Lorn chuckled. “So you noticed we were following you… You’re not the single-minded young woman I first met, blindly charging headfirst, are you?”
“Oh, I can still be quite single-minded.” Eira’s arms relaxed to her sides. “But I try not to rush in, especially when my friends’ lives are on the line.”
He gave an approving nod following a brief assessment, as if somehow deciding she was telling the truth. “Rebec is back in Risen, trying to hold the Court of Shadows together as best she’s able. They’re being a pain in Ulvarth’s side, but unfortunately not a real threat.”
Ducot let out an audible sigh of relief, so palpable that Eira felt guilty for ever doubting that he had genuinely cared for the woman to first find him and offer him shelter following Ulvarth’s brutality. Even if he was a pirate and had Adela…Rebec’s gesture meant something. Of course he cared.
“Deneya?” Olivin asked, almost timidly. Her name was a notable absence.
Lorn shook his head sadly. “We…We searched for her in the rubble. But came up empty-handed. She hasn’t been heard from since.”
A heavy moment of silence was shared by them all for the former leader of the Court of Shadows. She could still be alive, missing didn’t mean dead. But Eira couldn’t imagine a world in which Deneya wouldn’t do everything in her power to aid the resistance. Her gut twisted with grief. She had a complicated relationship with the woman, but Deneya had been the first one to offer her vengeance. To offer her a way out of the life she would’ve been trapped in had she remained on Solaris.
The woman had deserved much better and, even if it looked bleak, a part of her would hold hope that Deneya would one day be found.
“I’m sorry,” Eira spoke for them all, and meant it. Lorn’s eyes shone in the lowlight with tears he clearly did not let fall. Probably tears he’d already cried to the point that there was no more that he could bear to shed.
“It’s been hard,” Lorn admitted. The words seemed like a grave understatement. “There’s only a handful of us left. Though our numbers grow by the day—lords and ladies who are resistant to this new regime change. What few remain after the tournament. Admittedly, in a self-serving way, since they were people who didn’t stand up for Ulvarth when he was first tried and whom he now holds a vendetta against. But we aren’t in a position to turn allies away.
“Our ranks grew enough that I could come here, to Hokoh. Thinking that perhaps if we could stop his influence from spreading—keep it to Risen alone—we could raise a resistance from the outside.” Lorn dipped his chin and sank further against the wall. “It’s proven challenging.”
Eira opened her mouth to speak, but he moved before she could get a word out. Lorn practically lunged from the wall, hands out, appealing to all of them.
“But, with you all here…powerful, capable, fresh-eyed and full-bellied…we can launch our countermeasure and drive them out of Hokoh once and for all.”
“What’s this countermeasure?” Olivin asked.
Eira was already skeptical of the idea, but she didn’t let it show.
“We’re going to hit them where it hurts—their temple. If we can bring that down, then better sense is more likely to prevail and we can teach the people of Hokoh to fight back. The people whose hearts haven’t been corrupted by the Pillars—which is still the majority—will know they no longer have to live in fear. That resistance is possible. By the time the Pillars back in Risen know of Hokoh having fallen at all, we’ll have an army.”
It was optimistic at best. Foolish, more realistically. She’d seen the people of Hokoh readily bow before the statue of Ulvarth and swear their fealty. There hadn’t been rage simmering behind their eyes. There wasn’t reluctance to their movements. Begrudging acceptance—resignation, at worst.
The people were hungry and desperate, tired of the upheaval. Eira had heard the woman: the Pillars were offering stability and reassurance. Why would they consign themselves to the fires of uncertainty once more? And evenifLorn got them to agree…there was no army to be had here. Hoping they could defend their city from being reclaimed was optimistic, even.
But it didn’t matter. Hokoh’s fate didn’t concern her. Not really. Eira had other plans.
“Will you help us?” Lorn looked to Olivin, rather than Eira.
Olivin shifted. His eyes were filled with uncertainty.
“We will, won’t we?” The words were said somewhat timidly, but there was expectation there. Eira lifted her brows. Olivin continued to hold his stare.
We don’t have time for this, she wanted to say. But, clearly, Lorn was still important to Olivin.
“Of course,” Eira said to him, and then shifted her attention back to Lorn. “When will this attack happen?”
“Sooner the better, less time for them to suspect things. Tomorrow?”
“Perfect.” That meant they could quickly be on their way.
“I can show you to the headquarters, if you’d like?”
Eira looked around the abandoned home they’d stumbled upon. The shelves were thick with dust. It was evident that the glow of candles hadn’t coated the insides of the lanterns in some time, given that cobwebs now were what clouded the glass, rather than soot.
“I think we’ll stay here,” she decided.
“Here?” Lorn sounded surprised.
