Auriel and I moved through our drills over and over; I was ravenous to learn, to practice. To become a master. And when he suggested we break, I refused. I had to keep going. Every time I felt tired, I saw Rhyan’s face, saw the pain in his eyes when I’d picked him up. And the way they’d turned red in my dreams—my nightmares.
It wasn’t until we were both dripping with sweat, until my arm was practically numb, and my fingers could no longer hold the hilt, that I relented. We took turns bathing in a nearby spring, careful to give each other privacy. Then we packed up our things, and rode on the back of our ashvan into town. This time, my hair was glamoured to more of a white blonde in the hopes of differentiating myself from any stories that had spread about me. I also made a point to change the color of my eyes, black like Ka Kormac. Two soturi now knew I was here, but they had no proof it was me. Hopefully that was enough to keep me safe.
I decided to change Auriel’s hair as well, and matched his eyes to mine again. When we caught a glimpse of our reflections in a river, the effect was startling. Combined with the way I’d transformed our armor from gold to silver, if no one knew who we were, they’d think us regular Kormac bastards.
Back in town, we kept our heads down moving from pub to pub, listening to people talk. Listening not just for stories of akadim, but of people going missing. If Rhyan was leading a horde, or an army of akadim in Korteria, then surely, they were feeding. Which meant Korterians had to be vanishing, or seeing more of the demons than ever before. There’d been at least six back in Vrukston. And if we were close, there’d beeven more. Especially since I had a feeling the akadim were being encouraged not just to maim and kill, but to make more of themselves. To grow Morgana and Aemon’s numbers. But we heard little to back up our theories.
I had another coffee, and so did Auriel. And over the course of the day, we ordered more beers than we could drink, letting them mostly go to waste. Then we stepped in and out of every small shop that had people inside.
It wasn’t until dinnertime that night when someone finally mentioned Bamaria again. Or rather, fucking southern New Korteria. There were protests mentioned—though, considering we were moving further west through the country, they might have been referencing the same protests we’d already heard about. It was entirely possible it was just taking longer for the news to travel. But I couldn’t be sure. Unless we went back east, I didn’t think I’d find out the truth of what was really happening back home.
Eventually though my name did come up. A lot. What we heard were mostly things not worth repeating. Or more speculations that I was dead after having gone missing for a month. The other popular story, besides my death, was that I was pregnant with Kane’s baby. That rumor was followed closely in repetition by another rumor about me being pregnant with our new Emperor’s baby. And then the Bastardmaker’s.
I even heard Rhyan’s name thrown in a few times. Apparently, I’d been impregnated by everyone. But the majority of the time Rhyan’s name came up, it was less about our affair, and more about condemning him as a vorakh. Gloating over his stripping, and excitement for more to meet his fate. Auriel had to hold me back a few times from punching Korterians laughing over it.
But, I noted, there was no mention of him as an akadim— or even any mention of the akadim attack on the capital atall. The Emperor had truly kept that under wraps, making it all about me, and the vorakh. The story that seemed to be going around Korteria was that Rhyan succumbed to his wounds after the stripping. The deaths I knew had taken place were being downplayed. And the ones acknowledged were being blamed on me and the vorakh they accused me of freeing.
I wanted to scream at them all. They were so fucking worried over a group of people who weren’t a threat to them or their lives. In fact, they seemed most afraid of the very people who were the most threatened by the Emperor himself. The people who if found, would lose everything.
And despite the overwhelming presence of akadim we’d seen here just the night before, no one seemed overly concerned or worried about the danger they were in. And the most disturbing—they’d just lost the one thing that protected them from akadim. And thanks to Emperor Avery’s lies, they had no idea they’d lost it.
Daylight.
The Lumerians in Korteria were still unaware that under the shining sun, akadim could emerge from the shadows and attack at any moment. But I couldn’t say anything—couldn’t warn them. Not without drawing attention to myself.
Did information just travel that slowly here? Were they in denial? Or had it somehow been suppressed?
When our day ended, we returned to the cave, using our cloaks to sleep on the ground near the fire, our ashvan tied up just outside. We repeated our routine in the next town, and the day after that in another. Every day we listened, and every day we trained and prepared. The same variations of the same rumors were circulating everywhere we went, everywhere we listened. And still, no mention of akadim. Nor any clues that could lead us to Rhyan. I was starting to wonder if the akadim attack the other night had been in my imagination. Notthat I wished for it, but why weren’t there more? Why hadn’t Morgana’s and Aemon’s forces made themselves known? It didn’t make any sense. They were out there. But even Auriel had no further sensations of Rhyan. Or the void of his soul from his body.
With nothing else to go on other than Auriel’s hunch that Rhyan wasn’t far, we continued, moving through more towns, our eyes black, our hair blond, and our armor silver. Our hands never strayed far from the hilts of our swords, we were always on guard both from Ka Kormac and akadim. Though after I’d gotten too many comments about the color, size and shape of “that strange colored sword on my back,” the red shard, I glamoured it, too, turning it into something that looked old and rusty. Something worthy of that Godsdamned soturion we’d fought that first night.
Days and days of searching and listening passed and still there was no real news. Only more disgusting rumors about me, or updates on the search for my whereabouts. There were none—a relief.
But soon the gossip turned to the latest stories about the vorakh task force and the mandatory testing that had been rolled out. According to some mages I’d overheard, the protests happening now were focused on the testing, and the sudden uptick in arrests.
Allegedly, unverified accusations were flying now. Anyone could accuse anyone of being vorakh. And though there were nahashim testing for the forbidden magic, apparently now, an accusation was all it took. The accused would be taken to Lethea without a test, and without a trial.
Though I suspected that even that was a lie. Lumerians were being taken, and kidnapped. But I didn’t believe they were being brought to Lethea. I’d already overheard the discussion of the new prisons being built. Marring my land, my country with theirconstruction. The bastards didn’t care who they took—they just needed bodies, slaves they could control and extort. Vorakh or not, Lumerians were being taken to the Palace and made into chayatim. I was sure of it.
I had to stop underestimating the Emperor. As well as everyone else serving him.
Once it grew dark, we climbed back onto our ashvan and returned to the cave. Days were passing and the pattern remained the same. I was getting antsy, more worked up every time we returned without learning anything new. More word about protests, about Lumerians vanishing. About me missing. Nothing about akadim. It didn’t make any sense.
Everyday Auriel was reassuring me it was for the best that we’d found nothing. Because I wasn’t ready to fight Rhyan. I still needed more time with the sword. With the shard. I knew it was giving me more energy, and allowing my spells to become more effective, to last longer. The proof was in my new skills with glamour.
At night when Auriel closed his eyes, I read from his Valya, looking for differences between it and the ones I’d studied. Reading over and over anything he’d written about the cure.
And then a week passed. I was getting stronger. Better at fighting with the shard. But more anxious and unsettled by the day. Why hadn’t we found him yet? Why, when Auriel was so sure he was in Korteria, had there been no sign of akadim? Not since that first night.
When we returned back to our cave after a second week of fruitless searching, visiting endless towns, and walking through the hills for signs of nests, I broke down. “Where the fuck is he?” I asked, slamming my fist into the cavern wall.
Auriel came to stand beside me. “He’s out there, Lyriana, he is.”
I shook my head. “It’s not like it’s that hard to find akadim. Especially a horde—or whatever you might call the number serving him as an Arkturion. Isn’t it the whole fucking point that they go out hunting for you? I mean, if we hadn’t found him by now, shouldn’t he be finding us?” I held my arms up wide, turning in a circle and screaming. “We’re fucking prime targets out here! We’re alone! We’re in the middle of nowhere. The akadim should come running!”
“Maybe let’s not advertise that right now,” Auriel said. “I mean once word gets out that we’re here and we’re tasty, the line to sample us will reach the town and then?—”
“Stop it! Just stop! You’re not going to talk me down by making jokes!”
