Chapter 31
CHAPTER
Saryn’s story began innocently enough. Many years before our Offering, his fate intertwined unwittingly with that of the southern king’s heir.
I had thought there could be no crueler destiny than that of mine and Varro’s bond; but the Gods must have been especially amused the day they wove Embry and Saryn’s star-crossed paths.
While he may have broken his vows to us, he had never exposed his true identity to his mate.
She had no idea of his role in the Imperi, nor of his magical talents.
But she did know he was a Northerner, and loved him despite that.
He described their relationship as simple and easy.
And, for a time, untainted by everything he hated about himself.
He had fooled himself into believing that peace between the two kingdoms meant another Offering may not be called, and he’d be free to pursue the bond.
The occasional smaller missions could easily be disguised as business obligations.
I was shocked anyone ever believed Saryn was a merchant of any kind to begin with.
He enjoyed a life filled with mundane normalcy—except for the fact that he was secretly courting a royal.
There was no reason to believe that her father, King Baelin, would ever allow her to marry a merchant, even a wealthy one.
While Saryn reveled in his secret trysts and the rare joy of having found his mate, there was dissent brewing within the royal family.
The ever-ambitious Zarif had allies that reached far beyond the walls of Nasallus.
One night, as Saryn secretly exited the grounds outside the castle walls, Zarif sought to add him to that list. He preyed on the weaknesses of others to recruit, and Zarif viewed love as the greatest weakness of all.
So began the makings of Saryn’s betrayal…
Zarif promised there would be an end to King Baelin’s reign, and that unless Saryn cooperated fully, that would include ending the entirety of Baelin’s bloodline.
The threat on Princess Embry’s life was a grave one, but he agreed to spare her, taking her prisoner instead, so long as Saryn agreed to serve the cause as his personal spy in the north.
As promised, when the Silent Eve came, Princess Embry was not slain with the rest of her family.
But the chain of events that would eventually call for the next Offering were already underway.
When Saryn explained that he must return to the North, it was not met with understanding.
His brand and oath required he return to Basdie to train us.
Zarif and Saryn’s meeting was not a pleasant one.
“A sacrifice. A show of personal commitment. You will be my eyes and ears now,” Saryn recalled Zarif’s cold words before he instructed him to cut out his own eye and place it in Zarif’s hand.
He winced as he recollected the memory. It echoed the heinous acts Trace was instructed to perform all across Caano and Damas.
A sadistic signature of the Hand of the King.
“If you do not return, I will take great pleasure in removing both eyes from your mate before moving on to other, more vital areas…” he’d threatened ominously.
Wounded, stripped of his dignity, and fearful for his mate’s life, Saryn swore to make progress in the North and bring news of it back to Artume.
If he did not bring back something of value, or not return at all, then his mate was as good as dead.
This brought us closer to the present. Zarif did not know the extent of Saryn’s gifts; he also did not know the Order to which he was now a traitor, and in the Hand’s eyes, Saryn was nothing more than a wealthy northern merchant.
So, he gave him the only information he had of value, something he wasn’t supposed to be aware of, but also something he had proof of—the moonstones.
The entire reason Zarif even discovered the possibility of moonstones in the Ledor Canyon was because Saryn shared with him the information he’d uncovered.
With a moonstone of his own to prove he wasn’t lying, he had demonstrated enough value to gain trust from the Hand.
But that would never be enough to free his mate.
Zarif would keep that leverage over Saryn for as long as possible, if not forever.
Suddenly, Trace was standing behind Saryn, whose legs and hands were still bound tightly to the chair. He held his dagger tightly against Saryn’s throat. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now; why I should listen to another word. If we don’t deliver you directly to Idris, we are all guilty!”
Trace had a point. Now that we were aware of Saryn’s treachery, anything other than handing him over or killing him ourselves would make us complicit.
Part of me feared what would unfold if Saryn went missing and Zarif found out.
What would happen to Embry, who was seemingly ignorant and innocent in all of this?
Her only mistake being sealing the bond with a member of a secret order from her enemy’s kingdom.
Briefly, it crossed my mind how sad it was that, despite being mates, she didn’t truly know the male who protected her with his life.
Other parts of me were beginning to boil over with memories of Saryn’s hypocritical ramblings about mates.
He, more than anyone, knew how high the costs really were.
I had vastly underestimated Saryn’s skill.
How does one conceal the truth of their own identity, even after the sealing of a bond?
The connection between Varro and I was so deep now it was almost intrinsic.
I was abruptly overcome by a realization: If Saryn had divulged information about the moonstones, if he was protecting Embry and secretly working for Zarif all along, then that meant…
I marched toward Saryn and lifted my own blade, hovering it directly above his heart. Trace looked at me in confusion, but didn’t speak, his own blade still at Saryn’s neck.
“You are the reason Nori is dead. Deny it! I dare you.”
If he was the person pulling all the strings, he had been moving chess pieces while the rest of us were merely tossing Bones and Stones. If that were the case, then he was the reason we lost her. He could have prevented this, but instead, he sent her into harm’s way.
Saryn had the audacity to stare at me with his remaining eye, his face and body covered in sweat from hours of interrogation. But I did not flinch. My blade trembled in eager anticipation as I fought the desire to plunge it deep into his heart and avenge our friend a second time.
“I have been protecting her, watching over her and Embry. It’s why Trace kept seeing me portal back and forth from the castle, shifted and in uniform; I had been patrolling the cells. But when we left for Ledor…” His words trailed off in regret.
He looked down at the ground, then back up to face me.
“When Zarif got word of what happened at the mines, he went mad, intent on sowing more discourse against the North because we had antagonized his plans.” Saryn paused.
“It could have been anyone,” he swore. “But he chose someone untouched. Defiling a sacred healer would be seen as a high crime. Peasants and local villagers mean very little to the royals, but a gifted healer…” I could hear the sadness and regret in his confession as my hand began to shake with anger.
“I’m sorry I was not there to protect her; I didn’t make it soon enough.
” He glanced around at the others. “I am sorry that I failed you all.”
A bitter and traitorous tear escaped the well of my eye as I took in the admission. He had been keeping watch on both Embry and Nori in the cells, but was required to escort me to the mines. And it was my actions at the mine that angered Zarif into taking such extreme measures.
Trace tightened his grip, holding the dagger flush against Saryn’s skin and drawing a line of blood. Varro flinched beside us.
“You’re a traitor, a liar, and you failed to put the mission above all.
You’re an oath breaker. And you deserve to die an oath breaker’s death.
” Trace’s words were icy as his apologetic gaze found mine.
There was a heaviness to them, laced with his own guilt.
Both of us stood there, blades in hand, ready to take Saryn’s life.
For a moment, there was only him and me.
It felt like we were one and the same; fueled by anger and bound by duty.
Never more had I understood wanting to live and abide by a code.
I cared not for Saryn’s explanations and rationalizations, nor how his mate would feel when he took his last breath.
I only cared to experience the warmth of his blood pouring over my fist. Suddenly, there was a gentle hand grasping my fingers wrapped around the dagger’s hilt.
Then, so only I could hear, the soothing voice of my mate.
“Mercy takes longer to forge than hate. Nori would choose mercy.”
I hated his poetic proclamations, but the mention of her name broke me from my callous concentration. I lowered my knife, and Trace followed my lead.
“We will deliver you to Theory and Idris; they will decide your fate,” Varro declared diplomatically.
“No,” Saryn pleaded, emphatically adding, “Zarif doesn’t know you’re here, he doesn’t know what we’re capable of together. He’s going to move quickly now. We need to act, and it’s better for you if he doesn’t know what side I’m actually on. My disappearance could set off alarms.”
Whether he was begging us to protect himself, Embry, or both, we all knew that delivering him to the likes of Theory and Idris was a fate swiftly sealed.
But, the reality of the situation was that Saryn knew Zarif far better than we did.
Despite having fed information to the enemy, he had also attempted to protect us along the way.
And though he had failed Nori, I did not believe his intentions were to let those betrayals be the undoing of his honor and years of service to Cambria.
Saryn, for all his faults, was Imperi through and through.
Gia, still unconvinced, questioned, “I’m as good a shifter as any. Why do we need you? I’m of the mindset that the next step is assassinating both the king and his Hand. We should let Cress and Trace have their way with you.”
I was considering her point when Saryn challenged her. “Because I know what they plan to do with the moonstones they acquired, and I also know where that armada Varro’s been helping build is headed… If you give a damn about Cambria, then you’re going to work with me.”
“We’d be crazy to trust you now,” Cairis declared, having spoken very little during this whole ordeal, simply observing and taking it all in.
“When this is done you can turn me in, kill me, whatever you like. Just help me get Embry out safely.”
“Not even your own mate knows the truth of your identity, nor of your treachery. You’re untrustworthy,” Cairis reasoned.
“Then I’ll make you all a bargain.”
At the word ‘bargain’, each of us lifted our gaze at him in skepticism. If the Imperi blood oath wasn’t enough to keep him from betraying us, then perhaps a bargain sealed in magic would be.
“Fine,” I said as Varro’s voice down the bond firmly yelled “No!”
“You swear on your life to protect each of us, henceforth, putting our lives before your own and…that of your mate,” I added for good measure.
I could hear Varro’s gasp of disapproval through the bond, but it was an eye for an eye.
He had already put her well-being above ours, and the mission had suffered.
We had already lost one of our own. He shouldn’t be trusted.
If he wanted that back, then it was us above all else.
To no end, come what may.
I lifted my blade again and freed his wrists of the rope so that he could hold out his hand and seal the bargain with magic.
I held my hand in the air between us, waiting for him to place his atop mine and accept my terms. I had made a very similar arrangement with Trace not so long ago, but he had not been asked to put our lives above the powerful bond of a mate, simply above that of his own.
One by one, the rest of the Imperi hesitantly placed their hand in the middle.
The five of us that remained. Saryn spoke the promise and each of us felt the tug of magic locking his words firmly into place.
As the last rays of the sabbath’s sunlight clung to the horizon, I addressed Saryn coldly: “Now, tell us everything you know.”