CHAPTER 6
THE COUNCIL’S DECISION
House Fatàn will provide both shieldweavers to the people of Vallenna and the Written Future to the High Council at times of threat to the realm.
– The Arcanth Accords, Article XXI
Kara was still catching her breath on the riverbank when Alys and Henry’s team reached the dock. Alys hid her disappointment well when she saw another boat already moored, passing Kara an almost believable smile.
Henry stepped off the boat and congratulated her warmly. “Well done, Lady Hale. Seven points each now – looks like we’re tied for first place.” He smiled. “Our fathers will be pleased.”
If you’d come last maybe mine wouldn’t be so sure about you.
The thought was petty. And she knew it. She smiled at him instead. “Thank you, Henry, to you as well. How did you find the trial?”
“It made me a little seasick actually,” he admitted.
Kara laughed lightly. “Yes, I can see why. Morra actually got thrown overboard.”
Henry paled. “Is she okay?”
“Sebastian dove in after her. Pulled her to safety. It was close though,” Kara told him. “He was very brave.”
Behind her, Sebastian let out a low sound, half laugh, half scoff. Kara turned, surprised – and a little embarrassed – to find him standing closer than she’d realised, wet hair still plastered to his jaw. He’d been listening.
Henry threw out his hand to Sebastian. “Good show, Thorne. The Four were smiling on you.”
Sebastian stared at Henry’s outstretched hand and for one absurd moment Kara thought that he might ignore it altogether. Finally, he gripped it – hard enough to make Henry wince.
“The Four had nothing to do with it,” Sebastian said. “And you are?”
“Lord Henry, Second Son of House Caldris.”
“Henry,” Sebastian repeated with a nod. He glanced down at Kara, eyebrow raised.
She looked away quickly.
Henry frowned. “Right,” he said after a beat too long. Then passed Kara a tight smile. “I best get back to my team. Congratulations again, Lady Hale.”
“Kara, please.”
Sebastian stiffened beside her.
Henry looked surprised but pleased. “Kara,” he said, as he walked away.
When Kara turned back, Sebastian had disappeared. She scanned the dock for him – he was standing with Jax and Morra, angled away from her, his gaze fixed on the water.
Fine. Two can play that game.
Were they not going to talk about what happened on the boat? She shook her head. She was definitely not going to be the one to bring it up. Kara gazed across the river and met her father’s eye. He was watching her, a satisfied smile on his face. Joint first place in the Arcalon. Talking to Henry.
Being the good daughter.
She knew exactly how to win her father’s approval. And exactly how hollow it felt.
Both Kara and Henry’s team were sent back to the barracks, before the final two teams had even finished.
Celebrations began almost immediately. The courtyard was strung with lanterns centred around a roaring fire pit.
Everyone took a seat around the flames, the air smelling of wood smoke and mead flowing freely.
Not long after, Team Three came and joined them.
“Good work on the river, Seb,” the Thorne woman from Team Three called to him as she took a seat.
“Thanks, Cass,” Sebastian replied.
Kara frowned – she’d never heard anyone else call him Seb. She turned instead to Morra, intending to keep a close eye on her the rest of the night, but after some food and time on dry land, she seemed perfectly fine.
“I can’t thank both of you enough,” Morra said to her and Sebastian for probably the tenth time. “Going in that river after me–”
“It was nothing,” Sebastian said.
“It was not nothing,” Morra exclaimed. “You could have been killed.”
Sebastian rubbed the back of his neck, looking at anywhere but Morra. “Well, I wasn’t. I’m fine.”
“If you ever need anything from Sorrel – I’m a good baker – honey cakes are my speciality – but I can have whatever you want sent up to Thorne–”
“I’m going to get another drink,” Sebastian interrupted, getting to his feet. “Do you want one?”
Morra blinked. “Erm, no, I’m okay thank you–”
He was gone before she’d finished speaking.
Morra turned to Kara. “He’s not good with gratitude is he?”
She smiled faintly. “Doesn’t look like it.”
Sebastian had his back to them now, taking far longer than he needed to with the mead jug. Kara wasn’t entirely surprised. He’d been studiously avoiding her since the trial, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the river anyway.
Magic sharing.
A Thorne and a Hale.
Father really wouldn’t like that.
The thought made her smile far more than it should.
Sebastian moved back to the fire, cup in hand, and Jax cornered him immediately. Kara only heard snippets.
“–women in the Isles–”
“–it was one night, Jax–”
“–not the only one–”
Kara busied herself with her bandages in her satchel. She didn’t need to hear about that. She lasted about a minute before she glanced over again. Met Sebastian’s eyes for half a second. He’d been looking at her already. He turned away quickly, his brow creasing.
Jax suddenly bounded to his feet and climbed on the short stone wall by the fire, apparently deciding he had to regale anyone who’d listen with the story of their survival over the waterfall.
“We soared! I tell you, flew right over it!”
Oryen corrected his story under his breath, and Sienna perched herself next to him by the fire with her flute, a melodic tune filling the air.
“Two more to go,” Jax shouted, lifting his drink with a grin. “Just two more!”
Kara took a seat by Sienna, letting the music wash over her for a few moments as the sun began to set. Jax looked almost affronted, and reached for her hand enthusiastically. He pulled her to her feet, pushing another mead cup into her hand.
“Come on Hale!” Jax called. “You’ve got to celebrate with me!”
Kara laughed. Jax’s attitude had changed dramatically since he’d seen her healing in action, and his joy was infectious.
Then the music stopped.
Kara looked over at once. Team one had returned. And the looks on their faces silenced the courtyard.
There were only six of them.
Their Lyran delegate wasn’t with them. The dark-haired girl Kara had seen only hours before.
Sienna spoke first. “Where’s Rosalie?”
No one answered.
Sebastian was on his feet before Kara even registered movement. He stormed over to the Team One’s Thorne delegate. The man visibly paled under Sebastian’s gaze.
“Soldier.” Sebastian’s voice was quiet. Dangerously quiet. “She asked you a question. Where is your teammate?”
“She... uh... she fell overboard, Sir,” the man stuttered.
“And?” Sebastian demanded.
“There was nothing I could do... the current, the river was too fast, she was gone before I even–”
He stepped closer. “You left her?”
“I didn’t have a choice–”
“Were you injured? Unable to move?”
The Thorne man paled further. “No, but–”
Sebastian’s fists clenched at his sides. “Then what the fuck does tenet three mean to you, Matteus?”
“But Commander, I–”
Whatever he’d been about to say died at the look on Sebastian’s face. Matteus took a step back.
“Get out of my sight,” Sebastian said coldly.
Matteus stumbled backwards and vanished into the barracks. Sebastian stared after him, his fury palpable. An awkward silence fell. Then it hit Kara, as strongly as if she felt it herself. Shame. Rotting, burning, shame. She stared at Sebastian. You would never have known it to look at him.
“Is everyone else okay?” Sebastian asked finally.
The rest of Team One nodded, though tears were streaming down the cheeks of both their Sorrel and Navyrian delegates.
Sebastian met the Sorrel woman’s eye. “I’m sorry for it,” he said. “That shouldn’t have happened to her.”
She murmured her thanks as her team moved tentatively towards the fire.
No one spoke. Jax climbed down from the wall, disbelief etched on his face.
Sienna’s flute was quiet. They all sat in silence, shocked grief thick in the air.
Someone had died. This didn’t happen – it wasn’t what the Arcalon was supposed to be about.
People eventually began to drift, one by one, back to the barracks, under the guise of going to bed, though Kara was certain it would be hours before anyone actually slept.
The grief hung thick on the air. When Kara finally got to her feet, Sienna and Oryen stood to walk with her.
She bid them a subdued goodnight as they reached her room.
Through her window, she could see Sebastian sitting in the courtyard.
He was leant against the wall, blade resting across his knees, staring into the darkness.
I’m sorry for it.
That’s what he’d said. Like he’d taken responsibility for it.
He certainly didn’t seem like the man from the stories.
The one who tore through battlefields without a backwards glance.
But Kara was starting to realise that Sebastian Thorne wasn’t what she’d expected.
She stood watching him a moment longer. Maybe soldiers like him didn’t need much sleep.
But she should try. Gods knew what they had planned for tomorrow.
Kara lay down on her bed and drifted into a fitful sleep full of unsettling dreams. Collapsing stone.
Waves with a mind of their own. And through it all, flashes of green laced with red.
Kara startled awake the next morning, well before dawn. She placed a hand on her chest – her heart was racing. Unease prickled all over her body. She stared at the dark ceiling, hoping sleep would find her again.
It didn’t.
In the end, she gave up and dressed quietly, thinking she might speak to her father about the Arcalon, about Rosalie. The danger. Why he hadn’t stopped it.
When she stepped outside, the barracks were still asleep, the City streets empty, the quiet broken only by the occasional song of a morning bird.
As she neared the Council gardens, three voices drifted towards her – low and urgent.
Kara paused mid-step, then pressed her back against the wall out of sight, and listened.