Chapter 48 Evander
Chapter forty-eight
Evander
The Dread Five crew rode the waves of their dragon’s long body like sailors on a rolling sea.
Evander could feel their icy glares on his back as the clouds wetted his face.
He kept an eye on Samara as she held the reins steady.
She didn’t seem like a bereft woman; she just seemed frightened. More frightened than angry, he thought.
Haldir sat at the tail like a cornered animal, watching the Cobblepinions.
In return, Evander caught them stealing glances at Haldir, their eyes glistening with cruel hunger.
Sitting beside him, Valenna looked deeply unimpressed with the whole crew, and it was gratifying not to be the only person fed up with them for once.
The flat marshlands rose to craggy, black mountains that bordered the strait.
As the sun dipped, they landed in a sheltered pass overlooking the sea.
Spires of dark, marbled rock rose over them, blocking out the cloud-smothered sun.
Gusts of wind whistled through the crags, but their camp was sheltered.
Since the dreadnought was too large and conspicuous to fly over Scathmore, Evander planned to leave her in the mountains and swim the narrowest part of the strait to the Barrens.
The tide would be in their favor on the journey in, but it would be against them on the way back.
Because of this, they would have to take a different return route, by way of the Crag, or risk being caught in the open when the sun rose.
For now, they would wait until nightfall.
Despite the spring warmth, the atmosphere was frigid. The conscripts were too quiet, too deliberate. Evander gripped his cutlass and his shotfire, his palms sweating. He felt like he was hugging a scattershot ball against his chest.
“How did we not know about Samara and Lysander?” Valenna whispered.
Evander inclined his head toward her, keeping his gaze fixed on the others. “I can’t wrap my mind around it.”
The wind moaned through the spires; a dirge.
Samara walked past, her plate of untouched food shaking in her hands. “Stop looking so shocked,” she hissed. “So I was betrothed to Lysander, so what?”
“Did you even love that boy?” Evander asked. “You were so far superior to him in every way.”
“Vander!” Valenna exclaimed. “Be nice!”
“It’s true! Samara is my best trainee, and Lysander failed out of the program.”
A glimmer of gratitude showed in Samara’s eyes, but she blinked it away. “I tried to love him. I loved the idea of being married to him and leading Cobblepine with him ... for him. Now that he’s gone, I’m just the apothecary’s daughter. I could have been dragon master with a connection like that.”
Samara turned to join her friends, but as she did, she passed Haldir and, by accident or intent, jostled his arm. He spilled his dinner ration across the ground.
“Watch where you’re going, you little skat!” Haldir bellowed.
“Watch who you call a skat!” Ignatius shouted back, vaulting to his feet.
“Hal …” Evander warned. Before he could move to stop him, Haldir pulled his knife from his belt.
It was the spark that lit the powder. Samara and the others were on him in a second, fists flying, knives flashing.
“STOP!” Evander shouted.
Ignatius, Elspeth, and Giles caught Haldir’s arms, pinning them to his sides. He fought them, a wolf caught in a trap, and they tumbled together to the ground. Haldir thrashed, but three bodies weighed him down.
Samara knelt over him, her knife at his throat. “We’ve had enough of you,” she snarled. “Do you remember the boy you murdered in Cobblepine? His name was Lysander, and he was to be my husband.”
Haldir grunted and fought harder, nearly shaking free, but Samara pressed the knife below his jaw, and he stilled.
“Stop!” Evander cried. “Samara, he has to return alive, or we’ll be sent into the invasion at the front! Please, none of you is ready for that!”
Samara hesitated, her breath whistling through her nose. Her shoulders trembled and a tear dripped down her cheek, but she dashed it away with her free hand.
Samara’s hesitation was her undoing. Haldir lurched, yanking his arm free.
He pulled his shotfire from his belt. Evander’s world slid into slow motion as the blast echoed off the stone walls and Samara fell with a cry, clutching her side.
The others released Haldir and ducked as he drew a second shotfire and swept it across them.
“I’LL KILL YOU ALL!” he bellowed. “EVERY ONE OF YOU!”
Evander plunged toward Samara, skidding to his knees beside her, praying she was alive. She lay on her back, moaning, blood dripping between her fingers. Cursing, Evander shrugged off his coat and unbuttoned his white uniform shirt. Haldir jumped behind Evander.
“Don’t let them kill me, Trevelyan,” he pleaded.
Evander looked over his shoulder at him.
“Give me that, you idiot,” he snapped, snatching the shotfire from Haldir’s hands and shoving it into his belt.
Then he faced the crew. “How many more of you need to die before you bloody listen to me? If you want to kill this man, then fine. Do it. He deserves it, but you’ll have to kill me in the process.
Valenna over there is my wife, so if you kill me, she’ll lash out, and you’ll have to kill her.
We are the only ones here who know how to properly treat Samara’s injury, and so with us dead, she’ll go gangrenous and die as well.
That’s three of us for this single piece of dragon skat. Is he worth that much blood?”
Samara turned her face into the dirt and sobbed.
Valenna had found the medical kit and hurried to Evander’s side. Haldir huddled behind them.
“How can we trust them? His wife betrayed us,” Giles mumbled. “She revealed Cobblepine’s location to Cadmus to save his life.”
Valenna ignored them, pouring clear alcohol on Evander’s hands, then wiping the blood away from Samara’s side so he could see. Evander marveled at her measured calm, the look of grim resolution on her face.
“Do with me what you will,” Valenna said without bothering to look up, but her voice grew stronger with each word.
“But your captain is right. More blood than Bournemuth’s will be shed today, and you’ll be murderers the same as he.
Worse, because Samara is one of your own, and I am your only hope of freedom.
I do have spring magic, and I am the Botania! ”
Evander’s fears were coming true. Valenna was angry and frightened; she would lash out with her blighted magic, and Cobblepine would never trust her. Talwaith would be lost, and with it any hope of atonement.
But when Valenna glanced at him, there was no anger in her eyes.
Only shame … and hope.
A tear slipped off her chin.
Giles gripped his knife with trembling hands. “Just step aside and stop shielding Bournemuth, and we won’t kill you.”
Evander wondered where the timid boy had found this sudden surge of courage. He ignored him, squinting in the darkness at the jagged gash in Samara’s flesh, but Haldir reached over his shoulder, trying to grab the shotfire.
“No, you idiot!” Evander barked. Giles stepped toward them and Evander handed the needle to Valenna and stood. Haldir ducked behind him.
“Move aside!” Giles yelled.
“I will not.”
Giles lunged and touched the tip of his knife against the soft spot at the base of Evander’s throat. “Trevelyan, move aside.”
His vision clouding red, Evander ignored the knife and clutched a handful of Giles’s shirt.
“I saved your life,” he gritted. “More than once, at my own expense. I’ve been harsh; I know you think I’m cruel, but if you can look into my eyes and say I’ve done anything but look out for your best interests, you’re a fool.
I will be a better leader, I swear it, but you must trust me.
Right now, I need to keep this girl from bleeding to death, and I will not let you stand in my way. ”
Giles glanced at his friends, questioning. A tangle of loud opinions rose from the group, Rosemary urging him to do it, Ignatius and Elspeth shouting for him to leave Evander alone.
Evander looked past Giles to Valenna, who was pressing a blood-gloved hand to Samara’s side. Another tear slipped from her eye and struck the damp ground.
The mountain tremored.
A crack snaked across the stone. Valenna grabbed Samara under her arms and scrambled back as a tree unfurled out of the fissure, its branches spreading like a bird stretching its wings.
Leaves opened along its boughs, and then erupted into white blossoms. More trees followed, cracking out of the widening chasm, thundering to life.
In seconds, a grove of dragon willows waved in the breeze, snowing petals on the damp stone.
Silence followed. The wind sang in the willow branches, and the Dread Five crew gazed in horrified wonder.
Then a high, clear aria split the silence. It echoed beyond the mountains from the Scathmore Barrens.
The conscripts looked at the sky as if they expected a lightning bolt to strike them.
“That was the sunbird,” Giles whispered.
Evander’s heart leaped. He watched Valenna, and pride and terror surged through him.
But there was no time to admire the trees or wonder at the song.
Taking up the needle and thread, Valenna bent over Samara and began to stitch.
“I am Tahlia’s heir,” she said. “I have proven it. If you will put down your knives and follow me, I will restore your homeland to you. The dragons will come home to roost.”
The conscripts whispered to one another, conflicted, frightened.
“If you would rather spill your blood for this cowardly colonel, then so be it,” Valenna continued. “But know this: if you touch one hair on my husband’s head, I won’t forget it when my sister is queen.”
Tentatively, Giles began, “But you betrayed us to …”
“Yes, I betrayed Cobblepine to Cadmus,” Valenna interrupted. “I did it because, when I begged Ariadne for help, she turned me away. I, the Botania, came to her for help, and she refused me. I am sorry for what happened to Cobblepine. As penance, I will restore Talwaith.”
She glanced at Evander, and he nodded, trying to encourage her.
She raised her chin. “You have not been forcefully conscripted; you have been recruited to reclaim your own homeland. And I am asking for your help.”
As she spoke, she tied off the last stitch, closing the wound.
The youthful, anxious faces stared down at her, bewildered. The trees swayed in the breeze.
Then, all at once, the line collapsed, and they lowered their weapons and turned back toward their bedrolls.
Evander waited until the air cleared, and then he darted forward and kissed Valenna’s forehead.
“You were born for this,” he said.
She smiled and let out a nervous breath.
Evander looked at Samara, who was biting down on her sleeve.
“I’m sorry,” Samara sobbed, her cheeks shining with tears. “I’m such a fool.”
“Hush now,” Evander soothed, laying his hand on Samara’s hair. “We’ll look after you. You’ll be alright.”
Gently, he lifted her in his arms, carried her to a sheltered place under the rock, and tucked her into her blankets.