A Soul Like Glass (Kingdom of Betrayal #4)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

W ithin minutes, we locate the remaining satchels that Gallium hid in the forest.

He left four packs here, and only one is missing. Assuming Asha and the Vandawolf were the ones who took it, I’m concerned that they didn’t take two, but I can only hope they had good reasons.

The satchels contain food, water flasks, some spare clothing, and fur pelts, which we’ll need to stay warm. Gallium deposits his toolbox into the pack he chooses, and I do the same, aware of the glance he throws me since his hammer is in my box.

“We have a choice now,” Thaden says, slipping the straps of one of the packs over his head and surprising me by not immediately commanding us to plow ahead. “We can evade the fae encampment by heading east, back along the mountain, and then turning south once we’ve cleared the location of their army. Or we can pass directly through the encampment—that is, go south first and then east along the mountain range there. That’s the quicker but more dangerous route.”

“More dangerous because of the fae?” I ask. “Because of passing through their encampment?”

“Yes,” he replies. “And then there is the danger of the blight in the east.”

“Which we’ll encounter either way?” I ask. “Given that we have to travel east for either option.”

He nods, continuing to study me with his bronzed eyes.

It suddenly feels as if he’s testing me.

As if the option I support will tell him something… But what?

“You would prefer the more dangerous option?” Gallium asks him.

“I think we can handle the danger,” Thaden replies swiftly. “I don’t like the delay in reaching Asha.”

I turn to face the south, even though I can no longer see the fae encampment from this location.

Thaden seems confident they won’t pose a threat to us and if I don’t support him, I’m worried it will be obvious I don’t want him to reach Asha to “help” her.

On the other hand, I’ve already shown him that I no longer care about her safety.

Or… if he thinks I’m acting out of hurt because I believe what I said about the darkness of her power… Is he trying to make me care about her?

My forehead creases as I peer back at him, aware that he has the ability to hear how fast or slow my heart beats.

It’s just as well that I learned to live a life of subterfuge. Humans taught me to hide my emotions, to blend in and disappear. For many years, Gallium and I even dyed our silver hair to brown, so we didn’t stand out. We both learned the value of being invisible and compartmentalizing our emotions to control our responses.

Where he stands, now behind Thaden, Gallium gives me a shake of his head, his green eyes conveying his worry. “It’s a choice between our safety or Asha’s.” He arches his brows at me. “I know which choice she’d make for us.”

“The safer path,” I murmur.

But which would I choose if I were really angry with her?

I tip my chin. “Then we take the so-called dangerous path. We go through the fae encampment.”

Thaden’s eyebrows rise. He looks genuinely surprised. “You would choose that path just to spite your sister?”

“No.” I turn the corners of my mouth down. “Because it’s the smarter path. I’ve spent the last two days in Queen Karasi’s pocket. She has showered me with gifts and treated me like some sort of pet. I don’t fear passing across land controlled by her army. And as for the rest of the journey, we don’t know what else lurks in these mountains. The wasteland around the Cursed City taught me that the environment is constantly changing. The longer we’re out in the open, the more dangerous it will be. So, to my estimation, going south first is safer.”

If the blight that exists in the east is anything like the Sunken Bog outside the Cursed City, then it’s far more dangerous than any fae.

By the way Queen Karasi described the blight that had taken over her lands, it’s far worse than the Bog. She showed the first signs of real emotion, true horror, when she spoke of it.

The longer we take traveling through it, the more dangerous it will be. Thaden is stronger than I am—and Gallium is stronger as well. I need to be smart in my decisions.

I can’t help Asha if I’m dead.

I tip my head at Thaden. “Why are we still standing here? I thought you wanted to move fast.”

His forehead creases as he peers at me for another moment. There’s a question in his voice. “I was certain you’d rather leave your sister to her fate.”

I press my lips together again. “Just because the best option for her is also the best option for me doesn’t mean I’m choosing it for her.”

He tilts his head, an acknowledging gesture. “Okay, then.”

Gallium points in the direction of the encampment. “Let’s at least pass on the eastern side of the camp. Going through the center would be foolhardy. I scoped out pathways leading from the castle yesterday. There’s a narrow pass farther along this way that circles behind the castle and then leads back down the mountain. It’s winding and dark, and I don’t think the fae use it, but by my calculations, it should let out on the eastern side of the fae camp.”

Gallium’s eyes meet mine as he passes me, already headed in that direction.

His fleeting smile tells me he trusts me.

My heartbeat calms again.

My brother has always been a source of strength for me. His unbending belief in my strength and intelligence has kept me alive even at times when I struggled to believe we could survive.

Not for the first time, I remember the way he looked up at Asha when we huddled behind Malak’s throne, waiting for the Vandawolf to come and end us.

I’ll fight beside you.

Gallium has lived his life to that creed.

I hoist my chosen pack over my shoulder and follow closely behind him, conscious of Thaden’s presence at my back.

The path through the forest behind the castle grows darker where the trees thicken and then even darker still when we reach the opening to a gently sloping corridor down the side of the mountain.

“This is it,” Gallium says, his voice hushed. “The way the dirt along the bottom is undisturbed tells me the fae don’t use this path. Probably because they don’t need to. They can ride their thunderbirds down to the plain.”

“Are you certain it lets out below and doesn’t come to a dead end somewhere?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “Not completely. But when I scouted for ways out of here, I didn’t see any other safe paths down this mountain.”

“How nice to have a thunderbird,” I murmur, knowing that we will need to keep an eye on both our path and the sky above us, since the birds can camouflage themselves against the night sky when they want to.

Thaden steps into the pass, studying the rock walls that curve up and over it. “I’m willing to take the chance. These walls are solid. They won’t collapse on us.”

Gallium and I follow, descending into the corridor. The farther we go, the higher the rock curves up and over us on both sides until only a slip of sky is visible above us.

The farther down we go, the darker it gets until Gallium dislodges stones with every step and whispers to me to watch where I walk.

It gives me an idea, an opening I can’t pass up.

A moment after Gallium’s warning, I allow myself to trip and stumble, making a lot of noise about it before I veer sharply to the side of the rocky corridor and press against it, my breathing unsteady.

Thaden is immediately at my side, and in the darkness of this cave-like corridor, the scent of dragon fire that radiates from his body is overwhelming. “Tamra?”

“It’s too dark,” I say, squinting at him in the gloom. “I don’t have your eyes.”

I’m too fucking helpless.

Or that’s what I want him to believe.

“You should get out your hammers,” he replies, faster than I thought he would. “Accessing your power will sharpen your eyesight, won’t it?”

As he speaks, I make out the turn of his head, but I can’t see exactly where he’s looking, only that his dragon scales seem to be catching the light right now, and his focus isn’t entirely on me.

“Good idea,” I whisper. “I don’t want to trip and break my neck. Gallium, do you agree?”

I wait for my brother to reply, his outline approaching me in the dark. He’d made it a few extra steps ahead of me when I tripped.

“Agreed,” he says. “We should carry our hammers into the fae encampment, too. Concealed under our clothing, of course. We don’t want it to look as if we’re about to attack them.”

I slide carefully to the ground, reaching for his arm before I drop my pack onto the ground between us and huddle over it. He places his pack beside mine, also huddling over, our heads nearly side by side as we retrieve our tools.

For the last ten years, we got very good at hiding the fact that we had access to our parents’ hammers and medallions. When I first picked up my mother’s hammer, I was terrified that her cruelty would have been imbued into the metal like Malak’s had been imbued into his hammer and medallions.

But the metal obeyed me, almost as if it had been relieved .

Its reaction to my touch made me wonder if the hammer might have originally belonged to my grandmother, since she’d fought against Malak when he’d first risen to power. From the little our mother had mentioned of her, I knew enough to recognize that she had been an incredibly powerful Blacksmith. It was only because our mother had betrayed her that she had been defeated and killed.

Within moments, Gallium’s copper hammer is in his right hand while my silver hammer is in mine. The copper hammer was our father’s and Gallium has struggled with it. Our father’s House was Copperstream, and the Blacksmiths of that House did not share the kind of compassion and hope that our grandmother had.

My eyesight immediately sharpens, and I’m aware of the luminous glow emanating from our skin. Gallium’s eyes are now alternating between shades of blue and green and even purple. The same way my own eyes must be shining with power.

Gallium and I both inherited our mother’s silver hair and took the name of her House, as was our peoples’ custom. Although we inherited our father’s pale-green eyes, the way our eye color changes when we have access to our power seems to be unique to us—and Asha. Her eyes do the same.

An impossible calm fills me. A control that I was barely clinging to before now comes easily.

I reach for my medallions next. Each toolbox contains three of them. They’re strips of metal about an inch wide and five inches long.

They can be transformed instantly into weapons. Our parents wore their medallions on their biceps or forearms or even as jewelry. But always, the medallions were in contact with their skin. Once we put the medallions away from our bodies, they become dormant.

To wake them, we must tap them with our hammers.

I do that softly now, listening to the gorgeous chime each one makes as it wakes up. Followed by the melody of Gallium’s medallions also waking up.

He positions his medallions onto his left forearm, one above the other, before rolling his sleeve back down.

I do the same.

Then we slip our hammers into the inner pockets of our fur coats. They’re a little lumpy, but it will have to do.

Of course, now we will both have to work hard to constrain and conceal the mental and physical strength that our tools give us.

My eyesight is enhanced, and so is my hearing. Along with the whisper of the breeze in the distance, I’m finally able to make out the sides of the corridor we’re passing through.

Now I can see what Thaden was looking at.

This is no ordinary path.