Chapter 30
CHAPTER
Unaccustomed to the feeling of our connected minds, Varro replied aloud, “What’s wrong?”
He felt my fear; he could hear it in the way my voice quivered down the bond.
“Before Nori passed, she didn’t just show me visions of her assailant…” I hesitated, wondering if I should even speak of it with no confirmations of my own. But I could not keep this secret to myself. The information was too grave, too vital. “She showed me a vision of Princess Embry.”
“What of her?” he asked softly, stroking his hand down my arm.
“It was hazy, somewhat unclear. She was engaged in affections with a male. One that I recognized, although it doesn’t make sense.”
His hand paused its movements. “Whom? Whom did you see?”
I inhaled deeply, my chest already feeling tight from his name sitting at the tip of my tongue.
“Saryn.”
Varro leaned away from our embrace and looked at me incredulously.
“What? How would the princess know Saryn?” he asked, looking thoughtful before answering his own question. “Maybe, as Nori was losing consciousness, her ability to accurately convey visions to you in the dreamscape became flawed. She was under serious duress.”
“I know it makes no sense, but it must mean something. It was the last thing she wanted me to see. I can’t explain why, but something isn’t right.”
We lay there in contemplative silence, him thinking about what I had shared and me staring at the stars, sorting through my grief.
Death comes in so many unique forms. Sometimes you see it from a distance, moving toward you at a pace so glacial it’s easy to ignore.
Other times it hovers above you, mockingly, like the first drops of rain when the sun is still shining.
It made me wonder which was better; swiftly, at the hands of an enemy, or slowly, taken by old age.
The finality of Nori’s death was profound to me. There were no last words, no vivid interactions, no moment to memorize every detail of her face. Like many Gods, Death mocks the expectations of those it presides over. Varro repeated himself until my attention stirred back to him.
“I will convene with Trace first and bring your concerns to him before we all meet for the sabbath. Say nothing of this to the others.”
Varro’s instructions were clear, but it was hard to imagine him teaming up with Trace now that we had sealed the bond. Did Varro want to be the one to tell him?
The sensation of the bond had evolved from something erratic to a near continuous flow of energy.
It felt reinforced in every way. My body seemed like it had the strength of two now, and though it was easy to settle my mind, there was a constant inclination to communicate through the bond.
Before, I never knew how frequently I’d get to see or speak to him, but that constraint had been removed.
We parted in the earliest hours of the morning, comforted by the knowledge that even if we weren’t able to see each other, we now had access to each other at any time.
With it being the sabbath, even the shipyard’s occupants would be sleeping in, taking respite from their duties.
I portaled back to the castle and made an excuse about my whereabouts to El, citing Gia’s personal needs in the middle of the night.
I knew Varro would be busy trying to contact Trace during the day, as unlike me, he must have some idea regarding his whereabouts.
Had they met like this before, without the rest of us?
It was strange to think of them working together.
Every flippant thought or question I had, I wanted to ask him, but I also didn’t want to be a nuisance.
I knew I’d be seeing him soon enough—even if it still felt like too long.
Things at the castle had seemingly intensified in my absence with more Kingsguards patrolling the halls and stationed at various exits.
The gossip mill amongst the servants swirled with news of the missing prisoner that had killed a healer, and I winced each time I caught wind of their misinformed prattling.
That healer was my friend! Any information about the prisoner being a Northerner, or working on behalf of the North, were more absurdities planted to stoke the fire of hatred for Cambria.
It took every ounce of my self-control not to unload the truth on every one of them.
Just once, down the bond, I heard Varro say softly, “Stay calm.”
When I arrived at Gia’s room, she looked like she hadn’t slept a wink.
Her hair was a disheveled mess, but her soiled clothing was nowhere to be found, so I reasoned she must have discovered a way to safely dispose of it.
She sat in front of the mirror at her dresser waiting for me to help make her appearance acceptable.
I attempted to brush the tangles from her long blonde curls when I noticed the dark circles around her still-bloodshot eyes.
She had clearly been crying since we’d parted.
I squeezed her shoulder with one hand, and she unexpectedly reached up to hold it in place with her own.
“Is this our fault?” she sniffled, looking at me for some sort of reprieve.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly, still grappling with my own guilt and trying to understand why the most innocent of us had to die first. Continuing to create small, intricate braids in her hair, I added, “We have to get to the bottom of this. It can’t be coincidence that no guards were present to aid her while she was treating the prisoners.
” Treating the ailment I had caused, I thought to myself bitterly.
She would have never been down there treating anyone, trying to make a connection with Embry, if we all hadn’t organized her involvement in this whole plan.
A tear rolled down Gia’s unusually puffy cheeks. “Cairis hasn’t found out any more than I have, other than warning me that Zarif is on the rampage. He has the Kingsguards on high alert, declaring Northern infiltration has breached castle walls, threatening lowborn and highborn alike.”
I slammed the hairbrush on the table. “That fucking snake! He is the infiltrator. He spreads lies like a plague to his own people. All of this…” I said, throwing my hands up in exasperation, “It’s all him. Him and his false king.”
Gia shushed me, trying to quiet my voice which had begun to carry.
She was already dressed, thankfully, and her hair was as good as I was going to achieve given all my distractions.
I was going to tell her about me and Varro when, all of a sudden, I heard his voice yelling frantically down the bond, “Come! Come as soon as you can!”
I quickly relayed the message to Gia, who looked at me in a state of utter confusion and shock as to how I suddenly became aware of this message.
“How do you know what Varro is saying…?” Her eyes widened as she turned to face me, and before I could answer her, she declared in disbelief, “You sealed the bond!”
Her statement came out both as a question and an accusation. “Yes,” I said. “I’ll tell you about it later, but right now we have to go!”
We both exited her room with urgency, making sure that she was seen heading to prayers and me back to my duties per our usual farce, before finding our private places to portal back to the safehouse.
We both exited our swirling gray clouds in the alleyway simultaneously.
Anxiety constricting at my lungs, I glanced in both directions, looking for signs of Trace or Varro.
We both turned at the sound of abrupt commotion inside.
Upon entering the shelter, we discovered Saryn gagged and tied to a chair.
His hands and feet were bound tightly with rope, Trace and Varro flanking his sides defensively.
“What is going on here?” Gia yelled in bewilderment.
This was an unwelcome sight. Fear began to invade my thoughts as I looked first at Varro and then to Trace, whose nostrils flared and eyes narrowed at my presence.
He knew. I don’t know how, but he did. And it heightened the uncomfortable circumstances even more.
Suddenly, the sound of Cairis barreling through the backdoor broke the tension.
“What in the fuck did I just walk into?” he said brazenly, kicking the door shut behind him.
“That’s what I want to know!” Gia added, folding her arms across her chest.
I exhaled deeply, but only because I knew slightly more than them. We all waited silently for someone to begin an explanation that might not result in all of us being in an insurmountable amount of shit with Idris—possibly even the king himself.
Trace’s expression was severe, and he remained on guard, knowing what Saryn was capable of. I spoke down the bond with worry, “Are you keeping him subdued?”
“Yes,” Varro said quickly, mind to mind, before I redirected my attention back to Trace.
“I have been keeping an eye on the safehouse for some time now. I have also been monitoring our fearless leader here,” he said, pointing at Saryn. “In doing so, I began to notice some peculiar things that he has never shared with any of us.”
“What’s that?” Cairis chimed in, just as impatient as the rest of us.
“He has not only been making multiple trips via moonstone to Gods knows where…but he’s also been donning pristine Kingsguard’s armor along with a face other than his own.”
You could hear a pin drop. We had all assumed Saryn had been doing many things we were not aware of while we were embedded.
One of which was getting messages to and from the border and helping gather whatever intel he could about incidents that might need our attention.
Saryn tried yelling again, the gag muffling his words into something unintelligible, in an attempt to explain himself.
“Why is that concerning?” Gia asked.
“That is why I had not told any of you. It wasn’t concerning until our friend Varro here informed me of something Cress shared with him.”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward me expectantly.
“In Nori’s final moments, she sent me a vision of Princess Embry…being embraced by him,” I said, gesturing at our helpless but lethal mentor.
Gia gasped and Trace’s jaw clenched. Saryn’s eyes flickered imperceptibly, but I had been watching intently for some reaction as I said the princess’s name. Varro bent down close to Saryn’s face.
“If you scream, if you make any sort of commotion, I will make you feel the kind of pain that has you begging for Death’s cold embrace.”
This was one of the few times I had ever seen Varro’s demeanor shift so intensely.
I could feel the protectiveness of the bond swarming inside of me.
He wasn’t worried so much about Saryn being a threat to the others in the room as he was worried for me.
This was Varro’s instinct as my mate taking over his otherwise normally peaceful approach.
Varro removed the gag from Saryn’s mouth.
Trace twirled his blade menacingly. “Explain yourself,” he commanded.
Saryn panted breathlessly. “What the fuck do you all think you’re doing! Untie me now. I am a member of the Imperi, and this is mutiny!”
Gia looked slightly concerned, but Cairis was unconvinced—for now.
I stepped forward, taking over the interrogation. “How do you know Princess Embry?” I prodded, trying to break through his mental shields. But after so many years of practice, they were impenetrable.
Saryn gritted his teeth and eyed me angrily. “I don’t know her!” he shouted, his spittle landing on the floor between us.
“Don’t lie to us!”
“You trust the delusional visions of a tortured and dying female over my word?” he argued.
“She has a name! Say it!” I yelled back at him, furious at his refusal.
“Nori,” he said, enunciating each syllable. “You can’t trust what she showed you, because it’s not real.”
I turned my back to him, frustrated with the way this was all unfolding. The thought of more creative means to get answers started to cloud my judgement.
“You want to try and torture a different answer out of me, Cress, go ahead! We’ve seen your inclination for these methods; you put on quite a show last night… But it doesn’t change my answer. I don’t know her.”
With my back turned to him as he spewed his arrogant denials, I was able to shut out the distractions surrounding everything he espoused, and that’s when I heard it. The way his voice slightly raised with the slightest desperation when he said the word her.
I turned to face him, cocking my head to the side, assessing him and the silence between us before crouching down to his eye level.
“I think I am going to put on quite a show again, because I’m done speaking with you. I’ll speak with the princess instead.”
I watched his pupils dilate in confirmation of my threat.
“You dare to torture our only ally…a meaningless royal,” he replied.
I stood and began to walk toward the back door before looking over my shoulder and locking eyes with him. “Not a meaningless royal…your mate!”
I turned back to the door, reaching for the handle and keeping my mental shields dropped purposefully as I conjured every sick and twisted thought of what I had planned for her. Making sure Saryn knew what I was prepared to do. Just as I began to step through the doorway, a shout came from behind.
“Stop!”
I turned around, shutting the door behind me, and marched over to place myself nose-to-nose with him.
“Start talking, now, or have a front-row seat to her pain. That’s how the bond works, right?”
By now, my peers’ expressions had gone from skepticism to impatience.
I instructed everyone but Varro to take a seat. “Friends, we’re going to be here awhile. I have a feeling Saryn has much to share with us.”