Four miles? We could have gotten there on foot.
I leaned back on the rock. “So what cunning story did you spin to get them to spare your lives? I’m sure it was an excellent one. You’re the master of deceit, after all.”
He studied me, his brown eyes as dark and deep as night. “No,” he said. “Not anymore. I think that title has fallen to you.”
I looked away. It was a title I would gladly embrace if it could get me what I needed. I stared at the firelight dancing across the steel of the sword, both edges equally sharp and gleaming. “I did what I had to do.”
“All those things you told me? Only what you had to do?”
I stood, the sword still in my hand. I wasn’t going to get wrangled down a path of guilt. “Who sent you, Kaden?” I demanded. “Why are you here? Was it Malich?”
A disgusted smirk twisted his lip.
“Say it,” I said.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, Lia, we were outnumbered that day on the terrace. We barely escaped with our lives. Faiwel died. So did the other guards who fought by our sides. Griz and I managed to fight our way down to a portal on the lowest level, and we sealed the door behind us. From there we hid in various abandoned passages for three days. When they couldn’t find us, they assumed we had escaped on another raft.”
“And just how would you know what they assumed? Or that there was a squad sent after us?”
“One of the passages we hid in was next to Sanctum Hall. We heard the Komizar shouting orders, one of which was to find you.”
My knees turned to water. I stared at Kaden, the cavern suddenly spinning with shadows. “But he’s dead.”
“He could be by now. He was weak, but Ulrix called for healers. They were caring for him.”
My legs gave way, and I dropped to the floor. I saw the Komizar’s eyes drilling into me, the dragon refusing to die.
“Lia,” Kaden whispered, “untie me. Please. It’s the only way I can help you.” He scooted closer, until our knees almost touched.
I tried to focus but instead I was smelling the salty blood that had spilled to the terrace, seeing the shine of Aster’s eyes, hearing the chants of the crowd, feeling the icy grip of the knife as I pulled it from its sheath, the day coming to life again, the disbelief that had swept over me, the seconds that changed everything, the Komizar crumpling to the ground, and my naïve hope swelling that it could really be over.
Words, dry as chalk, lay on my tongue. I swallowed, searching for saliva, and finally managed a hoarse whisper. “What happened to the others, Kaden? Calantha, Effiera, the servants?” I rattled off another half dozen names of those who had been sympathetic to me, those who had looked at me with hopeful eyes. They had expected something from me that I didn’t deliver. A promise they were still waiting for.
His brow furrowed. “Most likely dead. Clans who cheered your succession in the square suffered losses. It was a message. I don’t know the numbers, but at least a hundred were slaughtered. All of Aster’s clan, including Effiera.”
My thoughts whirled. “Yvet and Zekiah?” I asked, not sure if I really wanted to know the answer. “And Eben?”
“I don’t know.” But the tone of his voice held little hope. He glanced at my lap. The sword still lay across it.
Part of me wanted to untie him, to believe every word he had told me, that he was only here to help us escape, but Rafe’s story didn’t match Kaden’s. Rafe had seen the Komizar dead. He’d told Sven he’d seen the corpse dragged away.
The cavern shuddered with a sudden bellowing scream. I heard Sven curse and the shouts of the others trying to hold Griz down. The worried flutter of birds roosting high above us sent sandy debris raining down.
Kaden looked up as if something else might lurk in the dark floors above us. “Untie me, Lia. Before it’s too late. I promise you I’m not lying.”
I stood, dusting off my trousers, a familiar ache blooming in my chest. Venda always comes first. His long-ago words burned bright. If any words were true in Kaden’s heart, I knew it was those.
I lifted the sword and pressed its sharp edge to his neck. “You may have saved my life, Kaden, but you haven’t yet earned my trust. I care about all these men I am traveling with. I won’t have them harmed.”
His eyes smoldered with frustration. Things were different now. There was far more at stake than just my life and saving it. There was everyone I loved in Morrighan, everyone I cared about in Venda, every one of the men in this company I rode with—they were threaded into every thought and movement I made. They had to become part of his thoughts too. He had to care like I did. Venda couldn’t come first for him anymore. Even I couldn’t come first.
* * *
I lay curled in Rafe’s arms, exhaustion overtaking both of us. I had asked him again about the Komizar, telling him what Kaden said. He told me not to worry, that the Komizar was dead—but I saw his hesitation this time before he answered, the slack in his jaw, the barest stalled moment that told me what I needed to know. He was lying. He hadn’t seen the body dragged away. I wasn’t sure if I should be angry with him, or grateful. I knew he was only trying to calm my fears, but I didn’t want to be calmed. I wanted to be prepared. I didn’t push the point. Rest was more imperative to our survival. His eyes were lined with fatigue.
We were nestled in a dark nook of the ruin that afforded us only a small amount of privacy. A few fallen slabs separated us from the others and the glow of the firelight. Orrin had first watch. I could hear him pacing on the gravel floor just feet away. Maybe it was the rustling of birds somewhere high above us, or the distant howling of wolves that kept him on edge. Or the fact that the Assassin now slept among us. Maybe that was why none of us could sleep.
Only Griz seemed to find deep slumber, swept away into some dark dream-filled world. Tavish said if he made it through the night, he might have a chance. There was nothing more any of us could do.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
KADEN
Orrin’s pacing was driving me mad. It made it difficult to hear other noises. Things I should listen for. I rolled to my side, trying to reach the rope around my feet, but the knots were out of my reach. My shoulder ached from lying for hours in the same position.
For a moment, when I had told her about the Komizar, I’d thought Lia would untie me. I saw the struggle behind her eyes. I saw our connection rekindle. But then a wall came down. This was a harder Lia than I had known, fierce and unbending, but I knew what had been done to her, and the horrors she had witnessed.
How does it feel?
The rope dug into my wrists. Numbed my ankles.
Familiar, I had wanted to answer. Being a prisoner feels familiar.
It was all I had ever been. My past held on to me today as strongly as it had when I was a child, my choices still limited, my steps still shackled. My life had been patched together with lies from the day I was born.
How does it feel?
Old. I was tired of the lies.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The end was in sight. Just ahead, the foothills were stepping back, and the last of the ruins were melting into the earth. The majesty of the Ancients bowed yet again to time, which proved itself the ultimate victor. I was relieved to see the first glimpses of open grasslands up ahead, yellow with winter. The valley had twisted on far longer than I had anticipated, though some of the length may have had to do with the company I rode between. Even when sharp words weren’t bandied between Rafe and Kaden, I felt the blows of their dark glances.