By then, Erich’s interest had been piqued, and he looked past the driver’s seat to see a specter from his past. His uncle Endland. The man who’d raised him and taught him how to control the dragon curse. What he couldn’t understand was what he was doing on a country road on the outskirts of Basilia, hundreds of miles from Sundland. He had two options—He could either pretend he hadn’t seen his uncle, or he could confront him.
Before he could decide, his uncle rode up, waving down the cart, and called out to the driver. “Hello, stranger,” his uncle said. “I’m searching for a young man. Have you seen any strangers heading toward the city?”
As soon as he said this, Erich jumped down from the cart. Then it wasn’t a coincidence; his uncle had come looking for him. Which meant it was better to get it over with, rather than let him chase him all around Basilia.
“Uncle,” Erich said in Neolyrian for the farmer and his wife’s benefit.
His uncle did a double take, as if he couldn’t quite believe his eyes. Erich stood, fists clenched at his sides, feeling very much like the boy he’d been when he left his uncle’s home for court at his father’s summons. Uncle had begged him not to go, and when Erich had then escaped court, he had done so in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. His uncle dismounted, the smiling face Erich remembered blank. Erich braced for the tongue-lashing he knew was coming or the demands to return home. Instead, his uncle crossed the distance between them and enclosed him in a crushing hug. A small part of him wanted to return his uncle’s embrace, but doing so felt like giving in to the demands he knew would follow, and he’d never return home... He didn’t deserve compassion from this man he’d betrayed. He was a monster. Best they make that clear.
His uncle pulled back and studied him for a moment. Then, without another word to Erich, he turned to the farmer and his wife, who were watching their exchange with interest. “Is there an inn nearby where we might get a meal and a drink of ale?”
The farmer nodded. “Over the next bend, there’s a good inn.”
His uncle thanked them, and Erich was pretty sure money exchanged hands. Before he could protest, he was being whisked away to a crowded inn full of happy chatter, and a young doe-eyed innkeeper’s daughter was fluttering her long lashes at them as she delivered steaming hot soup to both of them.
“Anything else I can get you?” she asked, her gaze lingering on Erich with interest. He hadn’t spoken since they’d arrived and stared into the bowl of soup as if it had insulted him personally.
“No, that’s all for now, thank you,” his uncle said, and she scurried away.
His uncle didn’t touch his soup or his ale but watched Erich expectantly. The awkward silence stretched for what felt like an eternity, and Erich looked anywhere but at his uncle. If he hadn’t eaten an entire herd of sheep over the last few days, he might have busied himself with eating, but the thought of consuming anything in that moment made his stomach turn. The chatter of happy farmers and villagers was starting to grate on him, and he knew if he didn’t speak soon, they’d spend all night in this silent stalemate.
“What do you want?” Erich asked, again in Neolyrian, partly out of habit and partly to distance himself from his motherland.
“You left for six years, Erich, without a word. We’re family. Did you think I would accept that loss without explanation?” his uncle replied in Sundish, Erich’s mother tongue. He’d not felt homesick over the past six years, not once. But hearing his uncle scold him in his native language, he felt a brief pang of longing for Sundland.
He didn’t respond, too overcome by guilt and longing to form a proper explanation.
“I won’t accept silence, you’re too old for these childish rebellions, Erich.”
Erich felt the comment slice him down to the core. Even now, as a grown man, seeing disappointment on his uncle’s face hurt worse than a mortal wound. There had been a time in his life when he’d have done anything to make this man proud. But the boy he’d been was dead, and it was time his uncle realized that.
Erich gripped the handle of his mug tight enough to crack it.
“This isn’t about rebellion. I left for your safety as well as others. I’m a monster,” he replied in Sundish.
“Even if I were to believe that, what part of your plan to spare us your monstrous nature included swindling royalty and entering fighting rings before terrorizing the countryside in dragon form? Was all that for my benefit, too?”
“Ivar wrote to you?” Erich guessed. As for the rest, he knew he’d been reckless, but he’d come too far to give up. He’d retrieve Liane and disappear once more before he became a danger to her and himself.
“And thank the Trinity he did. I’ve been chasing ghosts until he sent me in your general direction. Finding you in the fighting ring in Basilia was a Trinity-guided moment as well. Then you slipped away again, back into the shadows. I assumed with the coming full moon, you’d have removed yourself to change. Then I heard from locals about burnt sheep, and I connected the dots.”
Erich sighed as he pinched his brow. “I know you’ve come all this way, but I’m not going home.”
“Your father is dying.”
“Good.”
“Duke Mattison is attempting a marital alliance with Neolyra.”
“Good for him.”
“He’s cruel, if not crueler than your father, and with the might of the Neolyrian empire behind him, he’ll be unstoppable.”
“What’s worse, a man who is like a monster or a monster who wears a man’s face? I killed Hallbjorn Geirsson and his family.” Erich said this part while meeting his uncle’s gaze directly. He hadn’t spoken the name aloud since the incident that drove him from the palace and in search of a cure.
His uncle swallowed. “It was your father; he forced you to do his dirty work...”
“My father is a monster, just like me. But I have magic and claws. And I killed Geirsson because the dragon became obsessed with him. Father asked me to torture him for information, but I couldn’t stop. I lost control and slayed him, then I killed his family in my insane bloodlust. Do you think someone like that will be a good king for Sundland?”
