Chapter 36
ALARYK
I woke to pounding on my door.
When my eyes flashed open, for a brief moment, I didn’t know where I was. I stared up at the familiar ceiling of my dwelling, my hand reaching out next to me to find the furs empty.
Fuck.
Reality came flooding back. I felt hungover, like I’d partaken in too much wine on a feast night, my body battered, my fists raw, the flesh shredded.
I must’ve come back and passed out from the sheer exhaustion. My clothes felt grimy from the sweat, blood dried along my knuckles.
My head pounded, mirroring whoever was at the door.
When I swung my legs over, my strides ate up the distance quickly. I tugged it open with enough force that the hinges nearly broke off, only to find Myzalla’s wild expression, the grim set of her mouth.
Immediately, I tensed.
“What’s happened?”
“Three eggs from the hatchery have been taken,” she reported quickly.
I was already out the door, not even bothering to close it in my haste.
It was still early morning; most of the village hadn’t even woken yet.
“Where is she?” I growled, my legs eating up the distance to the hatchery. The morning was brisk. My mouth tasted sour, which mirrored the churn in my gut.
“Gone,” Myzalla said quietly, keeping pace.
I didn’t know what to think or feel. But I would save my disbelief, my anger, my bitterness for later. I’d been betrayed by a lover before.
How foolish was I to have it happen a second time?
And why did this time feel so much worse?
Because I actually believed she had a kind soul, I knew. Because I’d actually thought I was falling in love with her.
Now I had a duty to my people. How many more things would go wrong? First Ryak, then the Elthika attack, and now this?
Elysom was already looking for any excuse to null the Heartstone Accords, to take the thalara trees from the Dakkari.
This might be the tipping point into war.
And Amaia…had she really betrayed us all?
It didn’t make sense. How could I have been so wrong?
Tarkosh’s expression mirrored Myzalla’s when I saw she was waiting for us at the entrance of the hatchery. She must have woken to the discovery.
“Show me,” I said to her.
She inclined her head and led me through the quiet hatchery.
“Does anyone else know?” I asked.
“Syris. She’s inside,” Tarkosh explained.
Inside the incubation room, the heat was like a wall. Syris was standing, stock-still, a drawn expression on her features as she stared at the remaining eggs.
“Here,” Tarkosh murmured, gesturing to three of the alcoves carved into the stone walls. Starstone was still at the base of each small nest, where eggs would’ve been nestled. “Three Rythbacks are gone. Three satchels were taken,” she said, gesturing to a black, open cabinet. “And this…”
She went over to one of the alcoves and plucked something from the starstone. She quickly moved it between her hands, likely hot from the stones.
I held out my hand, a sharp spear of rage going right through me.
When Tarkosh dropped the object into my palm, it was still glowing red. A fire gem, she’d called it. A precious gift from her parents.
She’d left it here.
To…gloat? To stamp her mark on her crime?
Or…was it something else?
“I didn’t even know she was here,” Tarkosh said quietly, her voice bubbled up with something I recognized as…grief. Because she’d trusted Amaia too. And this betrayal would cut all of them deeply.
“She came here late in the night. To sleep,” I answered, my voice sounding hollow, trying to make sense of it all.
Syris was crying, and through her sniffles, she said, “I don’t believe she would do this, Karath. I just don’t believe it.”
“People can surprise you with what they’re capable of,” I answered woodenly. “With what they hide.”
I’d experienced it plenty of times. Too many.
It all made sense. It was why she’d made me promise not to use my magic on her. Because she knew she couldn’t hide her true intentions for long. I just wanted to know why. I just wanted to know if this had been the plan all along. To steal the eggs.
Because there was a part of me that echoed and felt Syris’s words.
The Amaia I’d thought I’d known…she wouldn’t have been capable of this.
“But why would she take the Rythbacks?” Syris asked, turning to Tarkosh, her expression almost pleading. “It doesn’t make sense. The Redback is ten times more valuable. She would’ve known that.”
I stared down at the pendant.
No.
Something was wrong. I knew how much this pendant meant to her. She’d never taken it off. Not once. I knew that it was her most cherished possession. So why would she leave it here?
“How was she capable of carrying out three satchels, packed with starstone and eggs?” Myzalla asked. “She’s strong, but she’s not that strong.”
“She had help,” I answered. “Ryak. Nevin.” My head snapped up. “Where’s Brune?”
Myzalla said, “I’ll go see if he’s with Ethrisha.”
“Go,” I murmured. I turned my gaze to Tarkosh. “Was anything else out of the ordinary this morning?”
“The door to the courtyard,” Syris murmured for her hatchery master. “It was unlocked this morning when I woke up. I bolted it myself last night. I know I did.”
“Let me see.”
So Amaia had left through the courtyard, over the wall. Still, each satchel, loaded down…it wouldn’t be easy.
Which meant they couldn’t have gotten far.
Outside in the courtyard, the cool morning felt icy with the storm coming. Sarkin had warned me that the system was moving east from Elysom. They’d gotten caught in it as they’d departed the capital.
Ny’am Mountain greeted us through the canopy of the trees planted back here. I walked down the length of stone pavers, looking for anything that might give me more insight into what happened last night.
And I might’ve missed it entirely—if it hadn’t been splattered onto a white stone.
Three droplets of black blood, dried down, next to a tall tree. It was at the back of the courtyard, away from the windows of the living quarters. Beyond the wall led directly into the eastern forest.
I crouched down, looking for anything else.
Blood…it wasn’t Amaia’s. These drops were black. Hers was red, given her human ancestry.
Relief strummed through me. She wasn’t hurt.
What is going on? I thought, frowning when I touched the dried blood. Whose blood was this, if not hers?
I heard something right then.
My head snapped up, holding my breath, the tip of one ear twitching. My brows furrowed, trying to place it.
It sounded like movement, clothes shifting.
Then…a rasping breath.
I rose swiftly, pressing my front to the half wall of the courtyard, peering over it.
“Brune,” I growled. I looked over at Tarkosh. “Go get Raran. Hurry!”
I jumped and hurtled myself over the edge of the wall, crouching in front of Brune. His face was bloodied and swollen. His lip split, his eyes closed. His breathing sounded wet, gurgled.
Fuck.
“Brune,” I murmured, taking him by the arm, shaking him.
He was alive, but barely.
His one eye that wasn’t swollen shut opened, and I saw the red of his iris peer at me.
He made a sound in his throat when he saw me, his single eye flitting wildly.
“It’s okay. The healer is on their way,” I told him, keeping my voice calm. I heard a gasp from above the wall, saw Syris looking down at Brune, her hand coming up to her mouth, her face paling.
“Go get some water,” I ordered her, if only so she wouldn’t be sick.
She retreated swiftly with an affirmative squeak, and I turned my attention back to Brune.
His voice was so husky and raw that it sounded like another person’s. “He came back…Ryak. Nevin. They…they…”
A rattled wheeze gurgled up from his throat.
“Where’s Amaia?” I asked urgently.
Another rasping deep breath. “They were coming here…to use her. To take the eggs.”
My nostrils flared, my fist clenching around Amaia’s pendant. Brune’s grip on my arm was surprising, considering his state.
Hope rose in my chest…but then it was flooded out by cold panic.
“Find her,” Brune pleaded. “They’ll kill her.”
Ice froze my veins, and I rose as I saw Syris skidding back into the courtyard, sloshing a water goblet over her sleeve.
“Where did they go?” I asked.
His eye flitted to the dark brush of the eastern forest. “There,” he rushed out. “They’re…they’re meeting riders.”
“Riders?” I growled. Unfathomable. “Mine?”
“Don’t…know,” came his answer, his breathing labored.
Which meant I didn’t have much time to find them…if they were still in the Arsadia. Urgency pressed down on my shoulders.
I needed to find her before it was too late.
“Syris, stay with him,” I ordered. “Raran is on her way.”
“I will,” she said, her tone determined though she looked like she might faint from all the blood as she climbed over the wall, trying to keep the goblet steady.
I didn’t wait for another moment, already calling for Samryn in my mind, feeling him awaken as the bond pulled tight between us. There was nowhere for him to land back here, so I raced toward the landing field.
I caught Myzalla on the way.
“Brune’s gone too,” she breathed, panting as she sprinted back up the hill.
“He’s hurt. Beaten,” I told her, gesturing back at the hatchery. “Tarkosh is getting Raran, but we have a bigger issue. Brune said riders are helping them. I don’t know who.”
“On Muron,” Myzalla breathed, shaking her head. “Ours? How will we find them before they leave?”
I had an idea, but I didn’t know if it would work. Heartstone magic was unpredictable, after all, but it could also feel like a familiar touch. A summoning, just as a bond would.
“Get only our most trusted riders and get them in the sky,” I growled. “They cut east through the forest.”
Samryn’s roar overhead, as he careened through the sky, nearly shook Grymia. If anyone wasn’t yet awake, they would be now. The dark clouds in the sky warned of the storm that Sarkin had mentioned to me. The day might be as dark as night soon. I worried about the visibility.
“I’ll find her,” I told Myzalla.
I only hoped I wouldn’t be too late.