Chapter 37
Ryker
“The healers were right.” Zandyr twisted his fingers above Geryll’s leg, eyes closed and brows furrowed from the effort.
Seeing him like this, it was easy to forget everyone else saw him as the Dragon first, and a human just like the rest of second.
If at all. “The wound isn’t natural. But the body’s absorbing whatever that weapon left behind. ”
I nodded and winked at Geryll, trying to calm him down. He’d been sitting still as a frightened statue since the Capital healers had left and Zandyr had come to check himself.
“You’ll be good as new in a few months,” Zandyr said.
“Th–thanks.” Geryll tried to smile, bless him, but it ended up just as a twitch.
I exhaled in relief. Thank the gods I’d brought him here. Leaving the nest of Solkar’s Reach, where everyone knew everyone else, would do wonders for expanding his peculiar social skills.
“You’re very welcome.” Zandyr rolled his wrist and fell back into his chair, spent.
“Hard to be powerful, isn’t it?” I asked with a grin.
His blood powers were spectacular–he’d obliterated the former Serpent general in a sea of guts and sinew–but too new, too raw. I remembered those first few months after the Calling, when even experimenting with tree sap drained and brought me to my knees on the forest floor.
Zandyr waved a tired hand. “I haven’t slept since the wedding.”
Which meant Evie was also walking around like a corpse. Despite what Allie thought, I truly wasn’t immune to her cousin’s plight. She’d been caught in the biggest whirlwind to shake Malhaven in generations, just like the rest of us, but she would remain alive–through any means necessary.
Did I agree with those means, decided long ago?
No.
But with the looming war, his personal problems weren’t exactly at the forefront of my mind.
My death was merely the unavoidable end–whether it would come sooner or later, us mortals didn’t have any say–and I’d decided long ago, before I became leader of Solkar’s Reach, that it wasn’t a thought I’d battle.
What I did wrestle with, though, was Allie being thousands of miles away.
It was in my blood to trust Solkar’s Reach and protect it, but the crater not allowing someone to leave was unheard of.
Even if the crater had tried to protect her before.
Though I knew she could handle herself.
I worried. Every waking moment. Every breath I expelled was tied to her. Every time I looked up at the stars, I wondered if she saw them, too, at that exact moment. She fluttered in every moment of silence I didn’t know what to do with.
So I fretted–and kept it hidden.
“You just wait until it’s your turn.” Zandyr pinched the bridge of his brows. “I need to get ready. We’re marching tomorrow.”
He didn’t move.
“Mrs. Thornbrew’s tea always helps,” Geryll quipped. “I’m sure she’ll be happy to share her recipe. I can ask Nadya through the palaver portal.”
“That’s a fine idea,” Zandyr said indulgently, even as the bags under his eyes dragged his whole face down. No tea would be able to fix the crack in his soul. “I’m willing to try anything at this point.”
“Other than revealing the truth,” I muttered.
Zandyr set his steel eyes on me. “Do you want me to die?”
“Judging by the state of you, that will happen anyway. Unless you make things right,” I said.
I worried about him, too.
“I’ll be fine,” he muttered.
I wanted to argue more, but that would have only drained him further. I looked out the window at the impossible greenery surrounding us.
I’d never trade my snowy hills for anything, but the thick, lush leaves and meaty flower petals sang to my basic instincts. The ones that sometimes craved a simpler, warmer life.
“That is not possible.” Zandyr rose in that princely way of his, not a hair out of place, not a wrinkle on his silk robes. He gave a long nod to Geryll. “Pleasure meeting you. I hope you’ll like your stay in our Capital.”
Geryll scrambled to sit up and bow, a task made infinitely harder by the loose shirt and pants he wore to stave off the southern heat.
“Don’t trouble yourself.” Zandyr gestured back at the seat. “You’ll have access to our full war archives and the Grand Library in the Citadel. The scribes know you’ll be shadowing them. Just don’t go further down than three levels.”
Geryll’s eyes widened. “Why not?”
“Protective measures,” Zandyr said diplomatically.
“The kind that can rip you apart,” I said. Sometimes, Geryll could be too curious for his own good.
He gulped. “Got it.”
“Fantastic.” Zandyr clapped his palms; even that boom lacked his usual fire. Then he looked at me, exhausted but undefeated. “We leave at dawn.”
I tightened my jaw. “At dawn.”
To a war neither of us wanted, but which we had to lead. Leave everything behind and throw ourselves in the way of deadly weapons and monsters which shouldn’t exist.
And we’d do it.
So that Geryll could read those archives in peace.
Nadya could drink her tea in the evenings without looking over her shoulder.
So that Allie didn’t have to face a rain of poisoned arrows ever again.
As soon as Zandyr left, Geryll turned back to his animated self; the one he rarely showed past the thick walls of the fortress.
“He’s so awesome,” he said, so amazed and wide-eyed, it would’ve pricked my pride if I’d been a lesser man.
But there was a reason they called me the Shadow. I didn’t need praise. I needed to do my duty in peace. But his excitement made something in me tighten.
“He is,” I said.
He ran a hand through his hair. “He’s much nicer than Nadya said he’d be.”
“She’s never met him.”
“She saw him when he came for the ritual. Said he walked funny and uptight. But he’s so strong. And the way he jumped off the wall in the Arena and riled up the warriors.” He sighed wistfully. “I want to be able to do that.”
I didn’t want to stop him from dreaming, but Zandyr was the Dragon for a reason. “Who knows what abilities you’ll discover in those ancient parchments.”
“Yeah,” he said, enthusiasm plummeting.
“What’s wrong?” I moved from the window.
He shrugged. “Nothing. Just thinking.”
With the way his brows furrowed, it couldn’t have been anything good.
“Best make the most out of today, the scribes will be waiting for you in front of the library tomorrow,” I said.
“After you leave at dawn,” he said.
“If anything happens–” I kneeled down beside his seat. “–you find Evie. She’ll help you–and she knows how to contact Allie.”
Geryll’s smile lacked his usual energy.
I told myself it was just nerves.
That this was the first time he’d be all alone in a city he didn’t know, but that he could talk to Nadya whenever he needed to, through the palaver portal.
That he’d been so excited to come and delve into the deepest war secrets of the Blood Brotherhood–and that he would be safe.
How wrong I was.