Chapter 56 Odessa
Fifty-Six
Odessa
“Where’s Ransom?” Evie asked the question that had kept me up all night as she pushed the last bite of her breakfast pastry around her plate.
He’s busy this morning. But he’ll be back soon.”
The lie was more for my benefit than hers.
Ransom hadn’t returned to the suite after the attack in the gardens.
I’d spent the night on the couch with Faze on my lap, watching the door, willing it, with every breath, to open. But as dawn lit the windows, as Evie roused from sleep, I gave up my vigil and prepared for a new day.
I’d invited Mae to the suite last night, but she’d declined. Instead, she’d retreated to her own rooms, asking one of the guards to send for Captain Brix.
For Mae’s sake, I hoped the captain kept his job once Father found out about what had happened. I would hate for my sister to lose him.
“What are we doing today?” Evie asked, sneaking a piece of bacon to Faze under the table. “Can I play with Arthy?”
“Maybe later. We’re going to visit a healer first.”
“For your neck? What happened?”
“Oh, nothing.” I adjusted the scarf I’d tied around my throat, covering the cut. “It’s just a scratch.”
Alore greeted us at the door to her workshop. She looked down at Evie and Faze over the rim of her turquoise glasses, gave them both a quick hello, then waved for us to follow her down the hall.
“His saliva didn’t work. Neither did the tarkin’s.” She frowned at the cage of rats on her table. “At least not yet.”
“But it might.”
“It might.” She pushed her glasses into her hair. “It’s too bad we don’t have the bariwolf that bit him.”
No, that one-eyed monster was somewhere in Turah, spreading the infection and slaughtering innocent people.
“What’s next?”
“I’m not sure.” Alore sighed. “Since this hasn’t worked…”
“Please don’t give up.” I let every bit of desperation bleed into my voice.
“Fear not, Princess. I’m not the giving-up type.”
The grand foyer was clustered with people as we left the infirmary. The crowd was mostly nobility and their entourages making their way up the sweeping staircase to the second level.
A man with straw-colored hair nodded to Evie and me as he passed by. His caramel eyes locked on Faze tucked under my arm. He nearly tripped on the first step, too fixated on the tarkin to watch where he was walking.
Another man with his bulbous nose stuck in the air cut us off. Two older men, their bald heads bent together as they whispered, nearly bowled us over.
It was like swimming against the current.
“When can we go home?” Evie asked, her hand clutching mine.
“Soon, little star.”
The crowd thinned as we made it to the center of the foyer, and we veered toward the staircase that would lead us to the west wing.
But before we could start up the steps, a woman called my name. Her voice echoed through the space, as clear and resounding as the castle’s midday bells.
Evie and I stopped in unison, both whirling around.
A group of travelers stood just inside the doors. Five weary, beautiful, familiar faces stared across the foyer.
Samuel Hay, a paperman and my friend, stood with his son, Jonas.
Geezala, the best healer from the fortress in Ellder.
Cathlin.
And Zavier.
He looked awful. His skin was gray, and he was much too thin. His tunic and vest hung loosely around his frame. The dark circles under his eyes were as purple and blue as bruises. But he was alive.
Alive. And in Quentis.
“P-papa?” Evie’s hand slipped from mine as tears filled her gray eyes. “Papa.”
“Evie.” His voice cracked, his face crumpling with relief.
“Papa!” She tore off through the foyer. Arms and legs pumping. Brown hair streaming.
Zavier rushed for her, dropping to his knees as she flew into his open arms.
She slammed into his chest, her little arms wrapping around his neck as she sobbed, “Papa.”
Zavier’s shoulders shook as he cried, holding as tightly to her as she clung to him.
Her sobs filled the foyer, crashing into the vaulted ceilings. It was the sweetest music, the sound of a child’s broken heart stitching itself together.
“Praise Ama.” My hand came to my chest as my eyes flooded.
I let the tears fall as I walked over, straight into Cathlin’s waiting arms.
“Hello, my dear.”
“You’re here.” The weight of everything I’d been carrying seemed to press down on my shoulders.
And like she could feel my strength giving way, Cathlin hugged me tighter. “We’re here.”
A callused hand slipped into mine.
I held to Zavier as he held to Evie and Cathlin held to me.
A family reunited. Not the one of my birth, but the one of my making.
I peered past Cathlin’s shoulder, giving Samuel and Jonas a watery smile. And for Geezala, I mouthed, Thank you.
She dipped her chin.
Cathlin let me go to dry her own eyes. She ran a hand over Evie’s hair, and then her gaze swept through the lobby, searching. “Where’s Ransom?”
Zavier sat on the couch in the suite with Evie curled in his lap, sound asleep. She’d drifted off not long after lunch, like it was finally safe for her to rest. Like the sadness couldn’t haunt her dreams anymore.
And while she slept, I told Zavier and Cathlin everything that had happened since Ellder.
The gentle lines in Cathlin’s face seemed to deepen the more I spoke. And the exhaustion in Zavier’s doubled by the time I was finished telling them about last night.
“We can’t stay here.” Zavier closed his eyes, looking as tired as his daughter. He shifted slightly and winced, his entire body tensing as his hand came to his stomach.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“You need to rest.” Cathlin stood, smoothing the skirt of her tan dress. Her chestnut-brown eyes narrowed on where he clutched his belly. “I’ll make you some of Geezala’s tea.”
The healer was in a suite down the hall, the same suite where Thora had stayed. Samuel and Jonas were staying in the one where Jodhi had been.
Zavier looked down at Evie, stroking her dark hair. “Thank you. For keeping her safe.”
Safe? That word seemed like an illusion. A luxury no Calandran could afford with the migration upon us. “Will you be all right to sail?”
Before Zavier could answer, the door to the suite banged open and Mae barged inside, the skirts of her green dress swishing around her legs.
“Get to the throne room.” She panted, out of breath like she’d run the length of the castle.
“What?” I stood, the blood draining from my face. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. My lady’s maid just told me that there’s a rumor going through the castle that Father arrested the Guardian and had him locked in the barracks.”
My stomach dropped as my eyes shot to Zavier.
The hard, unyielding mask of a Turan ranger instantly fell over his face. His green eyes hardened as he carefully moved Evie and pushed to his feet. “I’ll go.”
“No. You stay with Evie.” The last time Zavier was here, he lied to Father. Numerous times. His presence in the throne room would probably just make this worse. “We don’t have much here, but we should pack.”
“You’re leaving?” Mae asked.
I gave my sister a sad smile. “We can’t stay in Quentis. We need to return to Turah.”
“What about the migration?”
“It’s a risk we have to take.”
She swallowed hard and squared her shoulders. “Then I’m coming with you.”
“What? No. It’s too—”
“Dangerous?” She scoffed. “Don’t ask me to stay here. Not after last night. And not with him.”
“Him, who?”
“Your father.”
Your father. He was our father. “What are you saying?”
She rolled her eyes. “Do you really need me to spell it out?”
No, I guess not.
Then who? Was it Hawksley? She looked so much like Margot. There wasn’t any resemblance to the general. But maybe, if Margot had been having an affair for years…
That would mean she wasn’t my sister. At least not by blood.
Shades. I couldn’t even fathom this. How long had she known? Was she certain?
“Mae, I…I don’t know what to say.”
“There’s nothing to say. It doesn’t really matter.” Mae lifted a shoulder. “No one will ever admit it. But I don’t want to stay here, trapped in the migration chambers with them. With all of them. If you’re leaving, I’m going, too.”
Later. We’d have to talk about it later.
And she was right about one thing.
It didn’t really matter.
“This changes nothing. You’re my sister. You’re always my sister.” I walked to her, pulled her into a tight hug.
It took less than a heartbeat for her to hug me back.
Then I let her go, clasped her hand, and dragged her with me to confront the Gold King.
“Where’s Ransom?” I marched up the dais and stood before Father’s throne, ignoring both Captain Brix and General Hawksley.
Father’s jaw clenched. “Leave us.”
Brix bowed and obeyed. Hawksley lingered for a heartbeat, then did the same.
“You, too, Mae,” Father said.
She huffed but followed Brix.
“Answer my question.” I crossed my arms over my chest, meeting his glare.
“He’s been arrested and detained.”
So the maid’s gossip was true. “Release him. Now.”
Father leaned an arm on his throne. “He will be released after an investigation. I received a report that your tarkin attacked a guard yesterday in the gardens who was then brutally injured by your husband. I can’t ask that guard because he’s dead.
Murdered last night, also in the gardens.
Along with numerous other guards in my employ. ”
“You’re right. That guard is dead.” I tugged down my scarf so he could see the cut. “He held a knife to my throat. So I put it through his.”
Father looked away from my neck. “I’ve also received reports from my informants that the Guardian killed General Banner. That’s a crime I cannot overlook.”
“I killed Banner. When he attacked me to get revenge on Ransom.”
“You killed the most skilled soldier in Quentis?” He scoffed. “I’m not a fool, Odessa.”
“It’s the truth. Believe it or not. I don’t care.” I held out my hands, wrists bare and awaiting his manacles. “You’d better call the guards to shackle me in irons and take me to a cell, too.”