I assumed my fighting stance. “It’s Rue,” I corrected him.
He merely shrugged, removing his own sword from its sheath and took up his position opposite me. He lunged, our dance beginning. He displayed the clever, graceful movements of a man well-trained. His footwork and feinting, his strength and power calculated and deliberately impressive, even to me, an elite soldier. But I was eager to prove I would not be a liability, but rather a formidable fighting ally in whatever he required of me. We parried and twisted, ducked and lunged.
I settled easily into combat, armoring myself and embracing the lethality of my body. I twisted away from his blade, my own narrowly missing his chest as he tactfully avoided contact. His stance faltered, and I swept my foot under him, ready totake him out. He caught my movement with breathtaking speed, turning my attempt against me.
In a heartbeat, he was on top of me, his weight dispersed enough for me to choke on my dignity. Muscular forearms held him up in an effort to avoid crushing me. That maddening mouth twitched in a deviously taunting smirk, mere inches from my face. “Your confidence far exceeds your demonstrated performance.” He jumped up, beckoning me with a cocky summon of his hand. “Again, Scourge.”
I cracked my neck, ready to wipe that smug grin off his face and make him eat the words he’d thrown back at me. My feet planted, balance restored, we went again.
After multiple draws, two wins, and mostly getting my ass handed to me, we finally took a break. I regarded the mountains, breathing in the piney air swooping down from their rugged peaks.
The thought of Haluma on the other side of those leering pinnacles was a slamming reminder of the enemies now hunting me. A warning of the retribution sure to come. The worst was that I deserved whatever came for me. I closed my eyes when that familiar feeling of being caged breached my defenses. Deep breaths.
In.
Out.
Judd sighed. “I can’t imagine the difficulty of aligning with who you once believed was your enemy.”
I was still sorting through the maze of truths and distortions. I chanced a look at the general. “I still don’t know that you’renotmy enemy. But you’re a lesser evil than the King.” I pulled a few long blades of grass, twisting them in my hands. “I always thought you brought in Glint. Delah only recently revealed the connection between it and Nolan.” How many times had she tried to expose the lies, only for me to silence her?
“That’s the twisted story Nolan uses to further his own interests.” He sat down beside me, his shoulder near my own. “In the beginning of his reign, he started the Vestal Anchor program—a way to harvest magic. He has a refinery where he synthesizes Glint from Berine. It’s connected to the water treatment system so he can pump Glint into the water supply.”
Hells. The fountains throughout the city. My breaths wavered.
Pity softened the hardness of his words. “Berine absorbs magic, but refined, Glint siphons it. He incrementally drains his own people. The purpose of his light orbs is to absorb the siphoned magic. When they become saturated they sink lower and burn brighter. It’s why he sends workers to replace them. They’re collected and the stolen magic creates the dreki.”
I tore at the weeds and grass beneath my fingers. A tremble stole through my body and I couldn’t speak. I had to hear this though. I needed to. I did not sense a lie.
“Vestal Anchors were once all Primes. They were the ones with the strongest magic, the richest resource to siphon from. The King stood to gain the most from them. They were rounded up and drained. He wanted Primes of his own, so he created the dreki from them.”
My understanding of the world tilted on its axis. I thought of Delah next in line to become a Vestal Anchor, my stomach bottoming out. Judd kept speaking.
“The Liberation established itself as a haven for escaped Primes. Our numbers increased as more people filtered out of Haluma and wandered into Yarit. They sought safety, away from the thrall of Glint and the threat of Nolan. We built up and warded Aphellion, and the Liberation has worked subversively ever since to try and undermine the King and prevent more Berine from flooding into his realm, strengthening him. Xuri’s mother narrowly escaped that first recruitment.” He paused,gathering himself, his eyes glassy. He spoke of Xuri and her mother with such fondness. They clearly had a history.
I stared down at my fingers as he spoke, absently braiding long blades of grass. Xuri had offered me a glimpse of her dying mother, the pain of the memory sharp and bitter as if it had been my own.
“Primes almost never leave Aphellion. She insisted on entering Maripol again, to search for the girl in her visions. Unfortunately, her presence was swiftly discovered. We didn’t get to her in time and the withdrawal symptoms of Glint destroyed her mind and eventually her body.”
This information settled like land after an earthquake. Everything had rearranged, the topography forming new shapes, though the ground itself remained the same. Something itched, writhed beneath my skin. Something I had compelled to stay inside all these years. I had ignored my intuition. I had colluded with a deceiver. I avoided the cracks in Haluma’s recorded history because they threatened to break the dam of King Nolan’s carefully constructed lies.
The Good King had covered his bases so well, twisting the story so that the populace revered him as savior. His version showed him victim to the rebels. Hero, rather than villain, to the realms. And I chose to believe him.
Hollowness swelled. Anger consumed to the point of desolation. It’s a special kind of torture to face the lies that let you sleep at night. If I were being honest with myself, pieces of my beliefs had been fragmenting and falling apart for a while now. I had stitched them together to keep me under the banner of loyalty. The deceptions across the realm had burrowed as deep as my own heart.
I shuttered the black hole yawning inside me. I had to get back to Delah before they made her an official Vestal Anchor, my fear for her dramatically surging. I moved awayfrom the general, despite a deep desire to remain near. I was overwhelmed, untethered.
“Nolan is a master of illusions. His expertise is deception.”
I put my head in my hands, restraining a scream that threatened to sever the air. “I had no idea. And Xuri…” I shook my head. Perhaps we had both lost a mother to Nolan’s Glint. If my lies were what previously kept me warm at night, then my anger would now do the job.
“She has handled the loss of Ilayah with much grace. Though the grief still aches,” he responded. His care for Xuri pointed to something much deeper between them. A pang of disappointment layered onto my overwhelm.
The general assessed me before responding. “I know this truth is painful. It’s a lot to take in. You of all people have the right to rage.”
Yet, anger could be directed and used. Mine went toward planning my retribution and Delah’s escape.
Delah was likely safe for now, but she wouldn’t be for long. My only hope at rescuing her was to keep my end of our bargain and use my magic to strengthen the Liberation. The effects of the lies coiled around me. Nolan had let me believe the Liberation was behind my parents’ demise. It was him all along. I wouldn’t let him take any more from me.
