But maybe I do haveoneoption. I look at Nakiis. “If we have to wait, then I need you to send word to Emberfall.”
“To Emberfall!” He actually sounds affronted.
“Yes. Prince Rhen’s guards wouldn’t let you get close to the castle, but you could get to Jax. I need you to find him and tell him why I’ve been detained.”
He stares back at me, his eyes black and implacable.
When he says nothing, I rush on. “Please. Nakiis,please. I beg of you. I have no way to send word. He has no idea what’s happening.” To my surprise, my chest tightens, and I try to shake it off. It doesn’t work. “Youwon’t let me help.Greywon’t let me leave. I know you’re at risk, too. I know you’re trying to stop Xovaar. Maybe I have no right to ask. But Jax is alone, and the other soldiers already think he’s a target. I don’t . . . ? I don’t even know—”
I break off sharply, because I can’t finish that sentence. The rain pours down, and I have to swallow.
I don’t even know if he’s alive.
“Tycho.” The scraver’s hand falls on my shoulder, his claws pressing into my skin. A whip of wind blasts around us. “I will go.”
I don’t have a chance to say anything in response. Before I’ve even realized he’s agreed, before I even have time to give him a propermessage, his wings snap wide, and he’s gone.
CHAPTER 36
JAX
The morning after the scraver attack, I’m woken by clattering and voices from the kitchen, along with a faint light breaking through the gap in my curtains. I don’t know how long I slept, but I’m still exhausted, so that doesn’t bode well. The foot that Captain Ammax brought sits in a bag in my wardrobe, but if the kitchen is already bustling, practice will have to wait for later. When I look in the mirror, I find that the scratches on my face are an angrier red than they were last night, and I wish I’d let Lola tut over them for a few minutes. Maybe I can ask for a salve. I really need to figure out a way to ask about what happened.
Molly and Lola are in the dining room as usual, but there’s a heavy weight to the air. The room goes silent when I appear.
Tension crawls across my shoulders. When the scravers attacked during our journey, everyone thought they were coming after me, that I’d drawn them somehow. Does everyone think that now? I duck my head and take my usual seat at the end of a table.
I’m prepared to wait for my food, but Molly and Lola stop whatthey’re doing to bring my breakfastimmediately. Lola had literally been serving rolls to someone else, but she turns away to bring some to me.
I wait for someone to protest, but no one does.
They keep staring.
Molly’s expression is a bit drawn, but she gives me a crooked curtsy. She says, “Tahlasta dasima, Master Jax,” which is really quite touching—but then her eyes fill.
I frown. “Molly.” But I don’t know what else to say.
She swipes her eyes and leans down to give me a kiss on the cheek, then sees the scratches on the other side of my face and gasps. She breaks off and starts speaking rapidly to Lola, and then they’re both talking and staring at me—and so is everyone else. Even Master Garson comes in from the kitchen to add a few comments. They’re mentioning the soldiers and the scravers, but everyone is talking too quickly.
“Please,” I say. “I am . . . ?I cannot—” I break off and make a frustrated sound.
Luckily, Mistress Elayne, my tutor, walks through the door and into the mayhem. I completely forgot she would come at breakfast.
“Help me,” I say to her desperately. “Please.”
She takes stock of the situation, from Molly’s tears to everyone’s stares to the rapid conversation around us, and then she strides briskly across the room, taking in the scratches on my face.
“They’ve heard about the attack on some of the soldiers,” she says plainly. “Molly says you risked your life to protect them, and then you rode through the night to get her home.”
Wait. I frown. “No, I—”
But Molly cuts me off, rushing on in Emberish now that she knows she has a translator.
“Three men were killed,” Elayne continues, once Molly is done speaking. “Master Garson said one of the captains told him it might have beenallof them if you hadn’t acted so quickly.”
I stare at her, and then my eyes flick back to the workers who are watching this whole interaction. “It wasn’t just me,” I say, remembering Sephran with the sword in his hand. “We all fought them off.” I glance at Molly and Lola and then at Master Garson, who’s drawn closer. “Did the surviving soldiers return safely?”
Elayne repeats my question to Master Garson.
