Chapter 14
Iwas supposed to be playing a careful game. Appear loyal and subservient until I could find a way to get us out; snapping at lords wouldn’t help that.
With the condescending way in which Beatus spoke of Shade, I couldn’t hold it back. The simmering within my gut was all too familiar. The need to protect. To defend. The urge to launch myself across the table and wring the sour-faced lord’s neck. I hadn’t experienced it with anyone but Eleanor.
I glanced at the king, stealing myself for his reprimand, but he only chuckled in wry amusement. “Of course. What’s your name, man?”
He aimed the question at Shade, one he wouldn’t answer, so I murmured, “Shade. His name is Shade.”
“Shade? What kind of a name is that?” Beatus sneered, eliciting a few chuckles from the table. Only Kheal didn’t react and, in fact, appeared rather bored with the whole interaction.
I didn’t respond, nothing good could come from an argument with the increasingly obnoxious lord. I didn’t have to explain myself or Shade’s name to him.
Terym cleared his throat, killing the last of the laughter. He spoke only when he was sure he had everyone’s attention, even a glassy-eyed Lord Zyome. “Adelia, we encountered an issue this morning.”
My heart pounded painfully against my ribs. An issue? Was it Eleanor? Did he know the truth?
“You see, General Lenek attempted to command my new army, under my orders, of course.” The small rush of relief was short-lived when the smile he sent my way was anything but pleased.
“It seems what Shade said yesterday may be quite literal, they will only accept your command. I would like to test it.”
I glanced at Shade, whose unreadable face was trained on Lord Orcan, of all people.
“Test it how?” I asked, my heart racing again. Surely, he couldn’t mean to kill anyone. Not now.
Orcan muttered something under breath, too low for me to hear, and Beatus snickered. Floral and wood thickened in the space, making someone cough. Terym ignored the posturing and rose, holding a hand out for me. “Come.”
I reluctantly took the king’s hand. A strange sense of unease settled over me the moment our hands met—everything about his skin on mine was wrong. As soon as he released me, I hid both hands in my skirts, removing the temptation for him to grab them again, and followed him from the tent.
Those seated at the table joined us, all the lords and several soldiers who I suspected were generals, given the deference the men we passed paid them.
Eyes bore into me from all sides. Soldiers. Generals. Lords. Only a boyishly round face topped with bright-orange hair offered me kindness. Harkin smiled when I caught his eye, so I returned it with a brittle smile of my own.
Shade kept close to my side, eyes sharp and watchful. His finger brushed down the back of my hand several times on the short walk toward the field. That small touch grounded me as much as it elicited those forbidden feelings. Heat. Desire. Selfishness.
I did my best to banish them, but they lingered under the surface of my skin, ready to consume me entirely.
When we reached the edge of camp and the field beyond, our party spread out, everyone wanting an unobstructed view. Terym and Lenek stepped closer to the waiting sentient army, each soldier in the exact position I had last seen them.
The king gestured me closer, and I stepped toward him, albeit a little hesitantly.
As one, the army moved, kneeling as they had yesterday. This time, at least, they didn’t need to be told to rise. After the small show of reverence and fealty, they stood back to still and silent attention.
The king’s expression was laced with annoyance when I faced him. I had to be careful, now wasn’t the time to question or push him. “What would you like me to do, my king?” I inclined my head on the question, hoping it would ease his ire somewhat.
“We want to see what they can do. Demonstrate their skills.” Terym spread his arms wide on the last word, his voice projecting through the whole field.
I inhaled a shaky breath, approaching the still soldiers, keenly aware of Shade shadowing my every movement.
“Show us how you fight, please.” My voice wavered slightly, and it didn’t project as the king’s had. Despite that, the leather-clad men and women moved in perfect synchronization, separating into small groups or pairs—no rhyme or reason to the parings—and clashing metal erupted around us.
The graceful movements made the rough fighting I watched merely days ago seem like child’s play. At the time, I thought Terym’s men skilled. After seeing this, they were seriously outmatched if they ever faced each other.
I didn’t know how Mortremon’s armies would compare, but who could stand against this? So many would be slaughtered.
Nausea churned in my gut, and I stumbled down to the grass, willing the few mouthfuls of oatmeal to stay put.
I dragged my gaze from the violence, focusing on the blue and white flowers surrounding me.
They were wilting, their once-vibrant colors now dull and lifeless.
Petals sagged, a light dusting of brown appearing along the edges.
It had to be the wish, something about raising the soldiers had disrupted the magic allowing them to continue blooming.
The sight did nothing to calm the roiling in my stomach.
I sat among the wilting flowers while Terym’s generals walked a line before the sparring soldiers, avidly studying their movements.
It went on for hours. Only Shade’s shadow protected me from burning in the bright sun. Sometimes, I watched the sparring, other times, I closed my eyes and imagined I was somewhere else. Anywhere else. Anyone else.
Terym had received exactly what he wanted. The soldiers were unbeatable. Even when struck by a killing blow, they continued as if nothing happened. No sign of pain. No flinch of fear. They were mindless in their fight.
“That’s enough!” Lenek’s voice boomed, exactly how I expected a general to sound, but the soldiers didn’t stop. Metal whistled through the air as swords clashed against timber shields.
They didn’t listen because it wasn’t their master who had spoken.
It wasn’t me.
“Stop.” I didn’t yell the command, and my voice didn’t carry. I spoke as if only to Shade, who hadn’t moved from his towering place beside me.
The fighting ceased. Blades were sheathed and shields hoisted until the soldiers stood in silent attention once more, as if the last few hours hadn’t occurred at all.
The general scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. “Not being able to command them will be a problem.”
Terym hummed, surveying the still field with his hands clasped behind his back. “We’ll have to find a way for Adelia to command them from afar. I have plans for her, and they don’t involve going to Yinora.”
They weren’t talking to me, so I didn’t speak, but the king’s words stuck with me, my thoughts rioting enough to drown out the rest of their conversation.
He had plans for me.
It had to be the other two wishes. He must have ideas for them already, because what else was there? I had nothing else of value to offer him. At least I didn’t. Eleanor …
No. He couldn’t know. How would he? Everyone who did was already dead. Everyone except me.
It took me a moment to realize the men had stopped talking. In fact, they’d left entirely. I turned in time to catch their backs retreating between two tents.
“Bye, then,” I muttered under my breath. Shade released a strange choking sound, and I frowned up at him, but his face was set in his token blank expression. I must have imagined it.
“Lia!” My head snapped in the direction of Eleanor’s voice. Relief and love warmed me, filling me to the brim. I hadn’t realized until I saw her running toward me how much I missed her. Not even two days apart and I was antsy.
She hurried across the field, Meline struggling to keep up. Pierce waited by the line of tents, arms crossed, with his eyes trained on my energetic sister.
Despite my stiff legs, I jumped up, opening my arms when she reached me and fell into my embrace. Bouncing curls smothered me in the scent of strawberries, fire, and freshly baked bread. She must have skulked around the cooking fires this morning. Fallon would have loved that.
It didn’t take her long to pull back and hound me with questions. “How was it? Did you break the curse? Where did all these soldiers come from? Why do they look like that? Is it the magic?” She paused to take a breath, and her hazel eyes caught on Shade behind me. “Who’s this?”
I glanced back at Shade and found something akin to wistfulness staring back at me.
One blink and it was gone. I wished he wouldn’t do that.
I had an inexplicable urge to know absolutely everything about him, and those small moments of concealed emotion were just a drop in the vast lake I suspected was this intriguing man.
“This is Shade,” I said, stepping aside.
“Shade, this is my sister, Eleanor.” I didn’t expect a response from him.
At most, maybe a blinking stare. So when Shade bowed his head to Eleanor, my eyes widened.
Not a respectful incline like he had shown the army, but a full display of deference.
King Terym hadn’t even received such acknowledgment.
Eleanor nodded slowly, just as confused as I was. “Where did he come from?” she murmured close to my ear. The signs of his differences, his otherness, were obvious. Even in the bright light of the midday sun, smoke could be seen curling around his skin, shimmering each time he moved.
“Not here,” I said just as low, glancing to the soldiers still loitering around us.
Nathanial was particularly watchful from his place several feet away.
Grabbing her hand, I pulled her toward my tent and the small amount of privacy it would afford us.
The party shadowing us grew as Wista joined, though none of them followed us inside when we arrived at our tents. None except Shade.