44. Chapter 44
Chapter forty-four
A hand brushed his hair from his forehead.
Cyrus knew her touch before he even opened his eyes. As he blinked back the blur of grogginess, he found Essandra’s worried eyes looking back at him.
She squeezed his arm. “There you are,” she whispered.
Sunlight spilled through the window. Cyrus pushed himself up and looked around. He was in his chamber, in his bed.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I was hoping you would tell me,” she said. “One moment, you were sitting in the garden, the next you were bleeding everywhere and blacking out.”
And it all came rushing back. Norah. He rubbed his head where an ache pulsed heavily in his temples.
“Kord carried you back.”
He snapped his head up. “Kord?” They hadn’t spoken since their argument.
“He’s been by to check on you every so often. And Everan. And the others. They’re worried, although I’ve been trying to reassure them you’ve just overexerted yourself.” Her face grew more serious. “You did just overexert yourself, right?”
“What do you think I did?”
“Cyrus.” She clutched him nervously.
As tempting as it was to mess with her, he wasn’t in the jesting spirit. “Her grandmother passed away,” he told her. “It’s why she hasn’t used the blood. They’d parted on bad terms, and she was devastated.”
“Oh,” she said softly.
“I wanted to give her the gift of a goodbye, of seeing her one last time.”
“Like you did for me.”
He nodded.
Essandra let out a small breath of relief, closing her eyes briefly. “I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sad for her.” She clasped his hand. “But I’m glad it wasn’t something more serious. I racked my mind for what you could’ve done. We’ve all been holding our breaths.”
“Did you think I’d launched some kind of attack? Started a war?”
“We thought that was the most likely scenario,” she confessed, although her lips held a smile now.
He couldn’t help a smile himself. “How would I have done that?”
She shook her head. “I was coming up with all kinds of weird things in my mind.”
“Tell me these weird things, so I can try them.”
She laughed. “Absolutely not.” Then she quieted and grew serious again. “I’m glad you’re all right.”
He put his hand over hers. “I’m all right.” He glanced around again. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Three days.”
He jerked. “Three days?”
“You clearly needed it.”
“What if she tried to call me back?”
“Then she’ll call you again.”
He hoped so. Norah had known something was wrong with him. She’d call again.
A knock sounded, and his chamber door opened. Kord stood in the doorway. His brows shifted up when he saw Cyrus. “You’re awake.” He stepped inside.
Essandra squeezed Cyrus’s arm. “I have some things I have to see to. I’ll be back later.” She stood and gave Kord a small smile, then slipped out of the room.
Kord stood, looking at him warily.
“Checking to see if I’ve done something stupid?” Cyrus asked him.
Kord snorted. “Checking to see if you’re all right. And yes, if you’ve done something stupid.”
Cyrus swung his legs over the edge of the bed but stayed sitting. His whole body ached. He waved to the chair by the bed. “Please.”
Kord moved to the chair and slowly lowered himself into it.
“I gave Norah a gift,” Cyrus told him. “Probably almost killed myself in the process. It needed a lot of power, but everything is fine. I’m fine. She’s fine. The Shadow King is… fine. Unfortunately.”
Kord’s shoulders relaxed. His head dropped with a nod as he rested his weight forward. “Good.”
“I did do something stupid, though. When you and I last spoke.”
Kord’s eyes darted back up and locked with his.
“I’m sorry,” Cyrus said. “When you told me about Leti, what I should have said is—I’m happy for you. If a child is what you want, I want that for you. I want a life for you. The gods know you deserve it. You’ve been one of my most loyal friends. My brother. I want you to be happy.”
Kord’s eyes welled. “Thank you for saying that,” he whispered.
A quiet sat between them, but the air was lighter now.
“Will you eat breakfast with me?” Cyrus asked.
Kord snorted. “It’s midday.”
He smiled. “Midday meal, then. I’m starved.”
Kord smiled back.
Having washed and eaten, Cyrus finally felt like he’d rejoined the land of the living. The ache in his head had subsided, although his body still protested each movement. He was getting soft not fighting in the arena anymore. Or maybe just old.
He took the main hall outside and strode through the courtyard.
He wanted to check on how everyone who’d escaped from Pryam was faring.
They’d been temporarily set up in the army barracks, although many had already been placed in more suitable long-term accommodations.
Most of them had been refugees that Cyrus had sent from Rael to begin with, but there were also some Pryamese who’d been loyal to Miriel.
Everan joined him as he walked, holding out a letter.
Cyrus didn’t need to look to guess who it was from. “Gregor?”
“Yes.”
Cyrus snorted and kept walking.
“Are you not going to read it?” Everan asked.
“You can.”
“I already have.”
“Good.”
Everan stopped. “Do you not want to know what it says?”
No. Cyrus sighed. “What does it say?”
“Phillip has moved his forces to Eilor.”
Eilor. That was the southernmost kingdom of the Aleon Empire—closest to Japheth. Closest to Gregor. Of course Gregor was nervous. But this wasn’t new news.
“Isn’t that exactly what his last letter said?” he asked.
“It was just Aleon’s forces before. Now Phillip has gone himself. He’s there—in Eilor.”
So, the king of Aleon was positioning himself for a move against Japheth. Or he could be anticipating Cyrus again. Phillip was now in a position to come with full force if Cyrus marched his army from Japheth to the Shadowlands. Perhaps it was for both reasons.
“Gregor urges us to move against Aleon before the Shadowlands and Mercia can join him,” Everan said.
Of course he did.
Everan folded the letter back. “What are you going to do?”
Cyrus shrugged. “Nothing. I have no intention of marching against Aleon.”
“Then what will you say to Gregor?”
Cyrus paused, then shrugged again. “Nothing.”
Then came the pull in his mind. Norah.
“You can’t just say nothing—”
“I have to go,” Cyrus said, and abruptly turned back toward the palace.
“Cyrus,” Everan called after him.
He waved him off. “I’ll find you later.”
As soon as he reached his study, he sank to his knees, closing his eyes, and let his head drop as his mind traveled to where it was called.
Norah sat in the stairwell. They really needed to stop meeting here—such an unpleasant place.
“ I was worried for you ,” she said, surprising him. He didn’t think she knew he was there yet. Perhaps he was getting sloppy with his entrances.
He showed himself in front of her and lit the tunnel around them. Even more surprising—“ You were worried? ”
Her brows drew together. “ Of course. Two times I called you and you didn’t come. I thought something might have happened. ”
A smile tugged at his lips. She’d been worried about him. “ My last visit pulled a lot of strength ,” he explained. “ My healer can only repair the flesh, so I had to recover the old-fashioned way—sleep. ”
She smiled. “ Thank you ,” she said softly, understanding his gift came at a cost.
He nodded. He was happy to have given it to her.
“ What happened to you? ” she asked.
“ Walk with me ,” he said. He offered her his arm, as he had the last time he’d seen her, which she’d responded well to.
She slipped her arm underneath his, and they started down the tunnel. This fucking tunnel. He pushed it away and brought forward the cliffs overlooking the sea. He loved this place in Rael.
“ How did you show me my grandmother like that? ” she asked. “ That wasn’t a memory, or a vision. I know it wasn’t real, but how could I feel her warmth? ”
He smiled. “ Don’t break the magic. ”
“ But it was difficult for you. ”
“ It’s the most difficult. More than anything else. As I said, it’s the seemingly smallest of things. ”
“ Well, thank you ,” she said again. “ For that. ”
He felt her eyes on him as they walked.
“ You’re a very powerful traveler, aren’t you? ” she asked.
“ I suppose. ” He never really felt powerful.
“ Are those staves on your neck? ”
He paused. “ How do you know about staves? ” Hardly anyone aside from Essandra knew anything about seers at all.
“ All travelers use them. ”
All travelers? He stared at her.
“ Are they staves? ” she asked again.
Slowly, he nodded. What else did she know?
“ Can I see them? ” she asked, pushing herself up on her toes as her eyes dropped to the markings on his neck.
She wanted to see his markings? Her face held a deep curiosity. He knew she had no ill intention, and what harm was there in her seeing them?
There wasn’t.
He reached back between his shoulders and pulled his tunic over his head. More markings covered his lower back and legs, and he stripped down to his braies.
Her eyes widened. “ Oh… uh… I didn’t mean— ”
Pink flushed her cheeks, but he wasn’t quite sure why. She’d asked to see them, and he wasn’t naked. He’d worn less than this when he’d fought in the arena.
But she quieted when her eyes landed on the markings.
They were impressive, he knew. Essandra had given him more than protection—she’d given him art. He held his arms open, letting her study him. Then he turned and showed her his back. He didn’t mind showing them off, especially after what he’d had to endure to get them.
She stepped closer, her eyes large and her lips parted. No one cared about the markings back in Rael. He was almost happy someone appreciated them now. She reached out her hand toward his skin but then stopped herself.
“ You can touch them ,” he said. They wouldn’t… burn her… or whatever she feared they might do.
But she didn’t touch them.
“ What do you know of staves? ” he asked her.