Dresnar stepped forward toward me. He’d been the one riding on Elthika-back, coming from the direction of the village. He took the satchel from me, though his movements were careful, as if he didn’t want to disturb the egg.
“Let’s not pass judgments on trustworthiness, Dakkari,” he replied. I flinched, the words like a dagger.
“We can still stop this. We can leave and return the eggs,” I said softly, looking at Dresnar. “I don’t know why you’re doing this. But surely you know that this will start awar.” I cut a look over to Ryak and then to Nevin. “Is that what theDothikkarreally wants? He won’t win a war with the Karag. It’ll be aslaughter. Of our own people. We can still stop this!”
“That’s not your concern,” Ryak answered, his voice a dismissal. “We have our orders.”
Dresnar’s voice was impatient as he cut a look to Ryak, the satchel securely in his grip. “We need to leave now. They have patrols all over this forest. They found Brune, and he told Alaryk which direction you’d gone.”
“Vok,” Ryak cursed, glaring over at Nevin. “I knew we should’ve killed him.”
The words twisted my belly. Brune’s father was a guardsman. They would really kill their own brethren’s son? His flesh and blood?
And if they were willing to do that, what were they willing to do to me?
Already Ryak hadn’t seemed to have much respect for Kiron. Maybe…maybe I was never meant to come back from the Arsadia.
The thought hit me like I’d run into a pillar of stone.
Maybe I was a liability. A loose end.
I shook myself, thinking I was being silly.
Still, my feet stayed rooted along the forest’s edge, watching as Ryak and Nevin kept their satchels on their backs, as Dresnar took my egg and looped the straps over his own shoulders. Nevin cut me the smallest glance. I noticed the brown-haired Karag was watching me carefully.
This was wrong. Everything told me that there was something wrong about this.
“What now?” I forced myself to ask, even as the hair on my arms stood on end, even in the steady rain, which skimmed off my skin in thick droplets.
“Now we go home,” Nevin said.
But no one moved.
And that was when I knew I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.
My magic was wiggling in my chest, spurred on by the sudden threat, the icy fear. When my eyes began to glow, Dresnar took a step toward me.
“We can still use her,” Nevin said, looking to Ryak. “Her power is rare. TheDothikkar?—”
“No,” the other Karag said. “She’s seen our faces.”
My heart was pounding, and I took a step back. “You need me,” I told Ryak, but I hated that it sounded like a plea. Trying to bide time. “I’m the only one who’s worked in a hatchery here. What are you going to do with Elthikan eggs when you get them back home? You don’t know what they need, but I do.”
“So do they,” Ryak said, tilting his head to the Karag.
My gaze flitted to Dresnar. There were four of them. I was already so tired. I wouldn’t be able to outrun any of them for very long.
They would kill me, I knew.
But why?
“What did they promise you?”
Dresnar’s jaw ticked. He was the only one who looked like he was hesitating, like it disgusted him that he was even here. He didn’twantto betray Alaryk. So why was he? What was in it for him?
“Your people have mature heartstones. We’ve only been given the seeds,” he replied. “Do you how long it will take for those seeds to grow? Do you know how long it will take until our Elthika are sated again?Decades.And as you witnessed yourself from the attack, the wild Elthika will only get more violent. I won’t see my people plunged into conflict with them again.”
Again?
