“I don’t understand,” Myzalla chimed in. “Nevin and Ryak are guardsmen for their king. They have survival skills, surely. How far did they think they would get? They have no food or water or shelter. Not to mention they’re on an island in the center of our nation. To get back home, they need…”
“Help,” Sarkin finished for her. “They need help from the Karag. They need Elthika. So was Nevin’s decision based on the fact that they had already secured help? Or was it desperation?”
“Desperation,” Vaedrin answered, scoffing. “No Karag would help them. Especially here, in the Arsadia.”
I bit my tongue. I thought theymighthave help. Because Ryak had been getting messages back to Dothik, hadn’t he? He’d seemed to have some way of communicating. I just hadn’t beenprivy to that information. Besides, a big part of me had thought he might’ve been lying in an attempt to control me. A bluff.
“What if it’s the Dakkari?” Vaedrin asked. “They don’t have Elthika, but their vessels have landed on our southern shores before. If either of them has a beacon of some sort, it’s possible they could find their way here by sea.”
“Our patrols would’ve spotted a ship by now,” Sarkin murmured, shaking his head.
“Not if they came up from the east,” Vaedrin replied. “We don’t have regular patrols there.”
Alaryk was looking at me. I only hoped he didn’t catch the flicker of guilt.
“What do you think, Amaia?” he asked. But his voice was cold.He knows,I thought. I only hoped it was my paranoia.
“Me?” I asked, swallowing. I blew out a breath, shaking my head. “I have no idea where they could’ve gone.”
Brune chimed in. “Is it possible that they learned enough in training to claim an Elthika of their own? To leave the Arsadia?”
“Doubtful,” Myzalla said, sniffing. “But not impossible. Even still, it’s suicide. You’d have to be desperate.”
“They are,” Sarkin merely replied. “If they don’t have outside help, they are most certainly desperate.”
A wave of dizziness made the room spin, and I clutched harder at the table so I didn’t fall. It was getting harder to breathe, but I thought I was able to hide it well.
“Amaia,” Alaryk murmured.
I lifted my gaze.
“You know nothing about this? TheDothikkarnever spoke to you? Ryak and Nevin never spoke about their plans here or hinted that they had allies here?”
Brune’s hand brushed mine beneath the high table.
With the eyes of the Karag on me, I looked at Alaryk and said, “No.”
And the lie tasted like bitter ash on my tongue.
Chapter 33
AMAIA
Alaryk was in a strange mood that night, but I thought it was because of the meeting earlier with his council.
Sarkin and Vaedrin had already departed. It was a lucky happenstance that they’d both been meeting with Elysom’s council when news of the Elthika attack had spread. They’d come straight from Elysom, and they would be lending support from their own territories to help with our food supply, the crops of which had been decimated during a single night. There were stores deep underground, of course, that would last months, but next year’s supply was precarious without aid.
So whether Alaryk was in a brooding mood because he was tired or because of the emotional aftermath of the Elthika attack on his people or because of the questions and concerns that Ryak and Nevin’s escape brought forward, I couldn’t be certain. Likely all three. I didn’t know how he carried it all on his shoulders. How strong he was.
I gave him time alone in the washing room, the trickle of water every now and again my only indication that he was still in there. But I grew more and more impatient and eventually ducked inside, slipping past the gossamer curtain to find himreclining on the ledge, arms spread out on the stone edges behind him, his head tipped back. I thought he might be sleeping, his eyes closed, but when he heard the merest whisper of my approaching footsteps, he tipped his head forward to regard me, the burn of his blue eyes spearing me in place.
“I was worried,” I said. “You’ve been quiet. Are you all right?”
I wanted to know what was going on in his head. His expression was…distant.
Maybe…he’d seen through me today. And that made my insides twist.
I opened my mouth. To tell him what, exactly? I didn’t know. Istillhad to go home. If I spilled theDothikkar’s secret plan to someone he viewed as an enemy, what would happen? To me? To my family? Even though Ryak and Nevin were gone, I had to be careful. Alaryk wasn’t Dakkari. He was a king of a nation that could decimate my homeland if they so chose. And for the first time, I understood theDothikkar’s own fear and paranoia. I’d seen the might of the Elthika, the strength of the Karag firsthand.
