Chapter 26 #2
“We’ll reach the base camp in an hour. There you’ll get the equipment you’ll need to survive in the mountains.
” His voice was a comforting rumble, but the meaning of his words made Lory’s stomach clench.
“The rebels have been squatting along the mountain paths for years. Our goal is to make travel safe again so trading routes can be opened and we become independent of the sea routes. Criulias might have a faction striving for independence, but the majority of its people rely on trade with the capital. Knowledge, weapons, precious metals, and rich fabrics.”
Sen Dunai might have been a desert province, but they had some of the best craftspeople Brestolya had to offer; every child in Brestolya knew that.
“Sea routes are dangerous, and with Dunai’s inland position, accessibility through land routes is more efficient—not to speak of the volatile weather situations along the Bay of Hope in the northwest of Brestolya.
We lose too many ships, and we also need the goods Criulias has to offer. Livestock, grains.”
Lory didn’t think she’d ever heard Khayrivven talk that much.
“Our military fleet isn’t meant to be repurposed into merchant ships, and our captains refuse to take on the daunting journey to Lapia. The Naolapian capital is tucked away between mountains and a narrow bay where more ships have sunk than we can afford.”
The steady rhythm of Caramel’s trot swayed Lory against Khayrivven’s back, the pain in her backside faded to a dull throb and her sore muscles resigned to dangling limply left and right of the stallion’s flanks.
“So, Sen Dunai is desperate?”
A dark chuckle ran through Khayrivven’s body. “That depends on how you define desperate.”
“How do you define desperate?”
The responding glance he shot at her over his shoulder made her toes curl in her boots. “Desperate is what I’ve been every minute since I left you in that Guardians-damned room, wondering if I’d ever see you again, and if I did, you’d ever look at me the way you did before I told you what I did.”
Before he’d admitted to his shame and guilt.
No matter if he’d been a mere boy when Elina was taken, that he’d been forced to fight his own people, Lory knew that nothing she said would change the way he felt right now, so she wordlessly slid her hand up to his chest, placing it right over his heart.
His palm covered hers as they rode toward what could become Lory’s last day.
For a few minutes, Lory savored the silent closeness, trying not to think of why they were there or what might happen, but as the sun was crawling toward the edge of the world in the west, not even the steady beat of Khayrivven’s heart could calm her.
“What did the Triad say I am to do in the mountains? Do they expect me to fight the rebels?” Why the word tasted so bitter on her tongue, Lory couldn’t tell.
Perhaps it had something to do with the way Sen Dunai seemed to be trying to keep the Criulian resistance out of the public focus.
Khayrivven shook his head. “Not this time.” He shifted in the saddle, drawing Lory’s hand back to his stomach and taking Caramel’s reins in both his hands as they slowed to a walk.
“This is a trial made specifically for you, Lory. They could have tested you at the Ward, but they are testing my loyalties, too. They want to see if I’ll stand by and watch as you go into danger.”
Something in Lory’s chest ached. “And will you?”
A sigh ran through him. “It doesn’t matter what I will do. Fact remains that you need to succeed in these trials on your own, or it won’t be considered a success at all.”
“Then at least tell me what I’ll face so I can prepare myself.” If nothing else, he could give her that, couldn’t he? Did he care so little for her that he’d let her blindly run into danger?
“You’ll face this year’s elite. No weapons, no rules. In the Amrin Mountains, it’s open season on anyone Ashthorn considers a liability—and you’ve gathered quite a list of enemies.”
Lory’s stomach bottomed out. All those ugly glares she’d earned after displaying her fire to the world, but before that, the hatred in Ricca’s eyes as Lory had saved Aiden—“They are bringing other students to the mountains?”
“Everyone who wants will get a shot at killing you in those mountains, Lory.” His voice was steady, but his heart picked up pace as he explained to her in detail that this mission was a real trial—one she supposedly wasn’t the first one to go through. Aiden had been sent to the mountains.
“I thought I was being sent there because I’m dispensable to the Triad.” Was that a flicker of foolish hope in her voice? “I thought they wanted me to fight the rebels so they could save their precious troops for other missions—”
“That’s what they want you to believe. And it’s not entirely a lie.
The rebels are holding the mountain passes, and you might get attacked out there and kill a few of them on your mission, but the real danger isn’t the Criu fighting for their province’s freedom.
It’s the Ashthorn students who will be lying in wait with their magic and whatever weapons they were able to build from what the mountains provide. ”
A shiver raked through Lory’s body as his words settled. “How long have you known this was what would happen?” She pulled her arms back from Khayrivven’s stomach, and the deep ache of betrayal stung her chest.
“No one can know I’ve told you. You’re supposed to walk into this unprepared.” He paused, glancing at her over his shoulder with the assessing eyes of the captain. “Brunn informed me when I got back from Lu’Shen’s that you were to go to the Amrin Mountains. Ulder’s orders.”
Trying not to panic, Lory studied the mountains ahead. “And what’s his interest in me? Why is one fire-wielding ashling from the streets of Dunai of such interest to the King of Brestolya?”
In front of her, Khayrivven’s spine stiffened, Caramel whipping his head up and down in response.
“Tell me, Khayrivven, or I swear by Eroth, I will use those sabers to stab you in the back.” Words of anger and betrayal, but in that moment, she meant them, and Khayrivven, the Guardians bless him, realized that.
“Because you’re the first Flame that fits the prophecy my father was executed for nineteen years ago.” He went so still in front of her as he waited for her reaction, Lory forgot they were still sitting on a horse.
“What prophecy?” The words came out between gritted teeth. Hot and cold chased each other through her veins as she tried to wrap her mind around Khayrivven’s revelation.
“About the Flame that will take down Ulder’s rule.”