Chapter Seventeen #2
I turned my attention to the rowdy recruits and frowned as well but not for bemoaning the lack of a life well served.
Rather, I mourned the fact that they'd offered any service at all. Protecting one’s home, that’s what Kano had called it, and that was likely what most men believed they were doing when they joined up with the Geist’s ancient army.
But how could a place that treated them hardly any better than slaves be called home?
Then again, hadn’t that been what Adrian had always tried to get me to understand?
That Sanctuary was an entirely different place for those in the Third Ring than it was for us up in the First. Was this how she'd always felt?
Being relegated to the lower rungs of society, never really knowing the truth about your home, never really being allowed to have anything for yourself, being simply used by those above you and forced to find a way to cope.
I took a breath and turned away from the recruits, drinking deeply from my cup. Suddenly, the ale didn’t taste so bad anymore.
“How do they tame them?” I asked, though I didn’t really expect an answer.
I imagined if either of these men had an answer to that question, the Geist themselves would have an army of the Zver of their own with their own riders ready to fly into battle.
Or they would have disposed of the creatures long ago and the threat we faced would be nothing more than a distant legend.
“No one knows,” Castor answered, much to my surprise.
His tone was grim, his voice low and flat, as he replied.
“As far as I know, rider and Zver have always been a package deal. I don’t know that there’s anyone alive who remembers a time in which one existed without the other.
All I know is that they share a connection unlike anything else.
They seem to…sense each other’s needs. They always know where their partner is and seem to suffer along with them.
If you stab a rider, his Zver wails. If you slash at a Zver, his rider stumbles.
It’s the strangest thing and something we used to think was a weakness but, the more we face them, the more I wonder if it isn’t their greatest strength. ”
“It’s as if they can read each other’s minds,” Kano muttered into his cup and my gaze snapped to his.
Read each other’s minds.
Of course. It had been some time since I’d last tried but I was getting stronger in my magic lately thanks to my training with Kleio.
Deimos had claimed my connection with Adrian had been severed but I couldn’t imagine how something that had become such a part of me, something I’d hardly had to think more of than taking my next breath, could be stolen away so easily.
And if Kleio was right and she was still out there, still alive…
Adrian.
I waited, barely daring to breathe as I did. But I was hardly surprised when nothing happened, when no one answered.
I sighed, taking another sip of ale. I couldn’t help but wonder at what Kano had said.
It was as if rider and Zver could read one another’s minds.
Adrian and I had only been capable of doing that when the Geist had bestowed that Blessing upon us and made us to.
So the question begged to be asked. If what had existed between Adrian and I could be unmade, could that which existed between rider and Zver be broken as well?
“Viper,” a gruff voice broke in from behind me, interrupting my thoughts. I turned to see a frowning Valin. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
“You as well, Captain,” I replied somberly, raising my mug in his direction. “Thought you would be above all this drunken revelry.”
The corners of Valin’s lips ticked in displeasure.
“The men work hard,” he muttered. “They deserve to let off some steam at the end of the day. Should they choose to turn to drunken revelry to do so, who am I to deny them?”
“And you, Captain? How do you let off steam?”
“I drink shitty ale and listen to my men complain.”
He slapped Castor on the shoulder as his lieutenant burst into a fit of laughter and Kano chuckled along with him. But I just scowled at the Captain as he turned and walked away from our table toward another nearby.
I couldn’t get our last encounter from my mind.
When he'd been ready to tear into me over my attitude and we’d been interrupted by none other than Saint Alosia herself.
Did his men know about her? Did they know about the madness and grief some of the Fallen had allowed their guilt to drive them to?
If not, then how much did Captain Valin know about Pavos that his men did not?
In the beginning, the Fallen fell into the wilderness of the land around this city.
Prima and Valin were one of the first pairs to compete in the Trials, let alone finish them and claim their victory.
Was Prima out there somewhere, having survived thousands of years in the desert?
Did Valin know? Did he know his partner lived, that all of our partners lived?
And had he watched Alosia go insane instead of imparting to her the knowledge that might have saved her from her guilt? Would he have done the same to me?
I rose so suddenly my knee bumped the table, sending what little ale remained in my mug spilling over the edge.
Castor cursed before reaching out to right the cup.
Kano dabbed at the spill with a nearby napkin, muttering a question along the lines of ‘what’s wrong with you, boy’, but I wasn’t listening.
I pulled my eyes from the Captain, lips curled in disgust, and turned away.
“Thank you for the ale, gentlemen,” I announced, my voice much colder than I intended it to be. “I think I’ll be heading to bed now.”
Neither of them replied as I whirled on my feet and strode out of the tavern.
I walked along the city border back toward the barracks.
It wasn’t the most direct route but I wasn’t truly ready to lie down in my cot, not yet.
There was far too much on my mind to settle for the evening.
The alcohol seemed to be warring with my fury for control over my hazy mental state.
But I kept walking, muttering to myself every now and then how overwhelmingly ridiculous this whole thing was.
I'd just passed behind one of the armories when the barracks I slept in came into view.
I frowned at the figures in the dark moving toward the doors from all directions and moved to step out into the road myself but something held me back.
A sensation, like the prickling at the back of my neck. I recognized it immediately.
Someone was watching me.
I turned around, expecting to find that Castor had followed me from the tavern, ready to either question me or scold me for my behavior, but no one was there.
I faced nothing but darkness behind the vast armory.
Brows wrinkled in confusion, I turned back to continue on my way. That was when I saw her.
She’d snuck up behind me when I'd turned to investigate the darkness of the armory.
She was short, that was the first thing I noticed, nearly a foot shorter than I was so that I had to look down to meet those glinting, very human eyes.
My lips parted in surprise but, before I could say a word, her blade was at my throat.
My eyes widened in confusion. A human in Pavos would never dare threaten a soldier, much less a Victor. Then I noticed the cloak wrapped around her shoulders and billowing out behind her in the slight evening breeze.
Black.
“What—” I started.
The moment my mouth opened, her fingers were against my tongue and, an instant later, a bulbous object was shoved down my throat.
I coughed, trying to dislodge whatever she'd fed me, but the foul taste was already spreading down my throat and into my chest. I could feel it working its way into my stomach, warmth spreading throughout my torso, amongst my organs.
“Stay silent and live, Viper,” the woman hissed, lowering me gently to the ground and bending over me.
Her shoulder-length dark hair swayed as she turned side to side, eyes roving the night to ensure no one had seen.
“Who are—” I started, but my words were already slurring and the night around me was already becoming darker. I blinked, fighting to regain consciousness, but it was no use.
The woman pulled a knife from her boot before turning to face me, but then the darkness claimed me and I knew no more.