‘The others,’ she said. ‘All the Eagleminders that came before. Did you try and speak to them, too?’
A long pause, and Ezer’s heart roared in her ears as she waited for Six to respond.
Then a single twitch of her tail.
Yes.
Which meant that, for whatever reason … she was the only one who’d ever heard. The only one who’d ever received the messages from the pup and understood.
The question was …
Why her?
When Ezer made it to her dorm that afternoon, she found Zey curled up by the fire, a book in her hands. Her pale hair was down, not smooth as before but tangled like she’d just awoken from a restless sleep.
‘Zey?’ Ezer approached her slowly, the way she would have a wild raphon. She’d rarely seen the Eagleminder sitting with anyone, even when they took meals. She seemed a floating island … all alone. ‘I need to talk to you.’
A moment passed, and she wondered if the Eagleminder would ignore her entirely.
But then Zey sighed and aggressively turned a page in her book. ‘I’m busy. Why don’t you run along and find Izill instead?’
‘You’re the only Eagleminder I know,’ Ezer said.And Kinlear is still nowhere to be found.She waited until the silence was painful before she added, ‘Please, Zey.’
Another flick of the Eagleminder’s pages.
‘What’s in it for me?’
Ezer crossed her arms. ‘We’re fighting the same war, aren’t we?’
Zey chuckled. ‘Youare not fighting, Wolf Bait.’
Without her cloak, in just a tunic and trousers, she looked thinner than Ezer remembered. Her eyes looked tired and shallow. Eagleminders did not wield, so they did not age supernaturally as the Sacred Knights did.
No, this was a different sort of fading away. It seemed to come from her very soul.
Ezer sighed. ‘I’m still doing my part. I only need two minutes of your time, Zey. I don’t think that sacrifice is too much to ask of you.’
At that, Zey shut her book with asnap.
And her pale eyes slid up to meet Ezer’s.
‘Easy to speak of sacrifice,’ she mused, ‘when you aren’t thesacrificial lamb.’ She picked at something on her cloak. ‘Go on. Ask your questions. The clock is ticking.’
Ezer swallowed the lump in her throat. ‘What happens when you train an Eagle? Tell me about it from the start.’
Zey yawned, like she was already bored. ‘The war eagles have lived and bred in captivity for centuries, so their nature is already to obey. But each beast takes time. Trust must be gained before they’ll really listen. When a Sacred is young, we’re introduced to the war eagle fledglings.’
‘And they choose you,’ Ezer said almost reverently, remembering the stories she’d always heard. How magical it must be to be chosen by one of the godmounts.
But at that, Zey laughed bitterly. ‘You poor, naive little creature. Do you believe every story you’ve heard from thenomages?Eagleminders areassigned,not chosen. There’s a sort of trial, every few years, with each crop of fledglings. The War Table starves the beasts for three days. Then they set us loose in the Eagle’s Nest – weaponless – with buckets full to the brim with bleeding meat. It is only the ones who do not run away screaming that are given the job.’
Ezer leaned forward. ‘But that’s cruel.’
And not at all what she’d been told.
‘And you think they care about that?’ Zey said. She produced a silver flask from her pocket. ‘You came here with stories. Rumors. Mythical ideas about what it’s like to be a Sacred. Some of thenomagesfear us, but most revere us, dreaming of what it would be like to have our magic. They think we are immune to feelings, to temptation—’ She raised her flask, and Ezer realized she’d probably been drinking here all afternoon. ‘Well, I’m happy to be the one to darken your stars.’ She took another long sip. ‘My title may be Sacred.But I am just a woman, taught to ignore my instincts. And the eagles are just eagles, forced to do the same.’
A log broke in the fire.
