“I guessed that much. The only feynstone left from the sundering isin the storerooms of the crown. What I’d like to know is the name of the Drakai who trained you, and why your father thought a lady needed to learn to fight like an assassin instead of paint, or play music, or—”
“Breed?” I quip, swinging into my saddle while I do my best to deflect from her line of thinking.
“I was going to say ‘sew,’” she corrects, doing her best to prevent the smile teasing the edge of her lips.
“I assume he wanted me to learn for the same reason any father would do such a thing. To keep his daughter safe.”
She shakes her head, completely unwilling to believe me. “Most fathers would just give their daughter a knife and a bodyguard.”
“Actually, I think most fathers would barter their daughters to a husband and charge him with their safety,” I say disdainfully.
Riah lets it go for the time being, making herself busy strapping every weapon she can find to the back of her mount, saving her search of the male for last. She kneels beside him, untying a dagger from his hip when her fingers go still, her eyes widening as she takes in his face more closely than before.
“Foc,” she says, jumping to her feet, scanning the edge of the forest as she rushes to mount. “Go, now,” she commands me, “as fast as your horse will take you. Don’t stop until we reach the palace. I’m right behind you.”
A wailing shriek sounds from within the tree line, prickling the hair on the back of my neck. I don’t have time to look and find the source before Riah cracks her reins in the air, sending my horse into a leaping gallop. Her brow creases as she chances a glance behind us and whatever she sees draws every bit of color from her face.
Flinging her legs over her saddle, Riah doesn’t stop to tie her horse as she flies through the giant gilded doors of the palace. I rush after her as she bolts through the halls, charging into the general’s war room without announcingherself.
I’m right behind her, my own brow drawn in a mixture of concern and curiosity. What had she seen that alarmed her so?
“Vatruke. On the rise, halfway between the palace and the barracks,” she says, out of breath, “They are hiding with the La’tari from the warship, along the edge of the northern forest.”
The general’s eyes flick to me briefly before returning to the lieutenant when he asks, “How many?”
“We only encountered five in the open,” she says, “Four Drakai and one of the Vatruke. We got lucky; I wasn’t recognized.”
“How did you escape?” Riesh asks, wide-eyed.
“We fought,” she explains.
The general moves to my side, his eyes sweeping over me, checking for any sign of injury.
“You managed to kill all five completely unscathed?” Riesh says. I try not to be offended by the shock in his voice, though he directs the question at Riah.
“I only felled two Drakai,” she admits, “Shivaria claimed the lives of the others.”
My stomach pits when she says it, and an uncomfortable silence falls over the room. They each look me over in turn, as if they are seeing me for the first time. For once, I’m glad Awri is absent, still tending to her mate. She already looks at me strangely far too often. Not that I haven’t given her good reason.
“How?” The general’s question is directed at Riah but the male refuses to break my gaze.
The lieutenant gives her report, starting where our day began, the barracks. I’m not sure it’s entirely necessary for her to divulge the entirety of my heated exchange with Siserie, but the pride that fills the general’s eyes upon hearing my response to the female’s ire is worth the retelling.
Despite the serious nature of the story, Riesh laughs a deep belly laugh when he learns I gifted the term of her sentence to Toren. Maybe I was too brash. What if the male leaves her there for a hundred years? Then again, he likely knows far better than I just how long she deserves to linger in herconfinement.
But it isn’t the general’s approval of my decision to leave her that catches my attention. It is the fury in his eyes when Riah repeats the hateful remark Siserie spewed at me before we left. ‘She is nothing but a mistake.’
“What did she mean?” I ask, interrupting Riah’s tale. “When she said I am bound to your king?”
What type of fea bargain have I unwittingly struck with their king? I find myself wondering again if a fea bargain can be nullified by ending a life. I will need to find out.
“Fates,” I say under my breath, “It’s the bargain I made with Niya, isn’t it? The same bargain I made with Bagya.”
Of course, it makes sense that if I struck a bargain with a subject of their sovereign it might easily extend to him. Reckless. I will need to find out exactly what it is I promised Niya and how to unbind myself from their sovereign, and quickly.
“Bagya?” Riah balks. “I’m beginning to feel like I don’t even know who you are,” she says, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“I suggest you get used to that feeling if you intend to stay her friend. I knowIhave,” Riesh quips, and I’m not entirely sure he’s joking.
