My only small victory was that the journey also seemed to tire the guardsmen. I didn’t think either had the strength to even take the satchel from me. They needed me to transport it…to wherever we were going.
Ryak looked up at the sky as I caught my breath. “We have to keep moving. They’ll know they’re gone by now.”
I wondered who’d discovered my theft this morning. Was it Tarkosh? Or Syris?
“How much farther did they say?” Nevin asked.
They?
“The edge of the forest cuts away down to a valley,” Ryak answered. “I checked it. That’s where they’ll be.”
“Move,” Nevin ordered me, finally ending my brief reprieve. The tip of his mud-covered boot prodded the back of my thigh. “Hurry up.”
I didn’t know how I found the strength to pull my leg fromthe muck where I’d begun to sink, but I continued. I wondered about Brune, hoping that he wasn’t dead. Hoping that someone would find him quickly. Before we’d left, I’d tried to funnel as much of my magic into him as I could, to try to keep him alive until he was discovered. At least until Ryak had noticed the glow of my eyes.
What would Alaryk think when they found the eggs gone? When they knew it was me who’d done it?
Would he believe that I was truly the treacherous, lying bitch he’d made me out to be last night?
He would be proven right. I wished I could’ve explained.
Now…I would never see him again. Maybe it was best for both of us that he hated me.
Overhead, I heard the familiar swooping of wings. My heart jolted, my head snapping back. There was an Elthika.
My heart only sank when I realized it wasn’t Samryn or an Elthika I recognized. From this vantage I couldn’t even tell if it had a rider or if it was wild.
Though I was tempted, and though I thought about it, I knew that if I screamed up for help, it would certainly mean my own death. And I knew that Ryak was a hateful bastard, that he would make good on his promises of ruining my family when he returned to Dothik.
So I bit my tongue, watching the Elthika fly out of view, something shriveling in me at its retreat.
“That’s him,” Ryak murmured.
Good thing I didn’t call out,I thought, my heart swimming in dread.
“We must be close.”
Theydidhave help from the Karag. The stunning realization made my gut feel like it was coiled tight. There was more happening here than I’d even known.
And that was the first moment when an inkling of doubt began to spread. WasIin danger?
Questions raced in my mind on a loop. Until long moments later, I heard the familiar sounds of an Elthika or two and the low murmuring of voices just through the tree line.
The forest finally gave way to a wide, flat, rocky ledge that dropped straight off into a deep valley, just as Ryak had said. I wondered if this was what they’d done since Nevin had broken him out of his prison back in Grymia. Biding their time, looking for an opportunity to get to me. Had they been watching the village? Watching me? How had they not been caught?
There, standing along the sheet of the ledge, big enough for two Elthika to land, were two Karag riders. One I didn’t recognize, with long brown hair, partially braided away from his face and steel-gray eyes, but one I did.
Dresnar.
One of Alaryk’s own trusted riders. Just yesterday morning, he’d led me to the meeting with Sarkin and Vaedrin. I would’ve only been more shocked if I’d seen Myzalla herself standing there.
“You?” I breathed.
His lips were pressed tight, the flint of his eyes unreadable.
I wasn’t thinking when I asked, “But why? He trusts you.”
And maybe it wasn’t my right, but I felt sinking dread for Alaryk. That one of his own riders, his own friend, would do this to Grymia.
