All right, then.
How he’d know, Lory had no idea, but she believed him. He’d told Khayrivven the same thing about helping Lory in the trials, and Khayrivven hadn’t questioned it. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Lory went back in her mind to the moments she’d believed that this was it. That her life was over, but her face, she wiped of all emotion, not giving the Master of Whispers a hint of her pain as she recounted, “A few of the ashlings ambushed me in the night. They are all dead now.” It was the shortest version she could give him, and had she not been fighting the agonizing headache threatening to break free again, she would have delighted in the way a vein ticked in Lenya’s temple.
“Not that, Vednis. I know everything about what happenedbeforethe cave.” He stopped right by her bed, staring down at her, his average height and build suddenly a colossal obstacle she knew she couldn’t overcome, even at her best. “What happenedinthe cave?”
Of course he knew about the cave. Ycken had probably told him all about the Flame-born hiding there, the way Lory had supposedly fainted, and the leonthor’s appearance. There was little she could add except for, “I didn’t return to the outpost right after the trial, not because I wanted to run or because I intended to betray Ashthorn. When I entered that cave, I could no longer leave.”
Lenya raised a brow, his only prompt that he hadn’t heard enough details, and Lory was in no condition to endure his wrath should he decide to torture the information out of her. So she shuttered her eyes, allowing some emotionback into her voice to make it more credible when she said, “Would you believe me if I told you that a monster out of Brestolyan fairytales held me hostage?” She didn’t wait for Lenya to confirm if he did but rolled on. “My magic got out of control after the ambush, and I didn’t want to burn the whole mountain to cinders, so I ran somewhere where enough rocks surrounded me to keep a safe perimeter in case I lost consciousness and the flames would eat up everything around me.
“The cave was that place, and in the cave, a leonthor—or at least I believe it was one—prevented me from leaving. He didn’t attack me either, just … held me hostage. And then I ran into those other people. I talked only to the three of them—the three General Ycken and Captain Falcrest captured while I?—”
“While you passed out.” The fact seemed to amuse the Master of Whispers to no end, the flicker in his eyes proof other people’s pain wasn’t the only thing that excited him. Their failure did just as well.
“I did.” Not exactly the truth, but if it was what Ycken and Khayrivven had said, she’d go with it and swallow her pride.
“I’ve always suspected you were weak, Vednis, but now I know justhow weakyou truly are.” He turned to the window over the crate, locking his hands behind his back, his gaze following motions outside that Lory couldn’t see. “What about the creature?” He turned his head just long enough to run her through with a warning look, while his posture remained ramrod straight. “Is it true what they said? Was it a leonthor?”
Funny how one word could make Lory’s throat close up, even when she wasn’t betraying anyone’s secret confirming that was what she’d seen in the cave, too.
“It didn’t have wings”—she scrambled for words—“but apart from that, it did look like the creatures from the window panels in the mess hall.”
For a moment, Lenya considered the window in silence, while Lory battled the pounding ache threatening to break through its confinements. When he spoke again, it was in a slow and threatening tone that had Lory wondering if there was anything she could say that would get her out of there alive.
“You said it held you hostage. But when General Ycken and Captain Falcrest spoke about the cave, they didn’t mention you were held in a cell, or that the creature was actively keeping you from moving around—the three Flame-born were. They were the ones who had you by your throat. Is that true, Vednis?”
“Yes, sir.” There was no denyingthat, even if it meant that she had just betrayed her own kind. Not that Enya, Olive, and Hadrick hadn’t done their part to escalate the situation, but they had offered her food before, had been helpful, even when she hadn’t known if she could fully trust them. They hadn’t openly attacked her before Ycken had barged in through the tunnel.
Lenya measured her with his dark gaze. “What’s wrong, Vednis? Feeling sorry for those fire spitters?” Straightening his shoulders, he gave Lory a moment to consider her position, but he didn’t wait for her to voice it. “One could thinkyou would have preferred they got away, even though you know Flame-born aren’t allowed to live.”
“You letmelive.” Defiance wouldn’t get her far, but it was a reminder that the Triad had made exceptions before, and to their own benefit. “Having fire wielders in your units could be an advant?—”
“Who permitted you to have an opinion, Thornling?” Lenya shot at her, more agitated than she’d ever seen him. “You are alive by the mercy of the Triad and King Ulder himself. We can take that privilege away in a heartbeat.”
Had Lory worried about her headache when she’d woken up? That was long forgotten.
“The three Flame-born will meet their fate, and if the slightest suspicion comes to light that you are in league with them, I will personally have your head.Andthe captain’s.”
Lenya’s boots scraped over the wooden floor as he spun around on his heels, marching to the door without as much as acknowledging Lory as she sat up in her bed, ready to confirm she wasn’t. That she’d not betrayed the academy. Only when he halted at the door did he glance back at her over his shoulder. “When I see you again at Ashthorn, you’ll be training for your first assignment.”
Six
Lory
Rolling Lenya’swords over in her mind, Lory barely noticed as darkness began to pull on her vision and the room morphed into something different, the simple wood of the walls transforming into cream-colored marble and the window stretching in length and width until it became a panel large enough to watch the width and height of the room. Lory rolled to the side in her bed, recognizing the lush greenery spanning the mountainside. She’d been here before, in the same wide bed under the same cream and gold covers, wearing the same comfortable clothes—cotton embroideredwith golden thread.
The air smelled of flowers and wood and a hint of sage, and somewhere nearby, running water drew Lory’s attention. When she turned in the direction of the sound, her heart stuttered at the sight of the pool-sized bathtub set into the marble floor of an adjacent room she hadn’t noticed the last time Khayrivven had brought her here in a dream.
Water. So much water. The steam rising from it coiled in whorls, forming patterns that appeared nearly intentional. Like in a daze, Lory slid her bare feet out of bed, the hem of her long, loose pants falling to her ankles and her shirt swaying around her form as she took a tentative step toward the room.
Something splashed, the steam rippling and thickening, and Lory shrank back on instinct, reaching for her dagger. Her heart did a small leap when her fingers closed around the cool metal of the simple hilt. Without making a sound, the dagger slid free of the scabbard tied to the thin belt around her waist, and for the first time since she’d gone up in flames in the mountains, Lory didn’t feel … helpless.
“Who’s there?” If this was Khayrivven’s dream, nothing bad would be waiting for her in that water, but if this was onlyherdream, who knew what horrors her subconscious had conjured for her to battle. Wouldn’t have been the first time. “I’m armed.”
“Of course you are.” His rich, velvet baritone was everything she remembered and more. In the weeks since she’d first heard him speak, the honed danger in his tone had turned into a sound she craved. She could go to sleep to the rumble of his voice when he spoke only to her and wake upto the sound of his wicked chuckle every day and not tire of it. “I put the dagger there myself.”
A smile tugged on Lory’s mouth for the first time in days. Of course he had. Even when there was no danger to be found inhisdream, he wouldn’t leave her defenseless—especially after what had transpired in the cave.
Another splashing sound followed by the gushing of a waterfall. A moment later, Khayrivven Falcrest stepped out of the haze, a pair of soft, black pants slung low on his waist and a cream and gold shirt similar to the one Lory was wearing cleaving open along his torso. His black waves were dripping onto the fabric, soaking the collar until droplets slid down the sliver of skin visible at his front.
