Chapter 21
S?ren
I decided to change into fresh clothes before I went into the city to meet with Mira.
I opened the door of the bedroom I was staying in and lit the lamps, only to swear. Mira lounged on my bed, kicking her feet off the edge. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
“The queen wants to see you. She’s impatient, too—was pretty upset when I returned to her with the news that you’d be gone for a few days.” She turned her head to face me. “We need to leave as soon as possible.”
I bit back my angry thoughts. Mira didn’t deserve to be the recipient of my wrath. I wondered whether the queen had continued to withhold meals from her—whether Mira still thought she’d done the right thing by telling the queen about me and Revna.
Where did the teleporter’s true loyalty lie? I hoped it was with me but worried I was wrong.
“Who does she want to see—S?ren or the Hellbringer?”
Mira sighed. “The masked menace, of course.”
“Not even sure why I bother asking anymore,” I said, striding to open the hutch doors. Mira did me the decency of turning around while I changed. The moment my boots were buckled and the last latch on the helmet was in place, I faced her.
“Let’s go.” My distorted voice nearly startled me. How long had it been since I was the Hellbringer? The scholar mask was innocuous, innocent. I was relieved to wear the face that didn’t require me to hide my displeasure at…
We appeared in front of the Kryllian palace. My thought finished itself. Everything.
When the queen finally allowed us to enter her throne room, my patience had worn thin.
My boots made a satisfying sound on the tiled floor with every step, the familiar weight of my sword heavy on my left hip.
The nobles leaving as we entered stared unabashedly, their murmurs echoing through the giant room.
I ignored them, stopping only to snarl at one who reached out with tentative fingers, as if to touch me.
The sound was terrifying with the voice distortion. Mira’s expression of disgust told me everything she thought about the occurrence.
The doors slammed shut behind us, and the queen laughed.
Her high-pitched tittering glanced off the myriad embellishments adorning the walls.
Unlike Bhorglid’s throne room, which was stark and purposeful, the palace was a show of power through wealth.
It made sense. The mines in Kryllian made the rich even richer.
The people the queen needed to impress were flush with wealth.
The show of gold and precious jewels was an intimidation tactic, just like the austerity of the throne room in Bhorglid.
“Welcome back,” she said, leaning forward on her throne to study me.
Her voice was cheerful, but I knew where to look to see her real mood—and her eyes were full of fury.
“I am disappointed in you, Hellbringer. You have yet to bring me any real news of the princess’s abilities.
I gave you a single task, and you still manage to fail me. ”
Mira can give the same damned report just fine.
I gritted my teeth and forced my tone to smooth, a false layer of calm over my anger.
It matched the queen’s, fire for fire. “Like I’m sure Mira has attested, the Queen of Bhorglid is progressing well in her training.
Her Lurae only rarely reacts to her emotional state now, and for the most part, she is in control of her magic. ”
“Not good enough.”
My head snapped up, and the queen hissed aloud at my defiance. But I refused to bow again. “You gave me three weeks to get her Lurae under control. I’ve done the best I possibly could.”
She stood from her throne, towering over me on her dais. “I require nothing less than perfection.”
“It takes most Lurae years to fully master their abilities—”
The queen drew her sword—the same one I’d dreamt about, that she had taken from Aloisa—and marched to me. She thrust one sharp edge against my throat. “Your insolence will not be tolerated, Hellbringer. Will she be capable of using her magic when I arrive to negotiate the treaty or not?”
The unspoken threat lingered in my mind, as it always did. Sonja. Her life was on the line until I found her and brought her to safety, away from the clutches of the queen. Every part of me wanted to cower in the face of her and this knowledge. On any other day, I would have.
But just yesterday, Revna had trusted me. She’d confessed what happened with Halvar. She’d leaned on me and drifted to sleep while I brought us back to Bhorglid. I knew she would never forgive me, but she also never failed to make me feel like a man instead of a monster.
And now this tiny woman whom I’d never even seen use a Lurae wanted to use the woman I love for her own gain. She was desperate for Revna to master her abilities. But why? Did she want access to the Tapestry? Or something else entirely?
Either way, I knew Revna was only a means to an end for the queen. And it made me furious.
I wanted to snuff out the life in front of me. Take the soul and rip it from her body until she lay lifeless on the floor. Better yet, I wanted to draw my own sword and plunge it into her stomach.
I held myself back. Not yet. You need to keep Sonja safe, and Revna needs that treaty signed. Neither of those things can happen if the queen is dead.
Curling my trembling hands in on themselves, I answered her question with one of my own. “Where,” I said slowly, savoring every roughhewn word, “did you get this sword?”
The reaction was instant. Her eyes widened and the blade shook.
A slight motion, but one I inevitably noticed, considering the weapon was pressed to my throat.
I felt a drop of blood descending from the shallow wound there and swallowed a depraved thought about Revna’s tongue tracing the same path.
The blood in my veins was a roaring river in my ears.
But the queen’s surprise slowly morphed into a predatory gleam. “You want to know about this blade? It has the potential to rend the future in two. Now tell me whether the little bitch will be able to control her magic fully in one week, or it will rend you in two instead.”
The entire war between Kryllian and Bhorglid raged inside of me in the span of a second.
I gathered the sharp blade of my magic, ready to sever the threads that bound the queen’s soul to her body. They glowed and trembled, like her very essence could sense my intention.
And then I thought of Revna. I can’t make things worse for her.
The queen knew it, too. She knew I still cared for Revna, and she was using my emotions to manipulate me. Anja had me backed into a corner, one I saw no escape from. I pulled back on my Lurae, calmed my breathing, and told the queen what she wanted to hear.
“The Queen of Bhorglid will have complete mastery over her Lurae by the time you arrive for negotiations.”
I was dressed like a scholar—except for the sword at my hip.
As I arrived in town, the palace spires rising above the forestry, anger beat a furious tempo in my chest. My weapon of choice was my sword, but I knew what kind of attention it would draw if I pulled it on someone here. Swords were the weapons of soldiers, not scholars. Not townsfolk.
Daggers, though? No one would bat an eye if I threatened someone with a mere knife. The one sheathed on my forearm practically begged me to pull it out, but I resisted. Not yet.
I’d taken a circuitous route, worried the queen would have spies tailing me.
It wouldn’t be the first time. I hoped the cloak I’d swiped from a clothesline on my way into town was enough to disguise me from any lingering eyes.
The path to my destination was one I had memorized by now.
The village was laid out messily, and no signs denoted the proper direction of any buildings.
After all, most citizens in Kryllian couldn’t read.
When I arrived at the small home, I rapped my knuckles on the back door and waited.
The instant the man opened it a crack, I shoved my hand in to grab him by the front of the shirt and haul him out. His garbled cries of panic went unheeded as I slammed him against the side of the building and held the point of the blade beneath his chin.
“What news do you have?” I said through gritted teeth.
He’d stopped thrashing when he recognized me. Likely not the first time a client had come demanding answers. “You’re threatening me?” His scowl embraced all of his features, distorting them into distaste. “At my own home? Foul of you—I’ve been waiting for you to show up, you know.”
“Why?”
“For an update, you jackass.”
I pressed the blade against his skin a little harder. “Then update me before I kill you.”
“Gods! I found the woman you’re looking for, all right? If you want more than that, you have to let me go.”
Blinking, I released him. “You found her?”
He pushed my dagger away, an easy feat with me so shocked. As he brushed himself off, he grumbled, “Don’t look so surprised. It’s what you paid me to do, isn’t it?”
The desperation of the afternoon faded like morning fog in the sun. Now I was frantic. “Where?”
The man sighed. “Sonja Anselm. She’s traveling with a caravan of Seeing Ones. When I caught wind of her ten days ago or so, they were in southern Faste. Headed toward Kryllian, from what my informants said.”
The information registered slowly, but when it sank in, I couldn’t breathe. She’s alive, she’s alive, she’s alive. Despite the queen’s assurances and threats, I’d long wondered whether Sonja had perished after escaping the Kryllian palace dungeons.
“Did they say anything else?” Even I heard the desperation in my voice. “Is she well?”
The man shrugged. “Well enough. They said she looked happy—she had a wedding ring on and a baby on her hip, though it’s not certain whether the baby was hers.”
Safe. Sonja is safe.
I didn’t thank him, only shoved the bag of coins I’d put in my pocket on the way out of the palace into his hands.
I walked back to the palace in a daze. My hands itched for something to do. Did I leave now and go to Faste?
No. No, I wouldn’t abandon Revna. Sonja’s location and safety were the queen’s bargaining chip. While I couldn’t guarantee my sister would remain safe, at least I knew where she was. At least I knew she hadn’t been killed by the queen.
I had to make a choice. My battles had been divided, two fronts before me. It was the worst thing that could happen to an army, a general. I knew from firsthand experience how hopeless things became when you split your focus this way. When a general was forced to make a sacrifice.
But I could not be everywhere at once. I did, however, know where I was needed most. So when I arrived in the garden to find a scowling Mira waiting for me, I held out my arm and said, “Take me back to Bhorglid.”