CHAPTER 12 CALLYN
CALLYN
Our ride away from the palace was full of tension and bickering, so I expect our return walk to be exactly the same.
But it’s not. Alek strides along beside me, and to my surprise, he doesn’t say much of anything at all.
The sun beats down on us both, allowing sweat to gather under my gear and collect on my cheeks, though he seems as unfazed and unruffled as ever.
His silence gives me too much time to think. It was clear that he was afraid of Igaa and Nakiis, but he didn’t leave me with them. If anything, he seemed prepared to defend me.
That doesn’t really match with the man who threatened to drive me out of Syhl Shallow a few short weeks ago.
When I glance over, his blue eyes are faraway, and he seems as lost in thought as I am.
“How long do you think it’s going to take us to walk back?” I say. We’ve been quiet so long that my voice is loud in the air.
He blinks as if startled, then casts a look up and around, then points. “I know the angle of those mountain peaks. We’re a few miles north of Ustus Marsh, I think.” He pats a pouch on his belt, and coins jingle. “I can hire us a carriage back to the palace from there.”
Somehow he still manages to startle me with his casual wealth. Maybe it’s visible on my face, because he casts a glance my way and frowns. “Feel free to walk if you’d rather, Callyn. My intent was not to—”
“Stop,” I say, realizing that he’s no more responsible for his own privileged upbringing than I am for my impoverished one. I lift a hand. “Just . . . just stop.”
He obeys, falling silent. But then I’m not sure what to say. We continue striding down the path.
Eventually, I clear my throat. “What should we do about Lord Tycho?”
Alek snaps his head around. “The king’s lapdog?” he practically snarls. “Why would we do anything about him at all?”
I draw back, surprised at his reaction. “Igaa said—”
“I can’t speak for you, Callyn, but I am not the scravers’ errand boy. I meant what I said: they can take their issues to Emberfall. The king is there. The magic is there. If Igaa needs Lord Tycho so badly, she can very well go find him herself.”
Something in the way he says that makes me think of the day Nolla Verin first smashed a fist into my face, and the way the king healed my injuries.
The king talked about his days fighting from the other side of the border, and how he came to Syhl Shallow and realized all the soldiers here were really just doing the same thing he was: following orders and fighting for what they believed was right for their country.
“You really think that’s the solution?” I say. “To just . . . send the problems over the border where we don’t have to think about them?”
“Why are they our problems to solve?”
His voice is so pragmatic that I snap back. “Because . . . because . . .”
“Because why, Callyn? Magic was driven out of Syhl Shallow years ago. Queen Lia Mara tried to bring it back, and her plans for peace were admirable, truly, but—”
“Driven out!” I snap. “Not solved! It doesn’t help anyone to shove danger through the mountain pass. The danger is still there.”
“I disagree. It helped Syhl Shallow— and that is the queen’s primary obligation, is it not?”
“Ugh.” I look back at the road and keep trudging forward. He’s so impossible sometimes. “I don’t know that we can call it a victory if our queen’s actions put another country at risk.”
“So high and mighty!” he exclaims. “Were you not on the fields beside the queen as the scravers tried to kill every magesmith they could find?”
“Yes, but—”
“And Emberfall has a king. He has his own magic. Queen Lia Mara is responsible for protecting her own citizens. Let him protect his.”
I set my jaw. I hate how he’s always so wrong about everything while also being right at the same time.
He heaves a sigh. “Again, you turn me into a villain from your storybooks, when I’ve only ever told you the truth, helped you succeed, and saved your life.” His expression turns darkly devilish. “Considering our intimate moments together, I suppose one could also add that I’ve made you—”
“Don’t you dare.” My cheeks flush as I remember exactly which intimate moments he’s talking about.
He grins. “— very happy?”
Heat surges up my neck. What a rake. I refuse to look at him.
This time, when he sighs, it’s less performative and more genuine.
“Really, Callyn. What would you have me do? Locate Tycho? He has returned to Emberfall with the king. Ironrose Castle is a four- day ride from here— and that’s if we set a hard pace.
Shall we saddle a horse you cannot ride and go galloping off across the countryside? ”
“We could send a courier,” I say.
“Ah, yes. And what would the message be? ‘Dearest Lord Tycho, your presence is required at once to save the life of a scraver who may or may not want to kill the king. But he promises to be good.’ ”
“No— of course not. But—”
“But nothing! Do you not understand that the entire reason Tycho had a job at court was because the courier channels are not secure for something of international importance?” He pauses, and his voice drops.
“Do you not understand why I needed to pay you and Jax to secure messages for the Truthbringers at all?”
I inhale sharply, then stop. No, I really didn’t consider that. Even when Alek was paying me and Jax, his messages were in code.
Jax. Again, I desperately wish my friend were still here. He used to be a short walk down the lane, and we talked almost every day. Now it’s been months.
“The queen could summon Lord Tycho,” I say to Alek. “Surely she could send a secure message.”
“Have you seen the queen?” he says pointedly.
“Do you truly want to ask her to send a message to her absent husband asking him to send his devoted little minion back to Syhl Shallow to heal a scraver ?” While I consider that, he adds, “Especially when the whole reason he left was to take magic away from the Crystal Palace?”
It’s my turn to heave a sigh. “So the queen sent us out to find information, and now we can’t do anything with what we have.”
“Of course we can,” he says. “We can tell her what we’ve learned. We can share everything that happened.”
“And then what?” I say, feeling powerless.
“And then we await her orders,” he says, as if it’s obvious— and I suppose it is. “For she is the queen.”
Somehow I forgot about Nora.
When I return to the palace with Alek, I expect to find my sister engaged with little Sinna, maybe playing games in the nursery or out in the gardens. In other words, I don’t expect to find my sister at all.
Instead, when Alek and I seek the queen, we find her in the royal suites.
The young princess is nowhere to be found, but Nora is sitting at the small table with the queen.
She hasn’t changed out of her sparring gear, and in fact weapons are still strapped to her body, making her look like a young soldier who’s here to give a report, not a girl I was chiding about licking frosting off a knife a few months ago.
Her hair is still in those tight braids that she’s fashioned to mimic Verin’s, and her face has taken on a few angles that it never used to have.
When she turns cool eyes my way, I almost feel like I need to salute.
But then she takes in Alek. If her gaze was cool when she looked at me, it turns downright frosty when she looks at him.
Alek doesn’t miss it. “Your Majesty,” he says, deferring to the queen first. But when he turns back to Nora, his eyes go just as cold. He folds his arms. “Look, Callyn. I’m clearly your sister’s villain, too.”
Nora doesn’t flinch. “Verin taught me how to rip an ear right off someone’s head. Want to see?”
“Nora!” I snap.
But Alek grins. “You’re welcome to try.”
“No,” says the queen, though her tone is long- suffering, as if she’s used to this kind of verbal parry from Alek— and maybe her sister. “Save your bloodshed for the arena. Not my nursery.”
“Yes, of course.” Alek gestures toward the door. “Lady Nora? After you.”
She’s actually getting out of her chair, so I step between them and smack him on the arm. “Both of you. Stop it.” I hesitate, glancing at the queen. “You are in the presence of the queen.”
Queen Lia Mara simply picks up her cup of tea and takes a sip. “Honestly, Callyn, I don’t mind the bickering.” She pauses, and a heavy note enters her voice. “It’s a bit nice to have a distraction.”
That throws a pallor over the room, and it’s as if we’re all affected— even Alek.
The queen sighs, and it’s a sound full of remorse and resignation. “Ah. There it is.” She gestures to the other chairs at the table. “Sit. Both of you.”
The other two chairs are across from each other, so we both end up next to my sister and the queen. Alek moves to the opposite side and sits without hesitation, and my sister almost immediately reaches for his head.
Quicker than thought, he catches her wrist. “Now, now,” he says. His voice drops. “You’ll have time to kill me later.”
“Promise?” she says, jerking free of his grip.
He just laughs.
Queen Lia Mara takes another sip of her tea while I stare at them like they’re insane.
“You mentioned villains,” the queen says to Alek. “I’m not sure I believe in them.”
That gets everyone’s attention. It’s Nora who squeaks, “You’re not sure you believe in villains ?”
The queen offers a little shrug. “No, in fact. I’ve come to realize that most people truly judge their own actions as decent or necessary— if not downright noble.”
My eyebrows knit together. “But . . . the Truthbringers attacked you.”
“They felt they were protecting the people of Syhl Shallow— or at least themselves.” Another half shrug. “I don’t agree with their methods, obviously, but it helps me to understand their motivation.”
The table is silent as we consider that. The queen’s eyes shift to Alek, then narrow shrewdly. “You have thoughts, Alek. I can feel it.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Of course.”
But that’s all he says, and then he smiles, a little too pleased with himself.