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Chapter Thirty

Agnar

The ground quakes under my feet, doing the running for me while I focus on staying upright. Trees blur into streaks of green and brown on both sides. It’s the next best thing to flying. Walking would take three days. This way, I’ll reach the Split Stone in an hour.

Leaving Esme behind was the right call. She found a lead at the last town but said the witness refused to talk to someone who wasn’t a Warden. So once we hit Stonebridge, Esme went to that meeting alone.

I seized the opportunity to make my first information drop since I arrived in Meridia. I was supposed to check in last night, but hopefully they’ll wait a little while longer.

When I show up, Sterling and Lark can stop wondering if I’m dead. I’m certain they’re already imagining worst-case scenarios and planning contingencies that I pray won’t lead to an international incident.

The forest thickens as I venture deeper into the foothills. Here, the trees are old, with massive, moss-wrapped trunks. Thick branches filter the sunlight into a green-gold haze. Wild animals flinch and dart away from me, sure signs I’m not racing toward a Hollow One.

I worried I’d encounter one of them before I reached the rendezvous spot. When we marked the map with all the rumors we heard, we discovered that the Hollow Ones seem to cloister around the mountains and foothills.

A landmark called the Split Stone, seven feet of gray boulder streaked with red and brown and cleaved perfectly in half by some ancient force, appears through the trees. The two pieces sit close enough that grass and roots hold them together, but the split runs clean through from top to bottom.

It’s the perfect meeting point, out of the way but easy to see and reach from both the sky and the ground.

Three figures loiter in the clearing. Two soldiers try to hide who they are with nondescript travel clothes that don’t quite cover their military bearing. The third man is Rafe Bennett, Tirene’s Master of the Guilds and Royal Council member and a damn fine person to have at your back.

He’s also a man you don’t want to anger. His arms cross over his broad chest, and his eyebrows draw together in an expression I know all too well.

He’s pissed.

Behind them, obscured by the deep shadows between the trees, blue scales catch fragments of light. A head the size of a wagon lowers, and golden eyes fix on me with patient attention.

Ryu.

My pulse kicks once, then calms. Before getting any closer, I lower my gaze and bow my head.

Not to Rafe or the soldiers. I’d kick Rafe’s ass if he ever thought to request such a thing.

My show of deference is for Tirene’s oldest and mightiest dragon.

No one with any sense approaches dragons without respect. Even Lark still treats them with reverence, and she can communicate with them since she’s a dragoncaller.

Typically, dragons don’t tend to appreciate breaches of etiquette. So I wait.

Ryu’s exhale rumbles through the clearing like distant thunder. Permission granted.

I straighten and stride forward at a normal pace, while the soldiers watch. From their expressions, I’m sure they’re hoping this will be one of the few times they see a high-ranking officer get chewed out.

Rafe doesn’t move. “Three missed check-ins. Sterling’s ready to fly out here himself, and Lark’s beside herself with worry. She was convinced you were dead or captured. Explain.”

I meet his eyes and shrug, not caring that the gesture will rile him up. “Things got complicated fast.”

“Complicated.” He says it like I insulted his mother.

“I haven’t been able to get this far until today. I couldn’t break away without raising suspicion. I wasn’t even sure I should come.”

That gets his attention. “Why?”

I lean against a tree. “Things in Meridia are worse than we heard. There’s an epidemic ravaging the countryside. I was plopped right into the middle of it and have been walking through desolated towns and villages ever since.”

The two soldiers exchange glances. One of them, maybe twenty and with a beard that still has thin patches, takes a half-step back. His hand drifts toward his face like he wants to cover his mouth.

Rafe drops his arms. “Epidemic. That’s not what the reports said.”