44. Reznyk
Chapter 44
Reznyk
WE’LL LET HER LIVE
T wo ravens fly over the ridge, moving low to the ground as the light of the rising sun glints off their sharp beaks and dark, beady eyes. I don’t have time to run to the top of the keep, to pretend I live anywhere other than the cabin where I’ve just shoved the two men who are either my only friends or my dangerous enemies.
Instead, I walk toward the ravens as they approach. The wind rips my cloak back and cuts through my clothes. One of the ravens carries something in its black claws that flashes in the light like a small piece of metal. It doesn’t feel magical. Still, there’s something ominous about that little wink of light clutched in the bird’s talons.
I stop once I pass the keep, cross my arms over my chest, and await my fate. The ravens climb high, circling the area first. Clever. I’m not certain if this is the same pair I tried to bribe months ago, but I feel like it is. There’s something familiar in the way their tentative magical awareness brushes against mine.
“What are you looking for?” I call up to them. “My army?”
Annoyance flickers across the bond between us. It’s strangely satisfying to know I’m getting under their avian skin. Finally, one of them descends. It’s the one with the piece of metal in its claws. As it approaches, I see the metal is gold, in an oval shape, and it’s connected to a thin chain.
There’s something familiar about that shape. Something that feels very, very wrong.
The first raven settles on a rock that’s not quite within reach while the second stays above us, flying in low, slow circles. Keeping watch. The golden oval gleams in the sunlight, tugging at my memory. I recognize it, I’m sure of it. But from where?
In one smooth motion, the raven bends down, grabs the piece of gold in its ebony beak, and then tosses it to me. Its thin chain streams behind it like the streak that follows a meteor. I grab it out of the air. The metal is cool against my palm; the chain bleeds through my fingers.
The raven watches me with dark, impassive eyes, saying nothing. My throat feels tight. My heart beats in the back of my skull. I imagine turning around, stalking toward the keep, ignoring the ravens. Or tossing whatever this is over the edge of the ridge, losing it in the autumn forest below.
But in the end, I have to know.
I unfurl my fingers slowly, one at a time, revealing the pendant like a woman taking off her clothes in front of her lover for the first time.
And then I stare, numb, at the golden locket in my palm. There’s a delicate floral filigree around the edges and an ornate C in the middle. It could be a forgery. If the Towers were motivated enough, they could find a goldsmith to create this.
But the clasp looks real enough. And, when I press my fingernail against the seam, the locket opens without a sound. Inside are two tiny oil paintings, one of a man with cheeks as red as his hair, the other a stern-looking woman with black hair long and loose over her shoulders.
My pulse hammers inside my skull. Something bitter climbs up the back of my throat, and I realize the locket is trembling.
I’ve never seen this locket open, but I know those pictures. They hang above the entryway to the Castinac’s manor, which was as far as I was ever allowed to enter. The nights I climbed the arbor to Lenore’s bedroom to see this locket against the bare skin between her breasts were strictly unsanctified.
I close the locket, then force myself to lower my hand before the tremble gives me away. The raven meets my gaze.
“How dare you,” I say. It comes out thin, like a whisper.
The raven ruffles his feathers.
“We have your mate,” he says.
Panic closes its cold fist around my chest. But, no. He’s not talking about Kira. Kira is back at the Towers, where she belongs. No, this is Lenore’s pendant, the third daughter of the Castinac family. They think she’s my mate.
Which means those crazy sons of bitches actually attacked the Castinac family.
“Taking her was a mistake,” I say, in that same thin voice.
“Maybe,” the raven replies, with another ruffle of his feathers. “Maybe not. You meet us in the meadow before the sun sets, and we’ll let her live.”
“And if I don’t?”
The raven shakes his head, then spreads his wings. With a little hop, he’s in the air, banking fast as his wings beat against the sky. His partner makes a low, gurgling croak. For a moment, I’m surprised to hear such a normal raven sound coming from one of the Towers’s birds. Then they both drop below the ridge, leaving me alone with the dull throb of my heart and the cold golden locket that belongs to the woman I once loved.
I turn toward the western horizon, then toward the forest, as the cold of the locket sinks into my body. I don’t have long until sunset. I can’t see the meadow from here, but I’m sure Fyrris is there, waiting for me. Maybe with Lenore, or maybe that was just an empty threat.
It didn’t feel empty.
Slowly, with legs that feel like they’ve turned to stone, I face my little cabin.
Were Matius and Tholious part of this? If so, it’s not in a way I can understand. The Towers knew where to find me without those two, and Fyrris must have known about my relationship with Lenore for years. Maybe they didn’t come here to betray me after all. Maybe their story is true. And Kira?—
I freeze as the thought hits me in the gut.
Kira took the amulet. But the Towers are here, asking for me. Threatening to hurt someone they think I love to get me. And they didn’t bring Kira. No, Fyrris still thinks I’ll come running to save Lenore.
Maybe Kira wasn’t a trap. Maybe all she ever was to the Towers was a trade, something for Tholious to offer in payment. Because she looks a bit like Lenore, and Fyrris thought that would be enough for me.
Maybe I was wrong. About everything.
Suddenly, I’m remembering that morning in the garden. Kira holding the amulet out to the sunshine, her brow furrowed in concentration as the metal gleamed in the light. She didn’t look like she had anything to hide. She never looked like she had anything to hide.
I thought she was a master, the greatest deceptionist I’ve ever met. But, as the wind swirls around me and Lenore’s golden locket digs into my palm, another far simpler explanation finally surfaces.
Maybe Kira was telling the truth.
All of it, from the start. She told me in the hunting lodge that she’d come to track a man who stole something. She was chasing the lie the Towers fed her years ago, that she had magical potential. I told her the truth when I said I didn’t feel her potential, but why would she trust me after years of listening to the Towers’s lies?
The look on her face flashes through my memory once again.
Kira wasn’t trying to hide the amulet that morning. Gods help me, maybe she was trying to use it. Maybe she was looking for the magic the Towers promised her years ago.
I stumble, then sink to my knees. My heart feels like a hole punched through my chest; my throat is so tight it’s hard to breathe. I sink my fists into the thin grass. There’s another truth now, something as bright and hard as the golden locket in my hand.
The Towers are here. In my mountains. If they come up the ridge, it’s not just the old god I’m hiding. They’ll find Tholious and Matius. I don’t quite consider the two men who crashed on my doorstep friends, but still, wouldn’t the Towers assume they mean something to me? Just like they think Lenore means something to me?
My gods, the Towers attacked the Castinacs. They must be desperate to cross the invisible line that protects the rich and powerful families of Silver City. What would keep them from torturing Tholious and Matius to make me dance?
Or Kira? If they ever found out how I feel about her?—
Slowly, I push myself back to my feet. Magic bristles around me, hot and sharp. I’ve been running for years, ever since the old god died in my arms. But I can’t run now. I have too much to protect.
The Towers trained me to be a killer.
It’s time for me to live up to my potential.