Responsibility.
Loyalty.
They were the values that had been iterated in every lesson and lecture for as long as he could remember.
One day, Aidon, you will rule …
Aidon tugged his linen shirt over his head. ‘I’m due to meet with the City Guard,’ he said as he stood. Josie’s brows shot up.
‘The Bellare again?’
‘They vandalized a restaurant in the Old Town owned by a young Visya couple.’
Her face scrunched in disgust. ‘Why the sudden increase in activity?’
Aidon shrugged as he tugged on his shirt. The rebel group had been around for years. They were made mostly of humans – and a few devout Visya – who rejected the modern ways of Trahir, most notably Visya using their affinity outside of what the Conoscenza specifically decreed.
Religious zealots, his uncle often called them. Aidon was inclined to agree. The Bellare took their beliefs far further than even those who worshipped with the Old Customs.
And while the Bellare had mostly been harmless, recently there’d been a surge in activity from the group in Rinnia. A vandalism here. A fight breaking out in a tavern there. Nothing incredibly dangerous, but enough of a change that Aidon wanted to ensure the Guard kept an eye out.
Perhaps the Bellare had caught wind of what was unfolding in Tala. Even Aidon had heard whispers of it in the bar he frequented with Peter, and that was before Gianna’s letter arrived. Gossip always traveled faster than royal missives.
Their own general behind bars, rumors of dark-affinity work stirring, the brutal attack by their sacred wolves …
It was just the sort of thing the rebels would cling to as an indication the gods were angry, and they should repent or else.
Well, at least things are about to get interesting.
‘Aidon,’ Josie called after him as he headed toward the steep rocky path that would take him up the cliffside. He shielded his hand against the sun as he glanced back at his sister. She looked every bit a warrior sitting there with her sword braced against the rock, her back ramrod straight, her fighting leathers cut precisely to her curvy build. She took him in for a second, a frown creasing her brow.
‘Be careful,’ she said.
So she’d felt it too, then. The subtle sense of foreboding that had begun to settle over Rinnia.
The tradesmen. The Bellare. Tala.
Something was indeed unfolding.
Aidon gave his sister a reassuring grin. ‘I will be.’
22
‘I hear all this talk of your persuasiveness, Aya, but you know what I think?’ Will shot her a lazy grin as he hopped up on the worn stones of the Wall, the strands of his black hair damp with sweat from their training for the Dyminara qualifications.
Visible from the port, the Wall was a beacon of might and power, even in its dilapidated state. Entire sections had been destroyed during the War, but there were still blocks that rimmed the palace grounds, some wrapping into the mountain face itself, as if the structure had been born of the granite of the Malas.
It was common for children to climb the ancient ruins, daring each other to get higher and higher. Those dares became outright challenges on the more treacherous points when they grew older – that is, when they weren’t using its nooks and craters to get into other sorts of trouble that drew in teenagers with developing powers and bodies.
It was one of those high points on which Will balanced, his arms outstretched as he danced back and forth, mischief glittering in his eyes.
She hated the way he was looking at her – the way her stomach tightened beneath his gaze.
There was something unsettling about Will, some secret he kept hidden behind the seductive smiles and flirtations. She caught glimpses of it in the way he fought, in the way he made even senior members of the Dyminara tremble with a mere whisper of his affinity. There was something untamedin him – a beast he kept carefully locked away. It scared her that she recognized it so easily; that maybe, all those years ago, as he stood on her doorstep and watched her receive the news of her mother’s death … he recognized something similar in her, too.
‘Go on, tell me. Gods know you will anyway,’ Aya finally sighed. The training session with Galda had wiped her out entirely. The rest of the trainees were further down the mountain, a steady stream heading into the city. She’d been content to walk alone, but Will had been dogging her steps since they left the training compound.
‘I think you couldn’t persuade a bird to fly.’ Will spun once, his footsteps light on the crumbling rock. He shot her another taunting grin. ‘I think this gossip about your talent is all talk.’
