Chapter Thirty-One
Dante
“Executing them is only making martyrs. Another solution must be reached. Perhaps imprisonment? Rehabilitation?”
— A Letter from Atticus, Heir of House Avus, to Cadence, Matriarch of House Lynx
An encampment for nine was much harder to build than one for three. But, with the additional supplies Rainier and his riders had brought with them, we managed.
Night having fallen, I stared into the roaring fire at the center of our camp, covered head to toe in blood that did not belong to the massive beast one of Rainier’s men had hunted for dinner.
He and Roman were discussing the animal now, the former telling the latter that such creatures were common in the forests of Archí, a place we were now close enough to for the Zver and their riders to hunt within, apparently.
I was hardly listening. Boys. They'd been just boys, fresh recruits from the human slums of Pavos, promised a destiny of legendary proportion only to be delivered to death’s door in the form of Zver’s teeth and mine and Roman’s blades.
My hands shook so I hid them beneath my bowl of venison, but I couldn’t hide the haunted gleam in my eyes. One of Rainier’s riders noticed.
“Never killed before?” She was pretty in a mundane sort of way. Mousy brown hair and hazel eyes. Everything about her screamed human and she seemed to delight in that, dressing the part in plain leathers and simple boots.
“I…not like that,” I replied.
She arched a brow.
“That was a slaughter,” I clarified. “They didn’t have a chance.”
“They shouldn’t have been blocking the pass,” she replied with a shrug, turning away to finish the last of her meal.
Disgusted, I set the remainder of mine aside, rising from my place at the fire and brushing my hands off on pants I'd forgotten were bloody. I wished for a bath or even a steam. I would settle for a simple change of clothes. Anything that wasn’t covered in the blood of children.
I shuddered. I'd seen Zver kill before, up close even, but there was something about being on the other side of it, on their side, that was unsettling. Not as terrifying, true. I didn’t have to worry about death swooping down from above, but their ferocity, their predatory talent, the way they killed, shredding and gnashing and poisoning, it was brutal.
And to be the ones who loosed those weapons upon young, untested recruits, it broke something in my soul.
Something that, apparently, the others I surrounded myself with had lost long ago.
“Are you okay?” a familiar voice called from the direction of the tents.
I looked up briefly, my enhanced vision picking Ksenia out easily in the shadows.
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
“Did you know any of them?”
I hesitated. No one else had bothered to ask me that.
“No,” I said.
“Small mercies,” she replied.
I just scoffed.
“You disapprove,” she said. It wasn’t a question.
“Of killing children? Yes. I do.”
“Those children were conscripted soldiers sent out to find an enemy. Instead of hating their opposition, perhaps you should hate the ones who conscripted them in the first place.”
“Don’t worry. I hate them too.”
“Do you hate yourself then?”
My gaze snapped to hers and I held it there for a moment, the question suspended between us. Then I stepped in closer, lowering my voice so that only she could hear me, allowing the hard edge of my grief to sharpen as I spoke.
“Every damn day,” I snarled.
Then I stepped away, leaving Ksenia standing alone in the dark while I found my tent and a restless night’s sleep spent covered in the blood of human slaves.
***
“We’ll be in Archí by evening,” Rainier announced the next morning as we rose and took down our camp, preparing for the day’s journey.
“That’s quick,” I said, unable to help myself.
Rainier’s eyes found mine, widening briefly in surprise.
I hadn’t spoken to any of them since dinner the previous evening and they all knew why.
Word had gotten around regarding my feelings for what we'd done. They all looked at me with pity or disgust or both. I didn’t care. I was just the bait anyway.
“The pass was a shortcut,” he informed me, his eyes narrowing. “That’s why it was so important we took it.”
I didn't give him the satisfaction of a response. If Rainier wanted to justify the slaughter of young men with a strategic tactical advantage, I wasn’t going to validate his choice.
It wasn’t the one I would have made and, truthfully, it didn’t seem like the one the hero I'd grown up on legends of would have either.
So I said nothing and we both climbed upon our mounts, ready to depart.
Roman and Ksenia were speaking in low tones a bit away from the group, plotting under the guise of packing. Rainier’s riders were busy loading up their own mounts as well which left me alone with the legendary hero.
“What’s it like?” Rainier asked after a moment of tense silence. “Knowing you’re riding to your death?”
I ignored him but he must have noticed the way my jaw tensed in irritation for I saw the satisfied grin he turned away with as one of his men approached and announced we were ready to leave.
The others mounted their beasts and Roman mounted his horse and we were off within moments. The captain caught up to me only a few minutes into the journey.
“What was that about?” he asked with a nod in Rainier’s direction.
“He’s an asshole,” I replied.
Roman snorted at that and I could have sworn the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile.
“Finally, something we agree on, Viper.”
Then we were moving.
Ksenia, Rainier, and the riders cast an enormous shadow over us as we made our way through the winding pass between sandstone cliffs.
Phantom led the line, despite Rainier having been the obvious leader of the group before.
He soared overhead, staring down at our surroundings with shrewd red eyes.
I avoided his gaze, keeping my eyes cast down on the sand beneath my horse’s hooves.
It was coarser here, rockier, as if it had been carved from the cliff side surrounding it rather than having formed a natural floor.
I tried to think about the sand. I tried to think about the horse beneath me or the Zver above me. I tried to think of their riders and the forest they'd claimed to glimpse the day before. But all I could really think about were the words Rainier had spoken and just how much they'd affected me.
What’s it feel like knowing you’re riding to your death?
Admittedly, not great. I’d known I was bait from the very beginning.
I’d known of the human prince's plan to offer me up to the vengeance of my former partner in an effort to lay claim to the power she held. I’d come this far knowing where I was going, what fate I was marching toward.
But now that the hour of my destiny was at hand, I…
well, truth be told, I never really thought we’d make it.
I assumed we would have been found by now, captured or killed and left to rot in the desert like the sun-bleached carcasses of the many animals we'd come upon in our travels. And if that hadn’t happened, we still would have had to find her.
I hadn’t expected my human companions to have such extensive knowledge of the world outside their walled cities.
Nor had I expected to come across an ancient hero from Sanctuary.
One who was clearly Fallen himself and would have the best sense of where Adrian had gone, enough to lead us right to her.
So I’d played my cards wrong. I’d bluffed and they’d called and now I was left to accept my fate, whether I was ready to or not.
She might not kill you, a small voice offered from the back of my mind. But I knew the truth. I would. I did.
“He’ll take you to Prima first,” Roman said suddenly, nodding up toward where Rainier flew above us.
I snapped out of my thoughts at the sound of the Captain’s voice, low in warning.
“They’re always suspicious of us. And now that we’ve brought you along, they’ll be even more wary of allowing us into their camp. ”
“Shouldn’t they be?” I asked with a raised brow. “I mean, you do intend to use me as bait to lure their shiny new weapon away.”
Roman frowned but his brow furrowed in confusion.
“Away?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “Is that what you think? That we want to lure Adrian away from Archí and take her home?”
I blinked back at him, stunned at the insinuation that wasn’t precisely their plan.
“Is that not your intention?” I replied, genuinely surprised.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “We don't wish to steal from the Archíans. Least of all an untenable powder keg of dark magic.”
“Then why are we here? What do you hope to accomplish?”
“A partnership. We have the same enemy. Why shouldn’t we join together to defeat those who murdered or enslaved scores of our mutual ancestors?”
“So why haven’t you before?”
“There have been attempts throughout the centuries from both sides. But neither was ever willing to sacrifice what would be necessary in a war. Not without a greater chance of winning. We have that now.”
“She’s that powerful?” I asked, gaping at him.
“She will be,” he assured me, jaw set in grim determination, “with training.”
We fell silent then. The only sounds between us were the trotting of our horse’s hooves in the sand and the wingbeats of the Zver crowding the sky above us.
“You truly believe it, don’t you?” I asked a moment later, unable to keep the awe from my voice. “You truly believe you can defeat them.”
“I have to,” he ground out through gritted teeth. “Otherwise, we've failed our ancestors. We've failed all of humanity.”
“You could live. Your walls have stood for thousands of years. You could stay behind them and live. Keep existing, keep procreating, keep going. What does it matter if beings who fancy themselves deities live across a stretch of arable wasteland if they never come to you? If you never see them?”
“This is our world. It’s time we took it back.”
I stared at him, wondering if he was serious.
“But—” I began but got no further.
At that moment we crested a hill and I saw the most lush land I'd ever laid eyes on. Tall towering trees littered the landscape, so many I couldn’t see between them.
A rushing river wound around them, beckoning to those of us who'd spent so long in the stifling heat of the desert.
I had the nearly unbearable urge to run toward the water, strip off my clothes, and bathe until the dirt, grime, and blood from the road washed away along with my sins.
“Welcome to the Archían Forest, Betrayer,” Rainier called down from where his Zver circled above, a cruel glint in his eyes as he uttered his preferred nickname for me.
I ignored him, focusing on the mile after mile of uninterrupted trees. It was the most incredible show of natural life I’d ever seen and, after so long in the dead desert, it felt like nothing short of a miracle.
So, even though I knew each step forward was one closer to my death, I began to take them with a smile.
How lovely it would be to die here among the trees.