“Started that way,” he rasped, dropping his gaze. “That witch…fucked up. Or—” another wet laugh— “fucked us.” A cough sent a spray of blood from his mouth.
My brows clashed together. If themagvis’oath of loyalty to the king was as strong as everyone said, she couldn’t have gone against his wishes and killed the land—intentionallyorunintentionally.
“Where is King Donon?”
“I’m…about to…see ‘im.” His hoarse voice became weaker with every word.
Harthon shook him roughly, trying to keep some life in him. “When did he die?”
We leaned in as his mouth parted, the syllables hardly audible. “I…forget.”
His mouth didn’t close after his final word, and it never would. My gaze collided with Harthon’s, the implication of the man’s words sinking in.
Raking a hand over his jaw, he said, “So Donon died long ago.”
I bit my lip as the pieces came together. “There must have been a lapse in the crown—some moment of time where there was no king for themagvisto obey. Either the Domus turned on her, or she made things that way.”
His mouth compressed as the situation we’d never anticipated, the possibility we’d never once considered, settled on us with the weight of boulders.
Hope—that terrible, unreliable thing—had blinded us.
We didn’t speak again as we followed the Horrads to their camp, nor as I helped Harthon bandage his wound. The arrow’s track had been the most fortunate part of the entire journey into the Domus, lodging in the outer muscle of his side. So long as it didn’t get infected, he would be fine.
No, that was a lie.
Harthon wouldn’t be fine.No onewould be fine. Sixth Territory was going to declare war on us. And even if we won, the Domus was going to kill us all eventually. What we saw in Centralis was our future.
None of us voiced this redundant truth as we gathered to decide on our next steps. We couldn’t return to Sixth without Aric, which meant we needed to sneak through to Ellan’s Territory and continue home from there. It wasn’t wildly different from the original plan—which was to travel home via land rather than ship, as the strong one-directional winds made return voyages lengthy—but the sneaking was new. Eventually, Torr would hear that we had returned to home and piecetogether Aric’s death, but at least we would have time to prepare for retaliation.
With that settled, we stayed the night with the Horrads, allowing some time for recovery before what would be a grueling trek across land. Before we turned in for the night, Harthon and I located our horses, which were being prepared for slaughter. It was easier than I thought to convince the Horrad leader to return the animals to us.
At least here, the violet and gold hues of my eyes still meant something.
Here, I wasn’t the inconsequential village girl parading as something more than she could ever hope to be.
It was that train of thought that drowned out all the rest as Harthon cradled my body on the thin mattress. Instead of giving me strength and comfort, his embrace caused my skin to itch with the need to crawl away. I didn’t, but only because I didn’t want to disturb his rest. So I laid there silently, soaking in the bone-deep guilt that this was my fault.
I was supposed to help Harthon save this world. People had died because of me—forme—in the pursuit of this mighty goal that, for some reason, had feltpossible. Yet in the end, I’d been entirely useless.
Actually, the reality was worse.
In the end, my role had caused Aric’s death and whatever war would inevitably come.
If I said this to Harthon, he’d tell me I wasn’t being fair, and remind me that no one could have known how wrong we were. But the thing is, he would be wrong.
Josenne had warned me of this situation weeks ago, telling me in that cryptic way of hers that we shouldn’t make assumptions.Do not pretend to know things you have no knowledge of,she’d hissed. But I’d ignored her, instead findingreassurance in the favorable seas and skies, the birds, the wolf, the heat in my chest and my glowing eyes.
Shame followed me into the dark caverns of sleep, no doubt to plague me with nightmares.
I was on the edge of unconsciousness when something waved through the remorse. It was brief, barely-there. A flash.
But I felt the orb in my chest flare with a burst of heat, like a body sputtering out a grand, final breath before it passed on.
Chapter 32
The kernel of knowledge did not completely vanish. Rather, it simmered weakly in my chest, a ghost of what it once was, as we scaled the mountains and began our trek through Sixth. The Horrads equipped us with provisions and accompanied us to a low mountain pass before wordlessly watching us descend the slopes.
It was there, at the base of the mountain range, that we faced our greatest challenge. Heavy patrols monitored the area, particularly as night fell. Whether it was to keep visitors from First Territory out or to watch for our return, we couldn’t know, but it didn’t matter.
