“Good. I’ll meet you there.”
He’s gone before I can reply.
My hands tremble as I rush around the cave to collect my sling and the pack I carried all the way from the Subterrane. We are going to free the prisoners. Brice.
“You didn’t plan to leave without saying goodbye, did you?”
Dayne sits on the edge of his bed, his lute beside him, watching me.
I put down my armful of supplies and go over to him.
“Are you sure you won’t come?” I look at Dayne.
He shakes his head. “There is something else I must do.”
My throat tightens. “So, this is goodbye?”
He holds out a hand. “For now.”
I throw my arms around him. When we pull away, I blink back tears.
Dayne points to a bundle in the corner. “I packed a few extra supplies for you.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
I tuck my sling into my belt beneath my cloak and strap Brice’s dagger to the leather cord around my thigh. I hoist both packs over my shoulder.
When I’m ready, I tiptoe over to Wokee’s bed, where Vlaz is snuggled against the boy’s side. I scratch the cub’s large, flopped ear as he nuzzles my hand. I bend down and kiss the top of Wokee’s soft hair. His snoring stops for a moment, but he doesn’t wake.
Dayne looks at me. “Don’t be afraid of what you are. Jadem was right, you are a gift.”
He gestures with his hands as though there’s more he wants to say but can’t find the words.
I look back as I step through the cave’s archway. “Take care of yourself, Dayne.”
“And you, Hemera.”
✽✽✽
When we reach the clearing, there is a small group of soldiers clustered around the old well.
I look around. Where is everyone?
I make my way over to Wade and Sal, who are giving instructions to the scouts. Out of habit, I try to pull up my hood, but the silk is too fluid to conceal anything. I stand off to the side hoping no one will notice my blue cloak and black eyes.
Wade notices my presence and shoulders his way to me.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Er, nothing,” Wade rakes a hand through his hair. When he doesn’t say anything else, I grow even more suspicious.
“Tell me.”
Wade sighs. “News of…you know…spread.” His gaze flicks to my shoulder. “Some of the soldiers were afraid you might do something to them.” He rolls his eyes.
“So, they’re not coming? Because of me?”
My voice is shrill, and some of the others stop what they’re doing to eye me suspiciously.
“Their nonsense is not your problem,” Sal says, joining us. “Everyone knows Gwendil’s death was an accident.”
Gwendil, the healer who is dead. Because of me.
Sal puts a hand on my shoulder. “You saved Wade’s life, and for that I will be forever in your debt.”
There is a brief pause while Sal exchanges a look with Wade.
He continues, “And your map will save us days of wandering around in search of caves.”
“How many are staying behind?” I look from Sal to Wade.
“We lost about twenty,” Sal admits. “But with your abilities and the map, you’re worth at least that many, so by my estimations, we have lost little.” He gives me a tired smile.
“Forget it, Hemera,” Wade says. “You’re coming with us.”
Sal steps into the center of the clearing. He clears his throat, and the murmurs die down.
“Today has come sooner than we expected, but we’re ready. Never in my life have I met worthier soldiers. Our strength won’t be diminished by the loss of a few.”
All eyes in the clearing turn to me. My cheeks flush, but I keep my gaze fixed on Sal.
Sal peers at each member of the company. “Let us remember who our enemy is. Let us take strength from each other.”
The Solguards in the clearing fist their right hand over their hearts. I imitate them. Even though they all wear gloves, I’m conscious I am probably the only one without the blazing sun tattoo.
“Go in—” I begin out of habit, expecting choruses of “Go in darkness” to surround me, but Wade elbows me hard. I duck my head at the menacing stares that turn toward me.
Sal brings everyone’s attention back with a few more encouraging words. Then, orders are given and supply packs are slung over shoulders. In a matter of minutes, we’re putting Solis behind us.
Energy surges through me. I’m coming, Brice.
The ground slopes downhill toward a valley as we walk. Everyone is silent, tense. I keep my eyes moving for any sign of Halves.
“My brother stayed behind because of you,” a ruggedly handsome man I’ve never seen before hisses as he brushes past me. “Gwendil saved my brother’s life.”
And I killed her.
“She was covered in those welts from your blood,” the man continues. “She died in agony.”
Others marching nearby nod in agreement.
I remember the Dweller man who was poisoned by Halve blood. I remember the way his skin hissed and dissolved before my eyes.
“Shut your mouth, Jarosh,” Wade says.
“Yeah, ignore him.” Ry moves as silent and graceful as a stag along the outskirts of our company, bow in hand. “Jarosh has a very pretty, very empty head. I’m grateful for all you did during the battle, especially for Wade.”
Jarosh glares, but falls back into the line of soldiers, like he isn’t willing to challenge Ry.
She watches his retreat, and then tucks her bow under her arm to stretch out her gloved hand to me. “I’m Rylin, by the way. But most people just call me Ry.”
I give her a hesitant smile, hoping it conveys the overwhelming gratitude I feel toward her.
We trudge on, each lost in our own thoughts. It’s not until the hairs on the back of my neck prickle that I know someone is watching me.
I load my sling and have it winding in a second before I see the thickset figure of Gorgoran appear from behind a tree. He gives me a twisted smile as he falls into step beside me.
“Monssster girl.” He hisses it like a snake.
When I pick up my pace to put more soldiers between us, I hear his menacing laugh behind me. I wish he was one of the ones who stayed behind when he learned what I am.
CHAPTER 27
Sal keeps Brice’s map in his hands and looks at it every so often, muttering to himself. A part of me hates that I gave up this piece of Brice, even though it was necessary to join the company. At least I still have Brice’s drawing, but even that feels like it’s no longer my own. The thought of it gripped in that dead Halve’s claws is almost unbearable.
The land is becoming rockier. Somehow, the air here feels even hotter. By the time the sun falls to lowest day, my silk cloak clings to my sweaty skin. I crane my neck to catch the smallest of breezes against my cheek. Before it passes, I strip off my cloak and let the air pass through my sodden clothes beneath.
Like Dayne said, there’s no longer any point in trying to hide what I am now that everyone knows.
“Jadem was right.” Wade looks at me in disbelief. “That’s incredible.”
I feel heat rise to my face. I glance at Wade and see his face is full of genuine awe. It makes me feel like maybe my differences aren’t all bad.
And then I notice the others, who are staring at me with a combination of resentment and disgust. I keep walking, forcing myself to look straight ahead rather than meet their accusing stares.
✽✽✽
By now, Jadem knows we’re gone. What did my aunt think when she found out I went with them? I grind a stone into dust beneath my foot.
Even though I’ve only just met her, the thought of disappointing the leader of the Solguards is almost unbearable. She’s the only family I have left, and I just abandoned her.
Just like I abandoned both of my parents when they needed me.
A shudder
wracks my body in spite of the heat. I huddle in my silk cloak.
What if I never see Jadem again? What if I never get the chance to hear more about my mother? There’s so much I want to know—so many stories she could tell me.
I never got a chance to ask her about her life before Solis, or about the scars on her face, or what happened to her when she was in Malarusk. I never asked her about how she created Solis and came to know so much about growing things.
My gaze comes to rest on the line of mountains far ahead. There’s no time for regrets.
We stop once at a stream to refill our waterskins. While others splash water down the neck of their cloaks, I rummage through the additions Dayne made to my pack. There’s two more daggers and a spare pouch filled with stones for my sling. There’s also cured meat, a loaf of bread, and a few pieces of yellow fruit.
“What’s that?” Wade points to Brice’s drawing of me before reaching into my pack to sneak one of the fruits.
I explain how I found it in the hands of a dead Halve.
Wade wipes yellow juice from his chin. “Why would a Halve take something like that…and then keep it?”
I shrug.
“It’s like it was looking for you.” Ry leans on Wade’s shoulders to squint at the drawing. “But I’ve never heard of Halves doing that.”
I shudder, shoving the drawing away. Whatever reason the Halve had for taking it, it can’t be good.
As the sun climbs back toward high day, Sal takes out Brice’s map. He points to our position and then taps his finger on a small dot.
“Looks here like we’ll reach a travel cave big enough to hold us just before high day.”
“How do we know the travel cave is abandoned?” Gorgoran growls. “Could be a Dusker trap.” He gives me an accusing look.
“Yeah, you expect us to follow a map she gave you?” the soldier called Jarosh demands.
I cross my arms. “I’ve used this map to find other caves and never had trouble.”
Except for Vlaz’s mother…. But I decide not to mention that.
The thought immediately reminds me of my friends, and I feel a pang for them. I know it was right to leave Vlaz behind; he’ll be able to keep Wokee company after Dayne leaves the fortress. Still, I miss the ease of their company.
“There’s always a risk,” Sal replies. “I trust that sword on your belt is more than just decoration?”
Ry laughs. Jarosh scowls.
We reach the cave with minutes to spare before high day. Mercifully, it’s abandoned and large enough to hold our company.
We all throw our packs down, claiming a spot. Sal lights two candles while the scouts pull the stone door over the cave’s opening.
“Well done, Hemera.” Ry yawns as she stretches out.
Well done, Brice.
“Go in darkness, indeed,” someone murmurs, which draws laughter.
We huddle around the candles and divide our provisions. With full stomachs and twelve hours’ rest ahead of us, some of the other soldiers grow friendlier.
“Is it true your Halve blood healed you from a fatal wound?” one of the Solguards asks.
I try to duck the question, but Ry insists. So I tell them about the strange circumstances of my birth.
As the others drift off to their claimed sleeping spots, I say quietly, “I’m a Bisecter.” For the first time in my life, those three words fill me with strength rather than an overwhelming desire to hide.
✽✽✽
We set out as soon as it’s low day. Gorgoran marches behind me, muttering threats every time I’m near enough to hear him. I try to shut my ears to him and think about Brice, which helps a little.
My mind keeps wandering to Dayne, Wokee, and Vlaz. I miss their company, especially now that I’m surrounded by strangers. Wokee is probably working in the orchards right now, helping Jadem and discovering new plants. And Dayne—
What was his errand, and where did it take him? I had been too preoccupied with my own plans to even bother asking. Will he be in danger?
And what about my aunt? She must be furious with me for leaving. Guilt hardens into a pit in my stomach.
A low whistle comes from somewhere to the east. The scouts’ warning. I take my sling from my belt as others unsheathe their swords.
I see their scarred hides just as the soldiers begin to shout.
CHAPTER 28
Halves!” Wade yells.
I release the stone in my sling. A moment later, the Halve drops.
The other soldiers are running with their weapons raised as I let another stone fly. The sound of dying Halves surrounds me. Good, I think as I run toward the next one in my path. Every one of them deserves to die.
The force of my sword in the beast’s belly is already in motion when I see something impossible.
There is a glint of fear in its black eyes.
A scream draws my attention away from the Halve. Jarosh, the soldier who has not missed a chance to remind me I’m a murderer, writhes on the ground. His face is spattered with drops of brown Halve blood and covered in welts.
Without thinking, I abandon my blade in the Halve’s stomach and run to Jarosh. I press my bare hands to the oozing wounds on his face in a vain effort to wipe the blood away. When my fingers touch his skin, the welts sizzle and hiss. Jarosh writhes against my touch. Without knowing what I expect to happen, I press my hand more firmly against his skin. My fingertips throb as though all my blood has rushed into them.
Jarosh stops screaming.
I remove my hand as a great wave of exhaustion washes over me. What was I thinking? Did I kill him faster?
“Wade, Sal, someone—” I spin around in a frantic circle.
A movement from Jarosh makes me turn back. He sits up and raises his hands to his face. We both gasp.
The welts that had already begun to spread down his neck have turned to nothing more than angry red splotches on the skin’s surface. My own hands are red like Jarosh’s face. Something, fear or exhilaration, or perhaps both, sends a shiver through me.
Sal and Ry, who ran over at my call, stand watching with their sword arms stalled in midair.
“My dear, how did you do that?” Sal’s voice is as unsteady as if he’d just seen a ghost.
“I—” I look from my hands to Jarosh. “I just touched his face and the welts disappeared.”
“It’s your blood!” Ry waves her sword. “You must have absorbed the poison for him. You know,” she continues at the blank look everyone gives her, “like how you told us you did for your mother before you were born.”
I stare, dumbfounded at her.
“Do you realize what this means?” Wade asks.
I can save people who have been poisoned by Halve blood.
The very idea of it is insane; no one can reverse the effects of Halve blood poisoning. And yet...I just did.
Exhilaration courses through me. I want to laugh, shout, hug someone…. But then I remember something else.
Could I have saved Gwendil?
“Don’t go down that road,” Wade warns, reading my thoughts as accurately as though I had spoken them aloud. “You didn’t know then what your blood could do, and anyway, you were unconscious when it happened.”
I’m grateful to Wade, even though I don’t feel like I deserve his compassion.
“No more feeling sorry for yourself,” Ry announces. “You just saved someone’s life!”
We all look at Jarosh, who is sitting on the ground. He looks dazed, but very much alive. He stands up and then holds out his hand to me. I take it, returning his hesitant smile.
The battle is over almost as quickly as it began. The Halves are all dead, and the scouts report there are no others lying in wait. Sal gives orders to soldiers waiting nearby. As he does so, a few of them stare at me with something that feels like awe.
I can’t help but hold my head a little higher. Whatever else I’ve done, Ry is right; it doesn’t diminish the fact that I just saved Jarosh’s life. For the fir
st time, I feel something like pride at my abilities.
Everyone is accounted for except Gorgoran, who was out scouting before the battle and hasn’t returned. I hope the Halves got him, I think, before feeling guilty.
Sal orders the Halves to be piled up and burned so no passing Duskers will have reason to suspect we’re nearby. If the rumors about a Dusker leader at Tanguro are true, we can’t leave evidence of this slaughter to alert him that we’re coming.
I help drag the Halves’ bodies to the smoking fire, trying to avoid their still-open, black eyes. What is it about these Halves that seems different?
As I throw another body onto the fire, it comes to me. There are no clubs or other weapons among the dead. These Halves carried nothing with them except for the filthy cloths that cover the lower part of their bodies.
They weren’t looking to attack us. We must have crossed paths with them by chance.
I think of my mother, with her beautiful face twisted in fear even in death, and my father, surrounded by a ring of Halves.
“How does it feel being on the other side?” I kick one of the corpses onto the fire.
“Hemera, are you talking to the dead Halves?” Wade pants as he and Ry heave another body onto the pile.
Low day isn’t over yet, but Sal orders us to make camp in the nearest travel cave.
“Shouldn’t we keep going? Taniel’s warning said—”
Sal interrupts me before I can finish. “We’ve had enough excitement for one day, I think.”
Gorgoran reappears when the work is finished and we’re descending into the cave. No one else seems to notice, though, so I don’t say anything.
The odor of burning flesh lingers, or perhaps it only remains in my imagination. A noisy argument breaks out as the soldiers boast about who killed the most Halves.
I climb back out of the cave. I don’t want to talk about the Halves anymore or suffer Gorgoran leering at me.
As I gather up firewood, my thoughts turn to Tanguro, to Brice and the other prisoners. I kick at a rock on the ground.
“You’ll get used to it, you know, all of them arguing about who has killed the most.”
I spin around, nearly knocking Wade over.
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