Rahzlyn. Attack. Abduction.
“We believe so based on?—”
“Attempted?” I repeated in a daze.
“Our reports indicate unsuccessful,” Alekko said. “But?—”
“Was she harmed?” I demanded. “Is she safe? Where is she now?”
“I don’t know the details?—”
“Let’s go.” I slid my talisman onto my finger at last, feeling the band magically conform to my skin. A surge of energy and awareness pulsed through me. My injuries began to heal, the swelling and throbbing already subsiding. I brushed past Alekko.
“Hey.” He grasped my shoulder in the hallway. “We don’t know what we’re walking into. It could be stable, it could be a shipwreck. You are far more powerful than me, but I need you with a level head. Okay?”
I nodded. He was right.
But if my last words to her were cold fallacies—if she never knew the truths in my head—I would never forgive myself.
Chapter 45
Rahzlyn
I returnedto consciousness with a groan, feeling as though I’d been roused from an ancient slumber.
“Nice and slow,” a woman said. I tensed at first, vividly remembering being dragged against my will before everything went dark.
The voice was warm, earnest, familiar.
Felaf. I looked at her bloody, dirt-soaked face with relief. She’d removed most of her layers, wearing only a sleeveless vest, pants, and boots. She smiled, her hands guiding me upright from the coarse ground. I took in our surroundings, finding us tucked away in an alcove that served as a small shrine to Scorpio, carved within a wall of stone.
We were at the top of a hill, steeply up the road from billowing clouds of gray and black painted where the calamity had occurred.
“Whathappened?” I asked as Felaf checked me for signs of more serious injury.
“Explosions. Three of them, targeting the entire road we were on.”
“Your stomach—you were stabbed!” I shifted backwards to get a better look. There was a gaping hole in her clothes, but she appeared normal.
“Already healing, and nothing Gertah won’t be able to help fully mend. I’ll be fine. You, on the other hand…”
“I’ve been better,” I said shakily. A gash throbbed on my head, but otherwise I seemed unscathed. “I don’t remember anything.”
“I followed your screams. You were being carried away, but I didn’t—couldn’t—see anyone with you. At all. It was frighteningly strange. Once I grabbed hold of you, I got us away from there until Vesperah and other city guards approached. This seemed like a good place to take you—enclosed, small, protected, with a view of what was happening down below.”
“How is it possible that we both couldn’t see them?”
“Raithe encountered something similar during Cyrene’s trial. I’m glad I saw you before it was too late.” She approached the entrance of the shrine. The entire backside of her clothes had been burned through.
I gasped. “Felaf, your skin?—”
“Already healing.” She tossed her grimy braid over her shoulder. “Looks worse than it is right now.”
“How long have I been out?”
“Not long. At first, I thought it was your head wound that rendered you unconscious. Then I smelled the vervain on your breath.”
My tongue roamed the roof of my mouth. I never wanted to taste vervain again.
