Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
EVIE
“ I thought the Clan Council forbade unsanctioned wars,” I muttered as Adara and I rushed down Phoenix Peak’s main road.
It was deserted as always, but no longer silent. Cheers and roars boomed from up ahead.
All the warriors had been called into the citadel’s Arena, for the grand ritual the Blood Brotherhood army did before each big battle.
Since I’d become a member of the royal family, I was not only expected to attend in all my pretend glory, but participate in the ceremony.
More garlands of flowers, this time blood-red, hung from the eaves of each house we passed, and golden candles lit up the temple steps.
To guard the Clan’s warriors and draw out the enemy’s blood.
The sound of my swishing golden silks melted into the cacophony. Leesa had done a fine job making me look like a member of the royal family. Calling myself future queen felt hollow now, like any lie did.
“They’ll all see your potential,” she’d kept chanting to herself as she’d braided my hair. “They will.”
What potential? I’d wanted to roar. But Leesa wasn’t to blame for this mess.
I was.
And he was.
I couldn’t even look at the leather armor anymore, let alone touch it. It had his blood in it. Meant to protect me, he’d said.
Lies.
But I wasn’t going out in public in a Clan that valued power above all else without donning some kind of shield. If that shield needed to be made from silk and that hideous crown, so be it. Grandpa Constantine–may his bones be cradled gently by the gods of the earth–had taught us to look the part of the Vegheara First Family.
“The Council can’t sanction something it pretends to ignore,” Adara growled. She had polished and glistened her daggers to shiny perfection and worn her best boots for the day. This ritual was serious . “As far as it’s concerned, this is just a tiff between Clans.”
“The Serpent army infiltrated our border.”
They’d obliterated a large chunk of it, big enough that all their soldiers and snakes could pass through. This wasn’t like the time some of their soldiers had weaseled their way into the Capital aboard stolen ships.
This was an official attack.
“The Council doesn’t care which Clans they have to rule and sanction as long as the war doesn’t spread. Either the Blood Brotherhood perishes or the Serpents do, nobody on that Council cares which one, as long as the tension is contained. And those dimwits they call Sages we sent to negotiate did nothing to stop this.”
“There’s something rotten about all of this.”
“There is. Hopefully Soryn can sort out this fucking mess.” Adara watched me from the corner of her eye. “Are you ready?”
Hearing Adara cuss was so jarring, it took me a moment to reply. “I have to be, don’t I?”
Whether I liked it or not, this Clan’s fate was now intertwined with that of the Protectorate and my cousins were prime targets.
If the Blood Brotherhood was going to war, I had to do something .
“You do,” she said.
“Then why ask?”
“To distract you. You’re dragging your feet.”
“Can you blame me? I have to face the bastard, and then see him with Kaya in front of the entire Clan–”
“Kaya isn’t coming to the ritual.”
I almost skipped a step. “Why?”
Adara shot me a half-smile. “Only those who have proven themselves in battle are allowed inside the Arena. Fighters. Warriors. You’re the one who dropped a bell on our attackers and scorched them. You are the one they call Blue Queen.”
I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but only a whizz of surprise came out. I was barely standing upright. I was no warrior.
“And the queen insisted you come,” Adara went on, shocking me again.
“Why?”
Adara shrugged. “Even when I was the general, the queen’s thoughts and decisions weren’t mine to know.”
General. She said it so casually, as if she hadn’t led the Blood Brotherhood army, one of the most feared in all of Malhaven. Adara was as godlike as a mortal could get. “Why’d you leave the Clan?”
Instead of answering, Adara picked up her pace.
I followed.
“Even in this robe, you can’t outrun me.” She could, most definitely, but that was beside the point. “Trust goes both ways, Adara.”
Adara didn’t slow her pace. The seconds ticked by, punctured only by our harsh breaths, before she finally replied, “I didn’t believe anymore.”
“In what?”
“In my oath. I swore to protect this Clan, the royal family, and our ways. I watched so many give their lives for that same cause. Then I had to watch Banu and Valuta walk all over those principles of fairness, making a mockery of our traditions. The king and queen didn’t stop them. The Dragon was too young to do it. I had a choice to make. Either I left the Clan or I’d kill the advisors and bring chaos. I chose to only ruin myself.”
I let the silence wash away the tension which had settled between Adara’s shoulders. Only when her fists unclenched did I go on. “Do you regret leaving?”
“I regret leaving without killing them.”
“Are they so untouchable?”
“The Dragon doesn’t think so.”
I clenched my jaw. Why was everyone so intent on bringing him up all the time? “I want to know what you think.”
“Same as him. Their reputation needs to be destroyed first. Like sucking venom out of a snake bite before the wound can heal.”
My hand grazed my leg through the silk, where that razorback snake had sunk its fangs in my flesh. That pain had almost killed me. Now, it seemed nothing– nothing –compared to the ache inside me.
But I kept walking, even as every fiber of my being screamed at me to turn back and hide in my house until I felt alive again.
The same house that had been infiltrated while I’d been gone– kidnapped, Vegheara; you were kidnapped –and we’d lost the Quorilith scrolls and their sacred information.
It would not happen again–not infiltrating my home and, sadly, not hiding more scrolls.
As we passed the famed Phoenix Peak library in all its menacing splendor, I counted at least twenty guards, their spears and shields darkening the entrance. Among their sharp helmets, I spotted Owyn’s eyes flashing toward us for the briefest moment. Neither he nor I gave any indication we were anything other than passing strangers. Which we kind of were. He’d let me inside the library in what seemed like a lifetime ago, I’d sent an anonymous delivery of medicine for his daughter, nothing more.
Even if the advisors hadn’t crowded the entry with a small army, it would have been pointless to try and sneak in again. Goose had told me he’d seen crates upon crates of scrolls and books being evacuated from the library exactly one day after my wedding, while we’d all been reeling from the shock of it.
Banu and Valuta were onto me.
I clenched my jaw as the palace’s shadow engulfed our path. His tower was on the other side, mercifully out of view. Did he sleep there now that he wasn’t welcome in my bed or had he moved into Kaya’s? Or had she deigned to walk up the hundreds of steps and lavish in that gorgeous bed of his, with the engraved wood panels?
That grim thought was too much to bear and I swatted it out of my mind.
This was not the time to feel small and forgotten.
A ritual awaited me.
A blood ritual–and he would be there.