Chapter Twenty. Eban
CHAPTER TWENTY
EBAN
It’s over. We were able to repel the Lacon raid.
In the aftermath, a placid, midnight-blue evening arrives alongside our subdued celebrations, lending a deeper sense of calm.
Folk gather in the common spaces to lick their wounds and share some much-needed libations.
Out come the best of their hand-carved goblets and stores of bignay wine.
No one’s quite sure how we triumphed—it was all a blur.
They’d all seen the lightning strike, though no one seems to know where it came from, as there were no storm clouds overhead.
Some believe it was a freak accident, a glitch in nature; others, that it can’t be coincidence, that it had to be the power of the gods.
That perhaps fortune smiles on us Ophir at last.
Gin has been very quiet since the victory and I’m not about to tell everyone her secret. I know what happened. I know how we won. She’s incredible. It was all her, and her ability to bond with the spirit. If not for her, none of us would be standing. Fearless, and beautiful, too.
I snake through the crowd, Gin beside me, checking on people.
Everywhere I go, hands reach out to shake mine and thank us for leading them.
“You did it yourselves,” I tell them, and it’s true.
Me and Gin—we merely oversaw some organization, galvanized morale.
It was the people themselves who bested the Blackcoats, despite the enemy’s superior weaponry and benefit of the surprise attack. That and Gin’s relic, of course.
Cheers erupt in the distance. A commotion at one of the docks. I head over to investigate. A boat’s being pulled in. Darius has returned.
“Figures,” I mutter. “Just in time for the victory celebration.” I don’t know why I dislike him so much; maybe it’s the arrogance, maybe it’s jealousy that he was able to grow up in relative freedom while I grew up in scarcity and hunger.
Darius hops from the boat onto the platform at the dock.
His face is a mask of anguish, and his eyes are haunted once he sees what’s left of the colony.
There are still small fires being put out.
Boats drift near the docks, chunks broken off, many destroyed entirely.
Dozens are injured, we don’t know how many are lost. Tents are tattered.
There’s more damage than I realized, seeing it through Darius’s eyes.
Then his gaze turns to Gin and his face softens.
“You are all right,” he says to Gin with a smile.
“It’s good to have you back,” she tells him.
Ah, there it is. Why I dislike him so much.
I don’t like the way he looks at Gin. I hate to admit it, but I don’t like it one bit.
I keep telling myself she means nothing to me and that I can’t get attached to anyone.
Maybe I’m just feeling too alone in this world after Vergel’s death.
But maybe—yeah—I have to admit it. I like her.
It’s infuriating to realize he does, too.
When he turns to me, his smile vanishes. “You were followed,” he says flatly. “That’s the only way they could have found our location.”
That stings. I’m about to protest but there’s truth in his words.
“It doesn’t matter now.” He shakes his head and sighs. “It wasn’t your fault, you didn’t know. It’s my fault. We took precautions but it wasn’t enough.”
Perlah interrupts. “I told you we should have moved the Lashing when we spotted them.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You saw us?”
“Of course. Scouts alerted us when you crossed the river mouth,” she says.
“But Darius didn’t want to abandon you. He’s always had a soft spot for refugees from the Sleeve.
” She sighs. “But it’s a good thing you were with us.
Darius, Eban and Gin organized the warriors and the counterattack.
They’re the reason the Lashing is still standing. ”
“As well as a lucky lightning strike, I heard,” says Darius with a curious look on his face.
“Yes, very lucky,” I agree. “Just like you were lucky you weren’t here during the raid.”
Darius regards me with amusement. “Lucky, was I?”
“Or maybe you weren’t lucky at all. Maybe you knew it was coming and didn’t want to be around for it.”
Darius looks like he’s about to punch me. “I have given everything I have to the Lashing, can you say the same?” With a snort, he turns away from me and back to Perlah. “How many casualties?”
“Too many,” she says. “And without Eban and Gin it would have been more.”
He sighs deeply. “Right. Eban, we are on the same side here. Here’s the truth. I was in Lacon, yes, but as I said, I was spying on the enemy. Speaking to sources who are deeply embedded in the estates.”
“And?”
“I know the location of the Ophir relics and how to get them back.”
Gin told me why he had gone to Lacon, but I’m still stunned.
“The Blackcoat Marshal, Lord Talavera of House Dominant, holds them in his vault. He has the contents of almost the entire reliquary. Apparently two of the most powerful relics are still missing, but the rest are accounted for. More importantly, they know what they have. Our only saving grace is that they have no idea how to harness that power. Yet. There’s no telling when they might, however.
That’s the only thing standing in their way. ”
“What do we do?” Gin asks, glancing between the two of us. “We have to do something.”
“Of course we will,” I assure her, at the same time Darius says, “I plan on it.”
Darius continues: “I’m putting together a team to recover the relics.” He looks at me. “And I was hoping you would join me, Eban. I hear you’re quite good at retrieving things that don’t belong to you.”
“I was the best, actually.”
“Good. We need the best.”
“I’ll go, too,” Gin offers immediately. She steps up next to Darius.
He shakes his head. “Far too dangerous. You’ll be safer here.”
Gin is indignant. She puts her hands on her hips and scowls up at him. “I’ve been in plenty of dangerous situations, thank you very much.”
“I need you here as leader while we’re gone,” Darius insists, with a playful smile on his lips.
“Hold on, I’m not leaving her here alone,” I say, annoyed at the way Darius is acting toward Gin, as if he knows her better than I do. “She’ll be safer with me.” I can keep her safe, I think. I’ve kept her safe so far.
“That settles it,” says Gin. “They can’t have our relics. What if they figure out how to use them? Then what? You saw what one of them can do. Imagine dozens unleashed on the other side.”
Darius furrows his brow. “You saw a relic unleashed?” he asks. “When? How?”
Gin keeps silent but exchanges a worried glance with me.
“No, she didn’t,” I say firmly. “Gin just assumes we saw someone using Ophir magic back in the Sleeve, but it wasn’t. It was just an accident.”
“Right,” she says slowly.
Darius raises his eyebrows and studies the two of us.
“I’ll steal back the relic, but I don’t work alone. Gin comes with me.”
“I already told you…,” Darius starts.
“With all due respect, Darius, it’s not your decision to make,” she snaps. “I’m going with Eban.”
I smile at that.