“I…”I’ve felt like I’m cursed for years. Am I?I can’t ask her now. Valor Reborn and her mother taken in for questioning? If I was one of the Mercy Knights standing guard on the other side of the door, my ear would be glued to it. “The Tribunal is tomorrow.”
The carved statues of knights that adorn the spires of the Grand Chapel of Mercy have more movement than Mum does at the mention of the Tribunal. “Don’t—”
“Don’t worry. I won’t hesitate,” I interrupt hastily and loudly, pinning her with a look and nodding my head toward the door.
She catches herself, and a spark of rage alights in her eyes that turns into an inferno when the door suddenly opens, revealing Vicar Darius.
Right on time.
The vicar doesn’t walk; he glides with authority. In two long strides, his wiry, towering form is between us, staring down his daggerlike nose with judgment cast my way and outright loathing toward Mum. A frown tugs on his carefully trimmed mustache as his eyes—one blue and one gilded—rake over me in disappointment.
Expectedly, Lucan strides in after him and leans against the corner to the left of the door, farthest from me. I bet immediately after I gave him the slip, he went to the vicar. They were probably halfway here when the Mercy Knights found them to inform them of our capture.
I shouldn’t be surprised but am when one more person walks in: Father. He’s still dressed in his dragon-blood red robes as ahigh curate of the Creed. I wonder what official capacity he was acting in when the dragon attacked, because the circles under his eyes are darker than normal. The salt of his dark-brown hair seems more plentiful. He often burns the midnight oil for days on end in his laboratory. But this is something different…more than physical exhaustion, like something is weighing on his soul.
“Would you care to explain yourselves?” the vicar asks us both as soon as the door shuts. But his attention remains solely on me.
“I was just—”
“She was looking out for me,” I say hastily. Whatever excuse Mum would think up isn’t going to be as good as mine. I glance her way, trying to say,Let me protect you, with my eyes alone. I might not be the real Valor Reborn, but as long as the vicar thinks I am, I’ll use it to shield the people I love. And I know exactly what the vicar wants to hear. “When the dragon landed, I felt a pull—almost like a draw of Etherlight—and I had to rush to attack it.”
The vicar’s eyes shine. No one else would notice it. But it reminds me of how a dragon regards its prey. With eager brutality. “And what of this pull of Etherlight now?”
“It faded when the dragon perished and the threat was gone.” Do the words sound too much like a script? I’ve been kicking them around ever since Marius marched us here.
He clicks his tongue. “A shame. But you will have time in the Tribunal, and Mercy after, to hone your skills as our great slayer reborn. I’m sure it will come to you soon.” He speaks as if he hasn’t tried to wring the power from my bones every day for six years during our often brutal training sessions.
I hold up my wrists as he approaches, a heavy key in hand. As my shackles are unlocked, I ask, “My mum?”
There’s a second of hesitation where I think he’s about to refuse. In Vinguard, lawbreakers aren’t kept long. If they’refound guilty, they’re sentenced to labor in the quarries of the Undercrust, excavating stone for the Mercy Knights to use to repair the wall. Or put to death.
And I know which one the vicar would choose for her.
But in the end, he turns to her and unlocks her shackles as well.
“In the future, your concern is unnecessary. Our savior has the skills to keep herself safe. Or the Creed and our Mercy Knights will protect her. You can rest easy,” he says to her, voice ominously low. But what he means is,Stay the hell away from the Creed’s favorite symbol, you heretic; you’re only alive because killing the mother of Valor Reborn would look bad.
My hands ball into fists for just a split second. But as soon as they do, I feel eyes on me. My gaze drifts to Lucan’s. He didn’t miss it.
Going to tell on me for this, too?I ask with a look.
If Lucan sees it, he doesn’t answer.
I start for the door, glancing at my father as I pass him. His tired expression doesn’t change. Nor does he move for me for any kind of embrace. But his eyes are full of worry and compassion…at least for me. He shows Mum nothing.
It’s been easier to accept as I’ve grown, but I still have a hard timeunderstandinghow he could love Mum for twenty years and then be a stranger to her. I know how difficult her personality is. But so did he when he proposed to her with a handmade ring, etched with a sigil that, to this day, Mum has kept to herself.
The rain has cleared when we emerge from the tower into a small square. The moon’s a talon in the sky, its faint light glinting off a wet, dark city. It’s late enough that the streetlights have been extinguished and shutters drawn to avoid attracting dragons.
Not that it does any good…The dragons attack whenever they please. More frequent year over year.
“I’m going to say goodbye to Mum,” I announce to my father and Lucan, the edge of a challenge creeping into my words. Maybe it’s because the vicar stayed back to talk with the Mercy Knights in the tower. I’m sure he’s threatening them not to spread rumors about the Creed’s precious Valor Reborn. The mere thought puts an angry edge in my voice. “I’ll just be a moment.”
Neither of them stops me as I stride across the square to where Mum waits at the street leading to her apartment.
“I’m sorry,” she says again. “I really had been planning to give you a good dinner before the Convening.”
“I know.” I put my hand in my pocket, closing it around the jar as I position my body in a way that my father and Lucan can’t see what I’m doing. Grabbing her wrist with my other hand, I place the jar in her palm and close her fingers around it. Her eyes widen and lips part slightly. Just the sight of the jar has a chill running down my spine as I remember the writhing, tightening feeling of the EthershadeandEtherlight compressing around me. “Wasn’t a total waste of a night, though. I got this for you.”
