Aren unsheathes his sword and mutters something about us drawing all the guards.
“McKenzie,” he says, his voice low, controlled again. “Radath has been whispering in the king’s ear for years, telling him how to fight this war. Atroth listens because the methods work. I’ve convinced him to forbid some of the lord general’s more deplorable plans, but if I leave . . . I must stay, kaesha. I cannot allow Radath to control the king.”
“That’s why you want to stay?” I ask. Lies and truths have been tangled up for so long, I’m not confident I can tell them apart anymore.
His jaw clenches. He nods. “If I leave Atroth to Radath’s counsel, the war will end, but thousands of innocent fae will be killed in the process.”
His words make me feel only marginally better. Kyol’s putting the Realm before me again. I understand why he wants to stay behind—I respect it even—but I can’t keep doing this. I accept who he is, what he stands for, but I’m no longer able to be the girl in love with the honorable hero; I need someone who’s capable of forgetting his responsibilities for me. At least some of the time.
“I can reason with Atroth, McKenzie,” he continues. “I will reason with him. I’ll convince him to speak to the false—” He stops, draws in a breath. “To the son of Zarrak. We can negotiate peace.”
Aren’s caustic laugh cuts through the air. “We tried that once, remember? Your king won’t loosen his control of the gates. He needs the tinril to pay off nobles and bribe his Inner Court.”
“He needs the tinril to protect the Realm from you.” Kyol’s eyes flash. “He needs it to prevent another Brykeld.”
Aren doesn’t flinch, but I do. I know now he’s not responsible for what happened. He regrets the massacre. He even set up the fae who led it so I could track him down, so the Court could capture him. I believe all that, but he’s responsible for other crimes, crimes like turning Kyol’s swordsmen into tor’um.
Damn it, why does this have to be complicated?
“McKenzie,” Kyol says softly. “I’ll end this war as quickly as I can.”
“You could do more good with the rebellion.” My words are barely a suggestion. I know what his response will be. He’s too honorable a man to turn his back on his king, too honorable to abandon the Realm to Radath’s brutality. It’s selfish to ask it of him.
TABER’S guarding my cell. I stop short when I recognize him, worried he’ll be pissed I allowed Naito and Evan to knock him out cold. When he does nothing except hand me a hooded cloak, I whisper an apology and a thank-you—it’s the least I can do—then follow Aren down the corridor.
He knows the way out. We creep down the shadowed hall, hugging close to a rough stone wall covered in a fuzzy moss. I’m fairly certain we’re not beneath the Silver Palace. This place is too big; there are too many other prisoners here. We pass more than a dozen thick wooden doors, some holding back the moans and cries of their cell’s occupants and others holding back only silence. Most likely, Radath had me fissured to Chaer, a prison at the inside edge of the Barren. Fae can’t fissure out of that stretch of land, not anymore. Not since the false-blood Thrain destroyed a gate in the Barren’s core. No one knows how he did it, but when the gate collapsed, it created a void in the Realm. It’s not the same as being handicapped by silver. It’s still possible to open fissures in the atmosphere, but they’re too hot to approach. It’s like the loss of the gate damaged the In-Between.
Aren holds up his hand at an intersection, signaling for me to wait. When he disappears around the corner, I edge forward.
I peek around the bend in time to witness one of two fae collapsing in a heap. Aren deflects the other’s attack, counters with swings of his own. The guard staggers under the brutal blows, almost slips. Before he regains his balance, Aren kicks his feet out from under him, then slams the hilt of his sword into the fae’s temple.
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end. I scan up and down the corridor, looking and listening for running footsteps. The fight was brief—less than a minute—but the clash of steel on steel sounded loud as gunfire.
Aren glances over his shoulder, sees me standing here. “Clear?”
I listen for a few seconds more, then nod. If anyone heard anything, they’d be raising the alarm by now.
Aren holds out his hand.
“Taltrayn’s kept his word so far,” he says, intertwining his fingers with mine. “If he holds true, he’ll make sure the guards on the roof are distracted, but we’ll need to move quickly. Can you run?”
I nod. I don’t have much of a choice.
He opens the door. The long shadow of the prison stretches across the dirt at our feet. The sun is setting somewhere behind us. If we could wait twenty minutes, we’d have the cover of darkness, but we can’t just stand around here. Aren squeezes my hand and then we take off.
Cold air burns my lungs and a stitch in my side makes me want to double over, but I don’t stop, not until Aren finally slows when we reach the first sprinkling of trees. He puts a hand under my elbow, keeping me upright. We’re still in sight of the prison, though, so I force my legs to keep moving. I stumble once, regain my balance, then stumble again. If fae not loyal to Kyol look this way, they could see us. An archer could still hit us. I have to keep going.
I make it ten, maybe fifteen minutes before I take Aren’s hand and make him stop. Not because I think we’re safe, but because we’re heading west, deeper into the Barren. The jolt of adrenaline that brought me this far has worn off and my mind has cleared. At least, it’s cleared enough to know this isn’t the way we should be going.
“We need to get to the gate in Belecha,” Aren says. “Rokan is closer, but the Court will expect us to go there.”
Belecha is across the Barren. Even if I could walk the entire way without resting, it would take me at least a day to get there. We don’t have that much time.
“Radath’s sending troops to Lynn Valley,” I say.
A flicker of surprise. “What? When?”
“They may already be there. Lord Raen said something about ‘tomorrow’s dusk,’ which is today.” I glance back at the setting sun even though it’s no indication of the time in Vancouver. “Maybe now.”
“Lord Raen?” He frowns. “Kelia’s father?”
“He helped me free Naito and Evan.”
“Naito and . . . They’re both alive?”
“Yes. I think so.” I run a hand over my tangled hair. “Radath ordered Kyol to execute them. He didn’t—I told you he wouldn’t—but he refused to let them go. I was caught breaking them out.”
He stares for a long moment, then, “Lynn Valley. You’re sure about that?”
I wish I wasn’t. “Yes.”
“Okay.” He turns his head left, then right, scanning the thin forest as if he might find a solution to the problem hanging from a tree branch.
“Okay,” he says again. He takes my hand. We walk no more than a dozen steps when his fingers tighten and he increases our pace. Another half dozen steps and he curses.
He pulls me into a run, but we’re still heading west. It’s the wrong way. He needs to go east or he won’t make it to the edge of the Barren in time to fissure out and warn the rebels. It might already be too late.
I pull my hand free from his. “Go. It’s okay.”
He shakes his head. “I can’t leave you.”
“You can’t abandon them.”
His eyes are pained as he turns to me. “McKenzie—”
“If the Court finds rebels there, if the Court attacks, the fight could spill over into human homes. You need to go.”
His gaze drops to the ground. He shakes his head, but takes a small pouch out of his pocket, ties it around one of my belt loops, then unhooks a dagger from his belt. He slides his hands under my cloak and around my waist, tucking the sheathed weapon into the waistband at the small of my back.
He takes a half step back but leaves his hands on the curves of my hips and holds my gaze. “Keep going west. You shoul
d reach a road by morning. Turn right and head toward Belecha. You’ll come to a crossroads on the way. I’ll be there in the morning, waiting for you, but if I’m not . . .” He draws in a breath. “If I’m not, you’ll have to continue on your own. Keep your hood up and your chaos lusters hidden. The Court will be looking for you. Wait until dark before you enter the city, then find a tavern, one that’s crowded. Ask where you can find saristi. It’s a bird from the Adaris Mountains. Everyone will tell you there aren’t any in Belecha, but word will get back to Sethan’s supporters—he has them in every city. Wait until one finds you. They’ll take you somewhere safe.”
I nod, trying to act calm and competent even though I’m dead tired and don’t want him to go.
His jaw clenches; his hands tighten on my hips. “You’re resourceful. You should be fine.”
It’s not me I’m worried about. His silver eyes drink in every detail of my face. That’s not a good sign, him acting like he’ll never see me again.
“Sidhe, I don’t want to leave you.” He grabs the back of my head and pulls me into a brutal kiss.
He tastes of the Realm, light and exotic. Addicting. My edarratae pulse in rhythm with my heartbeat. He’s warm, strong. A small explosion goes off in my stomach when he shudders. He’s good at this, teasing all thoughts from my mind but him. His tongue parts my lips, dances with mine, and the world spins. I’d let it keep spinning but Aren breaks away, grasping tightly to my arms.
“McKenzie.” He kisses my lips again briefly, then again, lingering. “I’ll be waiting at the crossroads. I promise.”
TWENTY-FOUR
HE’S NOT WAITING for me in the morning. I walked through the night, afraid that if I stopped to rest, I’d never get up again, and reached the road to Belecha just as the sky began to pinken. It took about half an hour to reach the crossroads. I planned on waiting until late afternoon, but an electric storm—something extremely rare in the Realm—was inching in. Besides, Aren told me to go to Belecha if he wasn’t here. It’s possible he might not make it here at all.
The thought makes my stomach hurt.
I turn north and watch the dirt pass beneath my boots. I’m not the only one traveling to Belecha. Merchants and their cirikith-drawn carts begin to crowd the road. I keep my cloak clutched around me, careful to make sure my hands and face remain out of sight. It’s during times like this, when I’m walking through another world, surrounded by magic-users, that I wonder if I might be crazy. Maybe my mind is trapped in some kind of elaborate hallucination while my body is still restrained to a bed in Bedfont House. That’s where my parents sent me. I was flunking all my classes, disappearing without explanation, and was caught more than once “talking to myself” and “having fits.” It took Kyol a month to find me there, a month during which medications were forced down my throat and I was surrounded by the truly insane.
I ignore the old memories and trudge on. I don’t expect to make it to Belecha—I expect Aren to fissure to me long before I get there—but as the sun descends behind dark clouds, the city’s outlying buildings come into view. The stone would blend in with the gray sky if snaking green vines weren’t covering the walls. By the time the dirt road turns into smooth cobblestones, those walls take on a blue hue. Night’s fallen. Fae workers are sending their magic into orb-topped streetlights.
I’ve been here before—a few times, in fact—but Kyol always took me straight to the gate. Even if I had someone to fissure me through it now, we’d have to wait until morning. City gates are closed after dark to all but the Court fae, and the only reason they would need to use it is if they were escorting a human.
I wrap my cloak around me and hurry toward a squat building with an open door and boisterous conversation spilling out into the street. As soon as I step inside, see fae clutching fat mugs, and smell a pungent, stale odor, it’s obvious I’ve found a tavern. A shady one, I think, because I’m not the only one here hiding my identity behind a hooded cloak.
I want to hole up in a corner to rest, but I force myself to walk just a little farther. The bartender, a gaunt fae with black hair falling well past his shoulders, asks me what I want.
I want food, but I say, “I’m looking for saristi.”
My accent sucks. His eyes narrow. “You’re looking for what?”
“Saristi,” I say, hoping I’m emphasizing the right syllables.
“You’re in the wrong province for that,” he says. Then, “What do you want?”
From the scowl on the bartender’s face, I won’t be allowed to stay unless I order something. There’s a menu on the countertop. Since I can’t read it, I point to a random line of symbols in the middle.
And immediately snatch my hand back. I’m lucky. No edarratae flashed over my skin, but damn it, I can’t be that careless.
“Fifteen tinril,” the bartender says.
I have no clue how much that is, so I reach into the pouch Aren gave me and take out a few coins. Making sure my hand stays hidden, I drop the change on the counter.
He raises an eyebrow, then sweeps the coins into a pocket. I clench my teeth. There’s no way I gave him the exact amount, but I’m not going to ask for change. I don’t want him to figure out just how foreign my accent really is.
I’d like to hunker down in a corner or at least somewhere near a wall, but the only free table is right smack-dab in the center of the joint. It’s better than standing, though, so I pull out a chair and sit. It doesn’t matter that the chair squeaks and wobbles as if it’s one wrong move away from falling apart; it’s good to be off my feet. It would be even better if I had a bed. I’m certain not even my nightmares would wake me once I lie down.
A few minutes later, a fae sets a bowl in front of me. I don’t know what’s in it. Some mashed-up something covered in something yellow. I start with the flatbread since that’s unlikely to kill me, eat half of it before I’m brave enough to dip a tiny corner into the sauce. I take a bite.
And try not to spit it out. Bitterbark. They turn that crap into a sauce?
Stomach growling, I scrape it off to the side and try a small spoonful of the mash left in the bowl. It tastes like orange-flavored eggs. Disturbing, but edible.
The fae packed into the tavern are louder than when I first entered, but I tune them out. It’s easy to do since I lack the energy to translate their words. I finish off the rest of the mash—which tasted worse and worse with each bite—and debate asking the bartender for a drink.
My hood is wrenched off before I make a decision. I try to jerk it back up before anyone notices my chaos lusters, but it’s too late. Everyone’s staring—gaping, really—except for the fae who removed my hood. He’s linebacker-heavy and almost a full foot taller than I am.
“Are you the one the soldiers are looking for?” he demands.
Heart pounding, I take a half step toward the door and say, “No.”
He scowls. Whatever. He asked the question. Did he really expect me to say yes?
A fae from the crowd says something I can’t translate, but my attacker wipes his hands off on his mud-stained pants and answers, “I found her. I get the tinril.”
There’s a reward out for me already? Great. I take another step toward the exit.
“Do you work for the rebels?” a woman asks. She’s wearing fitted pants the color of red soil and a white top that flows past her left side but stops just above her right hip, giving her easy access to the dagger sheathed there.
“I don’t work for anyone,” I say. Technically, it’s true. I haven’t helped the rebels yet. Well, not unless you count the warning about Lynn Valley.
The bartender, clearly not liking my response, invades the circle forming around me. “If you don’t work for the king, then you work for the rebels. Get out.”
“We should give her to the rebels,” someone from the back of the crowd shouts. There are a few murmurs of agreement, but the majority look interested in making some cash. I still have Aren’s dagger hidden under my cloak. It won’t do any
good against the thirty-odd fae here, but if a single individual tries to hand me over, I might have a chance.
“I won’t have the king’s soldiers invading my place.” The bartender eyes the fae who ripped my hood off. “Get her out of here.”
I’d rather almost anyone else escort me outside. This guy’s almost twice the size as the rest of them. And he stinks. Of alcohol and cirikith shit, I think.
“You can make twice as much tinril if you sell her,” a fae standing between me and the exit says.
“Sell?” the linebacker asks.
The fae nods once. “I know where.”
A chill settles over my skin. I scan the tavern, trying to find some other way out of this. But these aren’t the sort of people who are going to offer help without getting something in return, and I don’t know how much tinril I have in the little bag Aren gave me. I doubt it’ll be enough. Besides, nothing would stop someone from just taking it. Best not to mention it at all.
My gaze settles on the bartender. He’s still scowling, but I think his wrinkles are deeper than a moment ago. And maybe more disgusted than furious? At least one person here seems to have a problem with selling me.
“You’ll give her to the Court, Delan,” he says.
“You told me to get her out of here.” Delan’s words are so slurred I have trouble translating them. “I will. What I do with her after that is . . .” Something.
“I have another option,” a familiar voice says.
The group of fae blocking the tavern’s exit shuffle aside to reveal the newcomer, Lorn, standing in the doorway. He doesn’t look at me; he just tugs at the cuffs of his sleeves as if he’s already bored with this scene. I don’t know if I should be relieved to see him or not.
“I’ll take her,” he says once he’s satisfied his attire is in order.
“For how much?” Delan demands.
Lorn just laughs and says again, “I’ll take her.”
“Not without paying.” Delan makes a move to grab my arm.
The Shadow Reader Page 26
