Chapter 21 Promise Me
PROMISE ME
Was I really a dragonrider; a Paragon? Lark wondered.
She sat silently, exploring her memories through a new lens.
The signs were crystal clear, if only she’d had eyes to see them.
From the beginning of her time in the village, the way she survived the harvesters’ attack and had gone on to collect more fire wheat than even the most experienced among them.
Combat came to her as naturally as breathing.
Then there was Nix, a creature that non-magical people couldn’t see, let alone bond with.
Most telling of all was the raw power that had answered her call in Astral City.
She had wielded real magic without drawing any from a Yogo and all without conscious intention.
A chill ran down her spine as she recalled the spell, its power erupting from deep within like a geyser of pure energy.
The words had torn from her throat in a language she couldn’t remember.
Death could’ve consumed everyone in that room.
Lark had nearly followed her victims into the void, her very essence draining away until Nix desperately intervened, offering her the word to break the flow of power.
“Lark?” Venrick said, drawing her back to the present.
She looked at him, seeing the same features that had appeared in her dreams. She’d analyzed that face in countless moments of paranoid speculation, certain his sharp eyes would be the last thing she saw before he claimed the Hyalite.
Now, concern flickered there, not for her power, but her safety.
“I need some room to think about all this,” she said, rising on shaky legs.
Lark paced to the edge of the meadow to gaze out over the cliff. Below, the forest stretched like an ocean. Her pendant rested cool against her skin, devoid of any warmth or Nix’s resonance. Her fingers traced the golden lark.
Nix, she projected the thought into world. I need you. Where are you?
Lark wondered if she had been a dragonrider, as Venrick suggested, which of the three Keeps was she meant to serve?
Hardin and Ezra informed Lark on their journey that the Vermillion Keep was the castle with the most dragonriders.
But Ezra and Venrick would’ve recognized her if she’d trained there.
And Storm Keep had no dragonriders. What about the Capital, Lamar City…
Surely the King would host dragonriders at his Keep.
When she turned back, Venrick stood sentinel by the fire.
The flames deepened the shadows of his form, highlighting the strength he had developed, not just because he was half elf, but from having fought at a Paragon’s side for over a decade.
Her heart fluttered when he looked up at her and smiled, his warmth almost matching that of the fire.
Don’t let yourself get distracted by him, she chided herself, even as the warmth spread through her chest. He was hunting you for the Hyalite and the power it holds.
Yet the memory of him charging in to help her against the Morsythians replayed in her mind.
He didn’t do it for any Northern vendetta, but purely to aid her when she stood outnumbered.
Even if Venrick had a selfish reason to help her prevent the Hyalite from falling into Nordraven hands, the fact that he desperately tried to save her from her own parasitic spell showed his true character.
But was that enough for her to trust him now?
“How did you know that I had the Hyalite?” Lark asked.
“You don’t know?”
“If what you say about me is true and I am this dragonrider who was there to help Tel Roan… Whatever happened to me between then and me being in that village was so traumatic it left me with amnesia. Assume, for now, that I don’t know anything about everything.”
“Is it because you can’t remember, or because you don’t want to remember?” he challenged.
“I can’t remember,” she insisted.
“If you can’t remember, how do you know who to trust? How can you know to trust me?”
“Nix. She has been my rock through this since I lost touch with the only other person I trusted. Nix isn’t here to help me now and I don’t know who to trust. I don’t know if I can trust you.
The only other person I’ve recognized from my past just betrayed me by stealing the Hyalite,” Lark said, not wanting to admit to Venrick quite yet that she had visions of him before Fletcher’s Passage.
“I thought you said you didn’t remember anything from before?”
“I don’t, mostly, anyway. Some things do rise to the surface now and then. But they’re usually murky and too out of context for me to understand. What I remember about Sasja was that we were working together on something.”
“How did she know you had the Hyalite with you and that you’d be in Astral City?”
“I don’t know, but I think it was the same Sasja who robbed Hardin before we left Stormwatch.”
“Hardin was robbed in Stormwatch?”
You’re letting him distract you and giving him too much information, she thought.
Lark closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You didn’t answer my question,” she said, meeting his emerald eyes. “How did you know I had the Hyalite?”
A muscle twitched on Venrick’s jaw. She thought she saw that look again, the one where she thought he might attack. Then he calmed and said in his smooth voice, “I can’t tell you that.”
“Why not?”
“Because. I just—” he grew tense, his shoulders bunching, fists balling, jaw gripped tight.
“You have to tell me, or I will never be able to trust you. For all I know you are just going after the Hyalite for your own personal gain. You could be hoping to sell it to the highest bidder.”
A stillness settled over Venrick like the quiet before a storm. He moved forward with fluid purpose. His gaze pierced through her mask of carefully constructed barriers warding her heart.
Lark’s breath stilled, each heartbeat reverberating through her chest like distant dragon wings.
Her chest warmed, but not from the pendant.
Venrick’s calloused hands enveloped hers with an unexpected gentleness.
“I promise you that I would never give a Hyalite to someone who was offering me a King’s ransom.
I wouldn’t take that away from the dragon and rider who it was destined for.
Tel made sure he instilled his most honorable traits in me.
My word is my bond. I swear on my life,” he said, letting go of her hands and placing his right hand to his chest, “that I would never voluntarily give a Hyalite to a Nordraven King, dragonrider, Paragon, or otherwise.”
Lark looked up at him, her heart opening, just enough to let her guard down. “Promise me,” she said.
“Promise you what?”
“Promise me now that if I let you in, you won’t betray me and take the Hyalite for yourself.”
“Lark, I—”
“You say your word is your bond. Break that bond and you will break this alliance we’re forging. Promise me you won’t betray me, and I will work with you to get this Hyalite back.”
Ingamar rose to a seated position, his eyes intent on Lark like a dog waiting for a command.
“You want to know how I found you and the Hyalite. This is how: ‘A quest unclear where hope is thin. Follow the flame that guides the way, for if you ignore it, your death will come that day. Track the fire, winged and bright, or lose yourself in your plight.’”
“That’s not a promise.”
“I need to tell you something, Lark. I must follow a very specific set of rules,” he said. A flash of pain flickered in his eyes, and he clutched his chest, wincing.
“I know. You told me. It’s the code of honor Tel instilled into you.”
He bowed his head, seeming unable to say what he intended. “I was coming back to Tel’s… where he. To the place where…”
“Marcel killed him,” Lark said.
He nodded. “Afterward, when I was looking of Ingamar, I found a set of tracks, but he was gone. When I saw those tracks again outside Fletcher’s Passage, I knew it was him.
Why he was following you, I didn’t know.
When I saw the group of Morsythians, I got suspicious.
Then I saw your fae, Nix. Seeing her with you fit too well into a riddle Zorjan, the goblin, said to guide me.
I know Zorjan was intending for me to be killed by following through, but I couldn’t ignore it.
Ingamar, the Morsythians, and then the fae acting like it’s bonded to you.
I knew I was getting close. I wasn’t sure until Sasja took it from you. ”
“You weren’t trying to help, you were just after the Hyalite,” Lark said.
“No,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a moment to gather his thoughts.
“We can help each other. I have to go with you. If I don’t,” he said, the words catching in his throat.
A shadow darkened his features, and something unseen seemed to constrict around his words, turning them into a strangled whisper.
His hand moved to his throat, fingers finding that gold chain around his neck.
The metal links disappeared beneath his light armor, concealing whatever pendant or token lay against his skin.
“I want to help you, but—”
The way he looked at her, pained, but determined. She wanted to help him, but she couldn’t. She needed to keep her distance. She had to stay firm.
“Promise me and I’ll agree to letting you help,” Lark said.
“I promise,” he said, the smooth richness of his voice returning. “I promise that if we find it, I will not take the Hyalite for myself.” Venrick relaxed, his body loosening as though he’d just dropped a heavy weight that he’d been shouldering.
“I’ll hold you to it,” she said seriously. “Break this promise and I will never forgive you.”
“I won’t.”
“Since you were close to Tel and probably know more about dragonriders than anyone, I need you to help me answer some questions that have been burning in my mind.”
“I’m not sure I know all there is to know about dragonriders, but I’ll do my best,” he agreed.