Ryker needed to know–and I needed his help.
“Maybe the Northerners can’t find the entrance without the traitor guiding them,” Dax said. “Which means they’re off to war, whoever they are.”
I didn’t know which was worse–the traitor trapped here with us or on the battlefield with Ryker.
“The soldiers knew we were coming, though,” I said.
Yes, they could have spotted us from the rim, but that didn’t sit right with me.
Dax turned his head once more. “Vylkor’s still at the end of the line.”
“He’s so convinced the trolls are going to attack.” I appreciated his dedication to duty, but this wasn’t the right moment for it. “As if they’d go through all this trouble when they could have annihilated us then and there, and then attacked the city without warning.”
Dax hummed. “That, or…”
“Or?”
“Or he knows this little parade of ours will be very poorly received by the people in Solkar’s Reach and wants only you to be seen leading the trolls into their precious city.”
The thought was so heinous–and so disturbingly obvious–that it halted me in my tracks. Murmurs, both troll and human, resounded behind me before I shook my head and marched forward.
“Why didn’t I think of that?” I seethed.
“Because you’re righteous.” Dax hesitated. “Don’t get me wrong…”
“In this mood, I probably will.”
“...but you need to learn to see the worst in people. Most would do anything to save their hides, even skinning others.”
“We grew up in the same family. How did you become so jaded?”
“I’ve traveled too far and seen too much to trust anyone.” He jutted out his stubborn chin at me. “Do you trust Vylkor?”
I trusted his sense of duty. Whether that extended to me was debatable. He sure hadn’t wanted to let me take control of the city.
“He wasn’t the one to maim that troll.” It would have recognized his scent.
“That’s not an answer.”
I hesitated. “Ryker trusts him.”
“Do you?”
Back when we’d first left for the crater’s entrance, I had. Now, after he’d challenged me–“No.”
“Then don’t let him walk behind you again. That’s an easy way to end up with a dagger in your back–” Dax inhaled sharply, just as my heart crumbled all over again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean–”
“It’s fine,” I lied, trying to keep a straight face, even as another wave of emotions threatened my composure.
The pain of losing my father would never ebb away, not really. Especially since I hadn’t found his murderer and was no closer to avenging him.
Perhaps once I did, some of the guilt would vanish.
But shame cast a sickening shadow over every other feeling. For the briefest moment, I’d forgotten he was dead.
Since that day on Sanctua Sirena, there had always been a throbbing trapped in the back of my mind, reminding me of what I’d lost. Like a wound that still bled, though I could move through it.
For the entire trek to the rim and back, the memory of him hadn’t even crossed my mind, so consumed with battles and trolls and warriors that didn’t know what true loyalty meant.
