Chapter 27
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
LYRIANA
“Careful,” Auriel said, reaching for my hand.
I’d lost my balance, stepping onto a series of rocks at the top of a Korterian hill.
The grass had grown so tall the rocks were hidden, and I’d been taken by surprise more than once as we crossed the border back into Lumeria.
And back into a regular sense of time. A task made more difficult since my boots were still wet from crossing a ravine at the Afeyan border.
I grasped Auriel’s hand, and took a deep breath, my free hand sliding reassuringly behind my back over the hilt of the red shard.
“You’re all right?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Fine.”
But my heart was pounding. An entire month was catching up to me all at once. I felt the time passing with every step, and I wondered if this was what it was like for Rhyan after a jump. Feeling so much distance speed through his body.
The Queen’s warning was fresh in my mind. I had to end Rhyan’s akadim existence. No matter what. Either by restoring his soul, or … no. I wasn’t even going to think about the alternative. I was going to heal him.
But first we had to find him. Only I had no idea where to start. And Korteria was the last place I wanted to do it in. Not after last time I was here. Not in the country most loyal to the Emperor. I took a shuddering breath, pressing on up the endless hill, but exhaustion was trailing after me.
I could see it in Auriel’s eyes, too. Every step we’d taken beyond Khemet’s border, had been one where I could literally feel the passage of time catching up to me.
I couldn’t explain it. I’d been in the Afeyan lands for a day.
But I could sense all the changes around me now that I’d missed.
The warm air that coasted along the breeze.
The slight shift of the color in the clouds and sky.
The growth of fresh green leaves and the scent of flowers blossoming were everywhere.
Spring had just barely sprung a day ago for me.
But Lumeria was in the midst of the season. An entire month lost.
Auriel stilled suddenly, his ears perked. And a second later a Korterian time keeper rang the bells announcing the hour. Ashvan riders would be on patrol any second now, over the border. They’d be searching the ravine, and the hills. Flying right over us.
“We need to hide!” I said.
Auriel grabbed my hand and ran, pulling up the hood of his cloak.
I did the same, running faster until we reached a series of suntrees.
The clock tower continued to chime. It was midday already.
We moved deeper into the brush, finding the tree with the longest branches, the most leaves, and then pressed our backs to it.
I tried to focus on my breathing, as the blue lights of Lumerian ashvan formed in the sky, and the horse’s jewel-toned bodies raced across.
At last, the clock tower stopped. I waited for the final round of ashvan to pass.
Only they didn’t. Two riders landed beyond the trees.
I pressed my head back against the trunk, stilling my breath and my body.
From my peripheral vision, I could see Auriel’s face pale.
His eyes remained on the riders, their silver armor flashing in the sunlight as they dismounted their horses. Swords drawn, they started toward us.
We could fight them. Easily. But when they didn’t return to their posts, their turion would know immediately that something was amiss. And we needed secrecy to begin our search. Any increase in soturion presence was only going to complicate things.
Without warning, Auriel turned to face me, pressing his body against mine, his hand sliding down my hip, drawing my leg around his waist.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
He reached through Rhyan’s leather scabbard and pulled out my stave.
“Buying us time,” he whispered. The way we were positioned, they’d assume we were lovers sneaking off for a moment alone. “Have you ever done glamour magic?” he asked.
“No,” I said, starting to panic.
“Who’s out here?” a soturion yelled. “Name yourself.” Shit. Shit!
“Try,” Auriel whispered. “Make our armor silver, turn your hair blonde.”
Blonde? Blonde like Ka Kormac. Everyone knew I had dark hair that turned red in the sun.
It was my most identifying feature. I didn’t know what I’d missed in the last month.
But I was pretty sure that I was still wanted by the Emperor.
And if these men were looking for me, it would be the first thing they’d check.
Having blonde hair and silver armor— they’d never suspect who I was—especially if they didn’t know my face.
If these soturi had been assigned to patrol here, then it was unlikely they’d ever been stationed in Bamaria or seen me before.
I closed my eyes, recalling the spell I’d read about while I was studying mage magic in Glemaria.
Aiden, the spymaster’s apprentice, was the most gifted in this arena.
And I’d seen him do it multiple times. I took a deep breath and tried to mimic his movements, imagining my hair blonde, and my armor and Auriel’s both silver.
I chanted the words under my breath, my heart pounding, but nothing happened. Glamour magic wasn’t the sort of thing you could just call on without practice, without intense skill.
“Shit,” I said. “It didn’t work.”
Auriel squeezed the back of my neck. “It’s okay. Try again.”
I did, repeating the spell and the movements, but I was starting to panic. Either this worked, or we fought and risked exposure.
“The shard,” Auriel said. “Use it.”
My eyes widened and I reached behind my back again, repeating the spell. Warmth immediately filled my chest, and rose up my spine. Silver, the same exact shade of Ka Kormac’s armor, spread across Auriel’s torso.
“We see you!” shouted the soturion. Two sets of footsteps sped up.
My breathing grew heavy, but the same silver now spread across my torso, even changing Asherah’s chest plate.
“You did it,” Auriel said breathlessly, pulling out a lock of my hair from beneath my hood. From the corner of my eye, I could see that it was pure golden blonde.
“Come on out,” said the soturion. “We know you’re in there.”
With a heavy sigh, Auriel pressed his forehead to mine, his lips just a breath away from my mouth.
I gripped his hip, and his eyes opened, suddenly locked with my own.
My memory flashed to that day on our ashvan, a thousand years ago, Auriel’s eyes hooded.
Asherah’s desire—my desire, pooling between my legs. My throat went dry.
“Look what we found,” said the first soturion, speaking with an unusually high-pitched voice. “Having some fun?”
The second one laughed. “Do you think he’ll share?”
Auriel snarled under his breath, but then whispered, “Let them see your hair.”
Their footsteps approached, and within seconds, two sets of hands grabbed his arms, hauling him off of me as he cursed and shouted.
The second soturion who had the beady eyes of the Bastardmaker, and an unkempt blond beard with scraggly hair, pulled a blade against Auriel’s neck.
The first one, with the higher pitched voice, stalked toward me, a knife in his hand, pointed at me.
He wrapped his fingers around my neck, the edge of his blade, dirty and rusted skimmed across my jaw and then to the hood of my cloak.
I stiffened. He pushed it back, revealing my new golden blonde hair.
The soturion smiled in approval, twirling a lock around his unwashed finger.
“Pretty.” He grinned, his disgusting breath making me want to gag.
But on the plus side, he’d let his dagger move.
With my neck no longer in danger, I swatted his arm away with barely any effort.
I had my sword withdrawn a second later.
The moment I made my move, Auriel did as well, easily head-butting his captor. The soturion’s knife fell to the ground, and Auriel swiped it, pressing him back against a tree. He used his free hand to withdraw the soturion’s sword. A second later, he’d whacked him over the head with the hilt.
The soldier collapsed instantly.
And almost at the exact same moment, mine fell, too.
I gasped, out of breath, and Auriel rushed to me, wrapping me in his arms.
“Meka! ” he said, his eyes scanning me up and down. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Truly. Auriel that was brilliant—having them see my hair first.”
“They should be out for a while now,” he said, spitting on the soldier who’d fallen at my feet. “Disgusting shits.” He craned his head back, his lip curling in disgust. “We should take their horses.”
“I don’t think flying’s a good idea,” I said. “We’d be noticed too easily—especially in the daylight.”
“But we can ride them on the ground. Get us into town— it’ll be faster than walking, and it will slow those bastards down after they wake.”
I nodded. “That’s actually a good idea.”
He winked. “I have them from time to time. We just need to keep our glamour up. But once there we can start listening for any stories of recent akadim sightings. See if we can find any clues leading us to Rhyan. And by the time these two wake up and return to their post, we’ll be long gone.
They’ll never find the two blondes who snuck away from patrol.
” He tugged gently on my hair. “You actually look good in this color.”
I scoffed, highly doubting that was true.
But his eyes softened. “You’ve had it before. Other lives.” He pressed his lips together but then his gaze rolled over one of the fallen soturi, and he grimaced. “Let’s get some supplies.”
He removed the man’s dagger, and then started picking all the Valalumir stars off his belt. I followed suit. We relieved both soturi of all their weapons—and their money too, for good measure—then we hopped onto their ashvan, and rode down into Korteria.
It was late afternoon when we arrived on the edge of Vrukston, a small town at the foot of the hills. Auriel and I slowed our horses, moving carefully through a tiny woodland.