by Sarah Hawke
Veneti let out a deep breath and shook his head. “I’m afraid you’ll have to do better than that, Captain. We can’t just let you release a vaeyn soldier into the countryside.”
Larric glanced between them, and he let out a heavy sigh. His entire body seemed to sink. “No, I suppose you can’t,” he murmured. “Well, for what it’s worth…I’m sorry. This isn’t personal.”
And then he moved.
A few weeks ago, back when we’d been ambushed by bandits on our way home from the Aetherium, I had finally seen Larric’s skills in action. He had torn through a whole squad of men with almost supernatural ease, and I’d belatedly understood why Kristoff had appointed him as guard-captain. But those bandits, however numerous, hadn’t been elite soldiers. They hadn’t been clad in Aetherium-forged armor or been trained by the Imperial Legion. Veneti and his men were superior warriors in every conceivable way.
And yet it made no difference. In a frantic blur of motion, Larric drew a throwing knife from somewhere within his baldric and whipped it at Veneti. The blade pierced the man’s thin breastplate and sent him reeling to the ground. Bentos gasped in shock, and it was last sound he ever made. Larric drew his sword and cut the man down before he even knew what was happening. The third soldier managed to draw his own blade and parry two quick slashes before Larric abruptly dipped down and swept out the back of his legs. The man hit the hard ground with a dull thud, and before he could right himself Larric impaled him through the chest.
“Captain…” Veneti gasped as he choked on his own blood. He struggled to lift his crossbow, but before he could pull the trigger Larric dropped into a crouch, drew another throwing knife from his boot, and hurled it through the other man’s throat.
For several long, terrifying seconds, the plains were completely silent. I cowered in place, my hands and knees quaking, before a horrified shriek finally escaped my lips. Blood had splattered across my gown; some had even spackled my left cheek. I didn’t know whose it was, but I couldn’t drag my eyes away from the dead guardsmen who had protected me on so many trips through Sanctum…
“It’s all right,” Larric soothed between labored breaths. He leaned down and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I’ll explain everything shortly, but right now you just need to trust me, okay?”
Once again, his voice was so strong, so confident, that I couldn’t help but believe him. I could see the genuine compassion behind his blue eyes. This was the Larric I had seen in Skyfall with Karethys. This was the Larric that both terrified and intrigued me.
“Ilhari inbal ka'lith,” Ralyne whispered into the silence. She had retrieved the bow and nocked an arrow, though she wasn’t pointing it at anything. “What are you?”
“A friend,” Larric told her. “Now go. I doubt anyone heard the commotion, but I’d rather not take chances.”
Ralyne’s eyes fixated on the fresh corpses one last time before she leaned down and retrieved the rest of the supplies. With a final nod, she dashed off into the darkness and vanished.
“Come on,” Larric beckoned, shifting his grip and helping me to my feet. “We need to get back before the last one sounds an alarm. They probably left him to guard our mansion just in case.”
“What are you…?” My voice cracked and gave out, and I forced myself to draw in a deep breath and relax. “What are you going to do to me?”
“I won’t harm you. And I promise I’ll explain everything soon.” Once I was standing and stable, he leaned down over the dead soldiers and rummaged through their belongings. “We’ll have to ride through the night. The baron won’t know what happened. He’ll probably assume we were kidnapped and initiate a search. Hopefully Ralyne has enough of a head start…”
After pocketing a few items off the soldiers, he glanced back over his shoulder and offered me his hand. Dimly, I wondered what would happen if I refused or simply ran off into the darkness. Would he chase me? Would he kill me? This man had terrified me for the better part of two years now, and the only thing I knew about him for certain was that he wasn’t working for Master Kristoff. Whoever he was—whatever he was—he was almost assuredly the most dangerous man I had ever met.
And he might have been my only hope.
Chapter Seven: On the Run
Midnight had come and gone by the time we returned to Reskin. The village itself was as sleepy as ever, and thankfully the mansion was no different. Larric kept us in the shadows until we reached the stables, at which point he tossed a saddle on one of our horses and instructed me to wait for him to return. He vanished into the mansion only to return a few minutes later with a grim look on his face. I didn’t even want to know what he had done to the remaining guardsmen.
After loading up the horse with supplies, he helped me onto the saddle behind him. We slipped back into the shadows and avoided the main road out of town, and soon we were riding at nearly full speed through the pale moonlight. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around Larric’s waist, praying to the old gods that I hadn’t made a terrible mistake.
We didn’t stop until the first rays of dawn broke across the eastern horizon behind us. Larric steered us towards a small creek, and once he helped me dismount he quickly began assembling a camp. I laid on the grass in silence, knees clutched closely to my chest. I was so anxious I barely even noticed the fatigue weighing at my eyes or the pangs of hunger tearing at my stomach.
“I know you have questions,” Larric said once he’d started a fire. Springtime in Korvale was warmer than Glorinfel, but not by much. A chilly morning breeze had already begun sweeping across the plains. “I had hoped to keep you sheltered from this a while longer, but circumstances being as they are…”
He sighed heavily and glanced over to me. With my hair ruffled and my gown covered in dirt in blood, I must have looked like a complete mess. Then again, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen me in more compromising positions…
“I’m not the man you believe me to be,” Larric went on. “I’m part of a group that seeks to depose the Emperor and—”
“I know,” I whispered.
His brow furrowed as he studied me. “What?”
“You are a Faedari agent posing as Master Kristoff’s bodyguard,” I went on. “You are secretly working with the vaeyn to bring down the Empire from within.”
His blue eyes narrowed. “You stole this from my mind?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Then how—” He cut himself off and sucked in a deep breath. “Karethys...” he rasped. “You overhead us speaking in my room.”
“Yes.”
A full spectrum of emotions crossed his face before he finally snorted. “Kristoff chose you as a weapon because he knows slaves are invisible. No one pays them any attention, even those of us who should know better.”
“I-it wasn’t intentional at first, but—”
“It’s all right,” Larric soothed. He grunted against and prodded the fire. “Kristoff sent you to Korvale to gather secrets. Apparently you’re even better at it than he thinks.”
I remained silent and hugged my knees more tightly against my chest. I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d expected him to react to the news my eavesdropping, but he seemed genuinely unconcerned.
“If last night had never happened,” he said after a moment, “I assume you planned to tell Kristoff everything?”
“Yes,” I confessed.
“And now?”
“I don’t know.”
Larric nodded and l sighed wearily. “If he learns that I’m sympathetic to the Faedari, he’ll turn me over to the Covenant in a heartbeat. But I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that.” He grunted and leaned back against the stump behind him. “If he learns the truth about the Emperor—that Lucian is an Unbound secretly working with the vaeyn—I can’t even begin to imagine what would happen.”
“Chaos,” I murmured.
“To put it mildly.” Larric stared at the fire for several minutes before he finally met my eyes again. “I suppose th
ere’s no reason to keep you in the dark at this point. You might as well know everything.” He sighed and seemed to brace himself. “Darkstone mentioned how Karethys and I first met. It was all an accident. The Covenant had assigned me to hunt down a vaeyn warlock that was operating just over the border in Sulinor. As it turned out, Karethys had been sent to hunt the same man—but he wasn’t a vaeyn. He was a human and a former channeler who had been exiled by the Covenant. Once the Hierophant had stripped him of his magic, he’d turned to demonology instead.”
Larric’s lip twisted at the memory. “Anyway, Karethys and I ended up working together to find and stop him. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized how deep the lies of the Covenant ran. The vaeyn don’t worship demons—they fight them better than anyone. And they’re definitely not savages or barbarians.”
“But they harbor Unbound,” I whispered.
“Yes, they do,” he said. “Though I wouldn’t describe it as ‘harboring.’ They fully integrate Unbound into their society. Many serve as Shadow Knights or artificers.”
I licked at my dry lips and forced my muscles to relax. “Karethys is one of them?”
“Yes, and a very powerful one at that. I was still a Bound channeler when we first met, and I’d never seen the Unbound as anything other than monsters. I assumed she was also Bound to her Matriarch-Queen, but then she showed me the truth…”
He sighed again. “The Covenant only knew a fraction of what happened between us, but they excommunicated me they moment I returned to Sanctum. They stripped away my channeling ability and tossed me out onto the streets. In retrospect, I’m fortunate they didn’t simply kill me for the ‘crime’ of working with a vaeyn.”
“So you turned to the Faedari for help,” I reasoned.
“Not exactly. The details aren’t all the important, but suffice to say I began to sympathize with their position. I began to see through the Covenant’s lies, and I could no longer turn a blind eye to the abuses of your people.” He paused for moment, and his eyes grew distant as he stared into the flames. “The truth is that they’re terrified of you. Your people and the vaeyn—all elves—are far more likely to be born Unbound. You have a natural connection to the Aether, and they find that gift threatening. Sanctus Veshar, whoever he really was, understood that his Empire could only endure if it found a way to control magic. Worship of the Triad isn’t just a religion—it’s a chain around the necks of everyone in Calhara.”
I opened my lips to respond but realized I had nothing to say. If anyone in Sanctum heard him speaking these words, they probably would have killed him on the spot. Even Master Kristoff would have been appalled.
“You’ve never thought about it that way, have you?” Larric asked after a moment. “You’ve been a slave your whole life, and you’ve never once considered trying to escape and join the Faedari.”
I slowly shook my head. “They’re rebels and instigators. They murder innocent people and threaten the safety of the Empire.”
He frowned and shook his head. “Those are Kristoff’s words coming from your lips. Surely you don’t actually believe that. The Faedari are fighting for the freedom of your people!”
Again I remained silent. After staring at me for nearly a minute, he finally sighed and rubbed a hand across his face.
“It’s not your fault,” he said. “You grew up in bondage. You’ve been indoctrinated since birth. But you don’t have to be a slave, Elara. Not to Kristoff or anyone else.”
I swallowed heavily and closed my eyes. “What are you going to do with me?”
He paused and glanced off to the west. “My plan was to take you back to Kristoff and tell him that our caravan was ambushed again. I figured that once he learned about Darkstone’s ‘alliance’ with the vaeyn, he’d be too distracted to investigate his dead guardsmen. But now…” Larric grunted. “Now I’m not sure. You could compromise my identity. You could tell him everything about me, and he’d believe you.”
“So now you’re going to kill me?”
Larric winced like I’d physically struck him. “You really think I would do that? After I risked everything to release a vaeyn slave I don’t even know?”
I lowered my head and closed my eyes. “I…I don’t know what to think.”
He sighed again. “There’s another option. You don’t have to go back to Sanctum with me. I can tell Kristoff that the bandits killed most of the guards and stole you. He’ll be furious, obviously, but he’ll also be powerless. And the political situation in Sanctum is about to become so heated he won’t have the time or the resources to search for you.”
I wondered if that were actually true. The Master had great plans for me—I was his secret weapon against his rivals. Without my magic, he would have almost no chance of gaining enough leverage on the other member so of Quorum to accomplish anything.
Still, Master had been willing to cut ties with other assets when necessary, and as much as I wanted to believe otherwise, that’s all I was to him—an asset. A tool. A slave. For a time he had treated me so well that I’d imagined an emotional connection that didn’t actually exist.
“Where would I go?” I asked softly.
“I have a contact inside a town just over the border in the Wreath,” Larric said. “The Faedari move around often, but I believe they still have a camp there. They would welcome and protect you.”
“I can’t…” I swallowed heavily. “I can’t leave Master Kristoff.”
Larric shook his head. “Why?”
“Because he takes care of me. He protects me.”
“He uses you, Elara. There’s a difference.”
“He could have turned me over to the Covenant when he realized what I was,” I whispered. “Instead he protected me.”
“Only because it served his interests.” Larric sighed and jabbed another stick in the fire. “Look, I’ll be the first to admit that he treats you better than most Imperial slaves, even other avenari, but that hardly makes him worthy of praise. He has no right to own you.”
I squeezed my knees together so tightly it actually hurt. “You don’t think the Faedari would do the same?”
Larric frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I know they try to kidnap Unbound before the Covenant can find them,” I said. “They transform them into weapons.”
“That’s hardly the same thing. They save Unbound for certain death and teach them how to defend themselves. They don’t command them to fuck every wretched noble in the Empire.” He ran a hand through this short hair. “I know Kristoff has taught you how to control and channel your magic, but you are a font of untapped power. The Faedari have access to your people’s ancient teachings from before the fall. They could transform you into a powerful sorceress.”
“What if that’s not what I want? What if I just want to return to Sanctum?”
He studied me again. I could see the tension in his eyes and face, but they were mostly buried by a wall of resolve. “That’s not an option,” he said. “I can’t take the risk that you’ll tell Kristoff everything. There are many more lives than mine at stake here.”
“I won’t tell him anything. I promise.”
“Maybe not willingly, but he is a channeler. He could find out the truth in other ways.”
I bit down on my lip and ordered myself not to panic. When I actually paused for a moment and tried to be objective, I understood his position perfectly. I couldn’t understand why I felt so compelled to return to Master Kristoff. But the bottom line was that I did. More than anything, I just wanted to be back in his estate.
“You don’t trust me,” I whispered.
“I don’t know you,” Larric said. “Not the real you, anyway. All I’ve ever seen is this mannequin Kristoff built to please himself.”
He sighed and paced around the fire for a few long minutes. “Look, you don’t want to be in Sanctum anyway,” he told me. “There’s a storm coming—a bloody, destructive tempest unlike anything the Empire has ever seen. If Lucian really does
want to destroy the Covenant, then we’re on the cusp of a civil war. No one will be safe, especially not a vulnerable Grand Duke like Kristoff. The other families will descend on him like a pack of jackals, and you could end up in the personal harem of someone worse than Varyl.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You’re right,” Larric admitted softly. “You could just as easily end up skewered on a pike right next to Kristoff. And that assumes you never get exposed by the Covenant.”
I closed my eyes and buried my head in my hands. I knew he was right. I knew that returning to Sanctum would be walking straight into the manticore’s den. But I didn’t care. I wanted to see my Master again. I wanted him to promise that he would take care of me. I wanted him to tell me that everything would be all right.
Most of all, I wanted to believe him.
“You should eat something,” Larric said, opening his pack and tossing me a bundle of dried meat. “I’m sure you’re tired, but we can’t afford to rest yet, not until we’re closer to the border. I want to make sure there’s plenty of distance between us and the remaining guards just in case they try and track us.”
I stared down at the rations but didn’t move. Even though I’d barely eaten over the past two days, I had no appetite. I just wanted to sit here and pretend this trip had never happened. I wanted to pretend I didn’t know anything about Larric or the vaeyn or the Emperor. I just wanted to serve in ignorance…and the thought made me sick to my stomach.
My thoughts flashed back to the gala where I had dominated the son of a Grand Duke. I had wormed into his mind and transformed him into my puppet. Never in my life had I felt more powerful, more in control, than in that moment. Yet here I was, barely over a day later, moping by the side of a fire and wishing desperately for my master to tug on my leash. It didn’t make any sense. I didn’t make any sense.
“I’m going to refill our water and clean up a bit,” Larric said into the silence. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I watched him strip off his armor and explore along the side of the creek. He eventually vanished into the trees, and I wondered if he might be testing me. I wasn’t restrained—I could have easily dashed off in any direction and tried to escape. But I knew I wouldn’t, and Larric probably did too. Some days I was a slave and others I was sorceress, but the harsh reality was that most of the time I was simply a coward.