Chapter 12 Silver
Silver
I wake up with a knife to my throat.
I can’t say it’s the first time, but it’s not exactly something a person becomes accustomed to, so it takes me a minute to get my bearings.
I seem to be in a tree.
The girl on the other end of the knife has long white hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her face is wreathed in vines and her expression is murderous.
“Good morning,” I say politely. “Who are you?”
“Kiar, and you?”
“Silver.”
“A pleasure.”
“Is it?” I ask, pressing back against the bark in an effort to put some distance between my neck and her blade. “I’m not sure I can say the same. Not to be rude, but may I ask why you picked this particular method of awakening me?”
She only presses the blade closer, cutting off my attempts at escape. “You’re camped outside the Prime’s quarters,” she hisses.
I scan the windows across from us to see that Mance’s room is empty.
In the next window over, I spot her sharing breakfast with Reltas, the two of them making what looks like stilted and awkward conversation over a spread of eggs and an assortment of fried root vegetables. My lip curls. “Technically, I suppose.”
“And you’re dressed as a Cliff Realm soldier. Are you planning an assassination?”
“Not unless he gives me a reason to,” I answer without thinking.
Kiar’s eyes widen, and she looks toward the window, then back at me, now sporting a feline smile. “Oh, I see.”
My attention snaps to her, and I’m irritated with myself for being so transparent. “Great,” I say. “You see. Care to remove the knife, then?”
She laughs unkindly. “Not likely. You’re in love with her.
And love makes people do unwise things. Like try to kill Reltas in a fit of jealous rage, for example.
Which means that for the foreseeable future you have earned yourself a watchdog.
Namely, me. Because I promise you. You’re not touching him, and you’re not going to mess up this arrangement. ”
“Seems a little extreme,” I grumble. “Surely, you have better things to do with your time?”
“You’re right. It would be much simpler to just kill you now, to be safe, and free up the rest of my schedule.”
My lips pull back in a sneer and I’m about to retort, but then Mance laughs at something Reltas says, loudly enough for the sound to carry through the glass, and I glance over, annoyed. What could that violent, straggly-haired scumbag possibly have said that was so funny?
Remembering myself, I quickly return my attention to Kiar and the whole life-or-death situation that I should probably be concentrating on.
Only to catch her breaking off her own heated glare to focus back on me.
Well, now, that’s interesting.
I raise an eyebrow, my sneer settling into a smirk. “You know, it occurs to me that you are also squatting in a tree to watch other people eat breakfast. And you seem really eager to promise death to anyone who might harm your Prime.”
“Of course I am,” she bites back. “I am loyal to the Forest Realm, and Reltas is its head.”
“Is that why you keep using his name without his title?”
Her face turns severe, her mouth pinched and her cheekbones jutting outward as she sucks in her cheeks.
But as quickly as it appears, the expression passes, and she tosses her leaf-threaded hair over her shoulder with an exaggeratedly unaffected shrug.
“Whatever,” she says. “It’s not exactly a secret that I care about him.
It doesn’t change anything about the situation, and your feelings don’t either. ”
I raise my eyebrows. “So you’re saying you want them to get married?”
“Obviously. I want what he wants. And I’ll make it happen, too. No matter who I have to kill to do it. Happy to add you to the list if needed.”
She’s making a show of puffing out her chest in a misguided attempt to intimidate me, but I’ve stopped listening, my gaze fixing on her hair and its odd color, its strange ornamentation. A part of Mance’s story triggers in my mind.
“You were the one who buried the scroll in the Outskirts, weren’t you?” I ask.
Again, she flits through several expressions in rapid succession. From what I can guess, she doesn’t like that I’ve guessed two things about her correctly, but she doesn’t mind taking credit for the deaths, so her features ultimately resolve into a terse smile.
“That was my neighborhood,” I snap at her. “Those were my friends and neighbors you slaughtered.”
“You slaughtered mine first.”
“Actually, most of the people in the Outskirts were actively trying not to get involved with any wars.”
“You think I care? They were still camping out in the bones of our city’s corpse.
Yes, I set the hands on them. And I don’t regret it, either.
That’s just one example of the kinds of things I’m willing to do.
So unless you have the stomach to meet me on that same level, I would advise you not to meddle in this engagement. ”
I shift, still scowling. “And if I do have the stomach for it?”
Her smile widens. “Then game on, lover boy. I’ve got a lot of pent-up aggression lately and I’ve been looking for a new outlet. Tormenting you will do nicely.”
“Kiar.” Reltas cranes his head out the window, glaring at us.
Actually, mostly at me. Unease slices down my spine as I wonder if I’ve just messed up Mance’s plans to get on his good side. The cold rage on his face right now matches the expression he wore in the fighting rings, and I’m getting more and more certain that it was never a front at all.
Kiar, meanwhile, seems unaffected. She sticks her tongue out at him, although she does sheathe her knife and skip backward along the branch, launching herself off the end of it without even looking.
After landing smoothly in the next tree over, she quickly fades into its shadows, but not before holding up two fingers and flicking them between her eyes and me to let me know she’ll be watching.
By the time I turn back to the Prime’s chambers, Mance is looking at me with wide eyes, but Reltas is watching Kiar’s retreat.
The way his stare lingers leads me to believe the girl’s interest might not be entirely one-sided.
And when his gaze cuts to me with a palpable menace, I’m even more certain.
Well, it’s too late for me to hide. I have to play the cards I’ve been dealt.
So instead of fleeing in the opposite direction, I smile back at him, slow and dark.
Because maybe, just maybe . . .
I’ve found a weakness I can use.