“What did it mean—a choice of love?” Royo asks.
I shake my head. “I have no idea. I guess they’re oracles. But I don’t get what he’s referring to.”
I really don’t. There was nothing in the texts about amarth being able to see the future, but something tells me he wasn’t making it up. His pity at my impending choice chills me to my core. But a choice of love could only mean choosing between Royo and something else, and that’s simple—I’d choose him every time.
I shake it off as we ride through the snow, desperate to get away. The sun continues to lower in the sky, and the amarth begin to wake.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Tiyung
Idle Prison, Yusan
The army marching north can only mean that war is coming. Ailor seems to reach the same conclusion, if the tightening in his jaw is any indication. Good gods. Yusan is about to declare war on Khitan…again.
Yusan and Khitan battle each other at least once a century. Thousands of people die, homes and lives are destroyed, children get orphaned, and atrocities are committed—all for the border to shift slightly or sometimes not at all. A truce or an everlasting peace is brokered and then soon forgotten because the rulers lose nothing.
Ever since Hana told us about the soldiers, I’ve been pondering the war. It cannot be a coincidence that King Joon sent Sora and the others to Khitan at the same time he is mobilizing an army. Hana said that the king wanted them to steal the Golden Ring of the Dragon Lord, but perhaps they were merely a decoy, a distraction for Queen Quilimar. But why? I am convinced that this is tied to the laoli in Oosant, but I’m missing a key piece of information. And it’s driving me mad.
“You seem to wish you were with them,” Ailor says.
I must’ve been staring off into space again. “I mean, not that I don’t enjoy your company, but yes. I’d rather be with her.”
Ailor laughs, and then he coughs. He’s been coughing more and more since he’s been in here. The damp cold and lack of sun will do that. I’ve only stayed healthy because I almost never get sick and Hana has been feeding us.
Finally, Ailor stops coughing, and then he spits. A glob of red lands on the floor.
Blood.
He just coughed up blood. I stare at the spot on the ground, and he does as well.
“Is that…new?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “It comes and goes.”
I’m no healer, but that can’t be good.
I’d ask Hana to bring him a healer, but I doubt they have any here. Also, Ailor hasn’t told her much. I don’t know if he doesn’t trust her or if he really doesn’t know what Mikail is up to. He was surprised by our plan to kill the king—or at least that I was a part of it. He thought I should’ve gone free, since I am the son of a count, but I knew the risk. I wanted to help Sora get her freedom no matter what the cost.
“You love this girl, huh?” he asks.
I nod. He’s heard a lot about Sora during our time together. I’ve told him everything from my family’s sordid dealings to me punching a king’s guard to try to save her in the arena. My hand only recently feels better.
“I grew to love them all, really,” I say. “Mikail included. But yes, Sora is the one I’m thinking about.”
He smiles. “It’s a beautiful thing to be in love—dulls the atrocities.”
My eyebrows rise at the last word. “Which atrocities?”
Ailor shakes his head, as he’s done whenever he’s mentioned bad things. I understand not wanting to talk about it, but we’re coming to the end of our time together. I doubt I’ll live long enough to spill his secrets. So I might as well share mine.
“I’ve killed a man,” I say. And then I remember the second man in the warehouse. “More than one. I know you must see me as a soft nobleman, but I don’t think you can shock me.”
The corner of his mouth turns up just like Mikail. “Believe me, son, it’s different when your victims weren’t all grown men.”
He means either boys or women, or maybe both.
Ailor takes a wet-sounding breath. “I killed a family. The little girls, and then the mother, so they wouldn’t have to watch their parents die first. The father went last, and their bodies were thrown into the sea. Not even burned and released.”
