at least he had his own mind, his decisions were his own.” She shook her head. “I fear he too has been taken by the Vultures.”
She fell silent, but Serefin didn’t need any more to put the pieces together. The Vultures had gone from their own agendas to whispering in the king’s ear. The whispering had gone from suggestions to puppet strings.
It was altogether likely there was discord amongst the Vultures as well. That the Crimson Vulture was working apart from her own king, the Black Vulture. But who was holding the strings?
Serefin still had no answers.
18
NADEZHDA
LAPTEVA
Vaclav is rarely seen, rarely heard, and rarely worshiped. Dark forests and darker monsters heed his calls. His lands are vast and ancient and deadly and he is not kind. Truth is never kind.
—Codex of the Divine, 23:86
Nadya was the most surprised of everyone when her plan to get them across the border worked.
“Where’s your company, son?” The Tranavian who confronted them looked older than Malachiasz, and thought by that principle he outranked him.
Malachiasz drew himself straight, his posture betraying the air of someone who was used to having authority. He flicked his hair away from where it was covering the pins on his jacket. Now Nadya was doubly certain she didn’t want to know what they meant.
“Lost most of them to mercenaries hiding in the mountains,” he said. “Lost the rest somewhere in between.”
The soldier frowned at Malachiasz, but when he spoke again the condescension was gone. “Who are they, then?”
Malachiasz glanced back at the group. “The Akolans are fleeing Kalyazin, a wise decision. The girl is…” He faltered, convincingly. “Well, you understand.” He winked at the soldier.
It took everything Nadya had to keep her expression schooled.
“I’ll need you to come with me,” the soldier said, giving Malachiasz a hard once-over. He pulled a second soldier over and ordered her to make sure the rest of them didn’t go anywhere.
Nadya felt her heart speed up as Malachiasz followed the Tranavian into a shoddily constructed cabin. She glanced at Parijahan, whose expression was drawn and wary. The minutes Malachiasz was gone stretched on seemingly endlessly, but the soldier guarding them just looked bored.
Eventually Malachiasz stepped out of the cabin, his face pale. The other soldier followed behind him and waved a hand to the girl guarding them.
“Let them through,” he said.
She looked like she was going to question him, but Malachiasz shot her a thin smile and tapped one of the pins on his jacket. He outranked her—he probably outranked everyone here—and she fell silent.
Malachiasz grabbed Nadya’s wrist and pulled her away from the camp. She let him, fully aware it was all part of the show but also that he was clearly enjoying it.
Neither of them had addressed what had passed between them in the clearing. She didn’t think they ever would. She just tried to ignore the stutter in her heart that was intrinsically tied to his hand around her wrist.
That initial danger behind them, now they had to make it to Grazyk before the real test began.
Tranavia was not what Nadya expected. There were lakes and rivers everywhere. They had to ferry across some, the boats run by haggard, elderly men and women, too old to fight at the front. But Tranavia was beautiful. The water clear and bright, studding the land like gemstones, untainted by the scourge of war that burned across the Kalyazi countryside.
On one of the many Tranavian boats they became acquainted with during the trip, Nadya leaned against the railing, gazing down into the water. Rashid was perched precariously at her side when Malachiasz came up next to her.
“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” he said.
“It is.”
He was quiet, staring out across the water. There was a fondness in his gaze she had never seen before.
“It hasn’t been particularly kind to me,” he said. “But Tranavia is home. It’s wild and vibrant and tenacious. Its people are bullheaded and innovative.” He glanced at her. “I’ll save it from destruction.”
It was something they had in common—though she felt a pang of guilt because her actions would lead to Tranavia’s fall. Her gods wanted it punished for its heresy and she would see that done. Even if it put her at odds with this strange, beautiful boy. But she could see he cared, deeply, the same way she cared for Kalyazin, and she could respect that.
He wordlessly unhooked the spell book from his hip and handed it to her.
She hesitantly took the thick, leather-bound book from him. She would have held it between two fingers, but it was too heavy for that. “What are you doing?”
“I can’t be seen with that, and you need to appear like a competent blood mage.”
She wanted to drop it in the water. She rested it against the railing, away from her body. He rolled his eyes, unhooked the belts that kept the book at his hip, and handed her those as well.
“I’ll have to tear through it without using the spells,” she said. While ruining a blood mage’s spell book had always been a private goal for her, she would have preferred it not be his.
He tapped his temple. “They’re my spells. I can rewrite them anytime.”
“Are you going to come into the palace with us?” Nadya asked.
Here was what they had not addressed: just what Malachiasz’s role would be once they reached the capital. He had dodged the question before in a way that made Nadya suspect he would simply disappear on their arrival.
“I will remain nearby,” he said. He frowned and it furrowed the tattoos at his forehead. “It would not be uncommon for a slavhka to travel with a blood mage acting as their guard. It won’t necessarily give me optimal reach of the palace, but I can certainly make do.”
Nadya pursed her lips. That was a sound part for him to play and she found she had no arguments. “You won’t get yourself caught by the Vultures?” She was still worried about what he had said about them not being able to act against their king’s orders, even if the magic on him had eased.
“Worrying about him is a rather pointless endeavor, I’ve found,” Rashid noted, nudging her with his elbow.
“You think I’m worried about him?” Nadya said flippantly.
Rashid shot her a disbelieving look. When she glanced at Malachiasz out of the corner of her eye, he was casually watching the water.
“I’m going to go see if Parijahan needs anything,” Rashid said. “We should be on the other side of this lake within the hour.”
Nadya wanted to pull him back, tell him not to leave her alone with Malachiasz, but Rashid was already gone.