Fallen Warrior (Fallen Trilogy book 3)

by Williams, Tess

  "I trust you," I assured him.

  He nodded. "Tell them you thought of it then."

  "I don't think they doubt you, Cole."

  "I would doubt me," he retorted, "If I were them.... But even if they don't," he added lighter. "Isn't it better safe than sorry?"

  "I suppose."

  "You remember about your Cirali Weapon. Wasn't I right about that?" He sounded more at ease again.

  I nodded, smiling despite myself. "Yes."

  "Good, then... Well... Goodnight princess."

  "Goodnight Cole. I'm sorry again."

  He shook his head, just a shadow moving back and forth.

  My smile was still holding, while I spoke. "You know, when it's dark, it feels like you might as well not have your face covered at all," I said, hoping afterwards that it wouldn't offend him. But I didn't worry for long, because it was only a second, then I heard the breath of a smile.

  "That makes sense to me too," he answered.

  Chapter Fifteen

  CYRIC:

  I hadn't been able to sleep much after talking with Ellia the night before. Actually, I woke up early most mornings since coming to Yanartas. Usually I went to one of the platforms to throw weapons around, or climb even better. The time to think was probably good, and maybe that was why my body was always waking me up, but the thing about time to think, or waking up early, was that they meant you were on your own, and even after all these years, I didn't like much being alone.

  This morning, I was standing outside of Ellia's cabin, leaning back against the railing, where I would see when she came out. There wasn't anyone in the complex around me, no noises, no moving bodies, or at least not as far as I could tell. Mist was thick, an effect of the volcano in the winter months, I'd learned. The heat rising from the ground, meeting the cold.

  I had my arms crossed tight against it, still thinking over the night before, trying not to think of Ellia asleep and warm in her room. That's when I saw someone walking through the fog. Just a shadow, but I could tell before long that they were headed directly for Ellia's cabin. When he got to the door, I could see who it was, but he didn't go inside or knock, instead he bent down and slipped something under her door.

  After that he stood tall, then he turned around to look directly at me—as if he must have already spotted me there before.

  I shifted automatically, but not enough so he could tell. Just my natural reaction to seeing Lucian's face. He wore his green leather jerkin, different than his training garb. It was a color of Yanartas, green, and brass of course. If Lucian looked any more, at any point, that he belonged to Yanartas, than he always did... it just wasn't possible. And yet, when I saw him, I only thought of Akadia.

  "I've heard you watch over her," he said approaching me. "I didn't know that meant all night."

  I swallowed thick, and I was trying to think up any response, expecting an interrogation. Was this to be Gael, repeated? But straightaway, as quickly as he'd walked forward, Lucian stopped just beside me, turned, and leaned back against the rail as I was. Less than a foot away; crossing his arms.

  "Ellia tells me you're only a kid," he went on lightly.

  I felt a short breath escape my throat. Why was it funny to be called a kid? I wasn't sure; I'd been through too much? I couldn't remember ever being allowed to be one? No. The strange part was hearing it come from Lucian Denathar's mouth.

  "It feels like I've lived long," I answered. Stupidly. I just didn't want to be mute the way I was with Amalia.

  He gave one long nod. "That's what Estrid tells me when I say I'm too old for her." He looked up at the trees, which were now only black branches; a cold fog left his mouth with a sigh. "Ellia, doesn't think she's a child, either."

  "She's been through a lot," I responded.

  "That's right. I think even when she first came to Yanartas, I didn't see her as young. You know..." He smiled a little. "When she first arrived, and she was taken to the Warrior's Chamber. She wouldn't say who she was at first, so I entered in only knowing that she, and her friends, were some sort of foreigners. But I saw the back of her, just the back of her, speaking with the first-order Warriors, and I thought to myself, this woman must be some sort of royalty."

  He looked over at me, but—maybe seeing there wasn't much in sight to give away my response—only looked off again, fully smiling now. "Even when I'd never met one before.... Ellia always tells me I despair at understanding such things."

  "Maybe since, you are," I responded slowly, "You can tell, because it's a part of you."

  "That's nice to think," he replied, still smiling. "If Ellia's a mark for how royalty behaves, I wouldn't mind being among her sort.... You know how much she cares for her people."

  This time he looked at me and stayed looking, and he wasn't smiling anymore. He was somber.

  I nodded.

  "For Akadia... we're going to do all we can to help them. It's complicated though, what will happen when we do win, if we can win." Lucian paused. "You might have seen that I left something for Ellia, but I came also hoping to speak with you. I would say I got lucky, but from what I hear, you can often be found in such a way."

  "I..."

  "I don't need an explanation," he said, shaking his head. "It's not my place, is it? I'm her trainer, but that's to do with being a Warrior. As for other matters... well, she's proven herself superior enough times. But going back to the Warrior business, I'll just come out and tell you that she told me about your suggestion, that it was possible Molec might have other heirs."

  He paused. It only gave me a few seconds to shoot an angry glare in the direction of Ellia's cabin. What, had she ignored me completely? And when I'd waited for the perfect moment to warn her? Now it was all going to be for nothing.

  "I thought it was brilliant," Lucian went on, making me glance back in him in just as much of a rush. "I'd say I'm surprised you could have guessed at such a thing, but really I'm not. I'm only surprised that we hadn't. I'm sure there are those in Akadia who have. Maybe even some Yanartians that know about Molec's character... perhaps because we're all too close."

  I narrowed, thrown off by this reaction, and in fact, even this conversation as a whole. I could only think, though I would have preferred not to, that it reminded me of Tobias. I would not forget the openness with which he'd allowed me into his room to see Ellia, or greeted me at his party, or even tried to plead that I not tell Lox who Ellia was. In those moments it wasn't whether I were good or bad, it was simply what I would do; they would define me. That's what I'd seen in his eyes when Lox had told me to kill him: That I didn't have to do it. That I didn't have to be a murderer, and I wouldn't be one if I only didn't kill him, just then, in that moment.

  "I haven't spoken with my mother," Lucian went on, still openly, still with his arms crossed beside me as if we were old friends, "I don't know how I will. But I have with some of the first-order Warriors. We plan to set our spies on it. If it's a possibility; it would be better to know before we attack Akadia."

  "Will you attack Akadia soon?" I asked, unable to stop myself at this chance. I didn't trust Ellia and what she said about it. And if Lucian were especially talkative for some reason this morning, I didn't mind taken advantage of it when it concerned Ellia's safety.

  "Ellia tells me you want to know this," he replied, smiling. He looked up, then nodded once. "In case you're wondering, she also told me that you said she should say that she thought of the business about the heirs."

  My brows went dark. "I was only worried that if it came from a foreigner—"

  "That we wouldn't trust it. I understand. This makes sense. In any regular time, we probably wouldn't have. I certainly wouldn't have... before the wars. But the truth is, it's a great possibly and there's no time in checking. When there is so much at risk, it's foolishness not to take help where you can. This is part of the reason which I have come to speak to you. Ellia, she's been asking to tell you about the wars since Karatel. I'm the one that's not allowed it. Nothing pe
rsonal, we wouldn't allow it out to anyone that didn't need to know."

  "I understand," I replied.

  "But well, now since I've seen how she..." Lucian stopped, measuring his next words carefully. "Everyone has their place in a battle, don't they? Ellia has Gael and Luffie to fight with, but for a long time it's as if there's been a part of her missing. If I could choose, I would make it so that she didn't have to fight any longer in these wars. Not Akadia, not in Yanartas, but she has chosen, and I see that she is needed. I'm not sure how much you know, but she's rather critical, to everything. It's a great weight to carry. If, for your part, you could help her with it, if you could help her with it at all, as I see you do, I would prefer to accept you for that reason alone." He scoffed a little, laughing short with it, but looking more panicked than humored, "I would tell you the whole of everything I know if it meant you would help to unburden her. I have no skill for it. And I see few who do."

  "Are you that worried that she's overstressed?" I asked, wondering whether there were things, even about Ellia's feelings concerning the war, that she didn't tell me.

  "I know that she hates battles," he said simply. "And I know that she harbors concerns over the state of her dragon that she doesn't share. Not even with Minstrel."

  I frowned, thinking straight off of Silos, and lying in the bed, listening to him give his answer concerning Kraehe. That there was no telling what might happen if they came in contact. That it could drive one or both of them mad. That it could drive Ellia to depression if Lox had really won her over.

  "It could be dangerous," I said seriously.

  Lucian nodded. "I know that if dragons are anything like chimera, than it could be. But the dragons are different, they're... well, I've given Ellia leave to discuss it with you. You might already know some, since, you've been to Byako, and they're anything but discreet," Lucian chuckled a little.

  "But about the dragon," I said, knowing that he was referring to the Constellation Animals; that wasn't what I needed information on. "If you're worried about Ellia coming in contact with it, does that mean that you plan to attack Akadia directly?"

  Lucian smiled. "Now if I tell you that, Ellia might really never forgive me. Or at least, I'm not sure whether she would. I suppose you might know better..."

  I shook my head distractedly, not even sure what I was responding to, because my mind was distant. From his answer, I had no doubt that it meant they really did plan to attack Akadia, not that I hadn't expected it. But still, there was so much that it might mean. My mind rushed with the districts, with their soldiers, the training grounds, and each trainee, and their practices. Thousands of men. Loads of information. But I just didn't know what, if anything of it, could be helpful.

  "It looks like you've fallen to thinking very hard. Kanthians must be smarter than I had guessed. Only, I suppose you've already proved this with your suggestion about my... about Molec," he corrected, putting on a smile again.

  He straightened up, and I looked back at him, forgetting for a moment all the concerns about Akadia, because of his last words. His tone. Molec. He'd been about to call him his father, hadn't he? I didn't know how it was possible but I'd never thought until just this moment that Lucian and Tobias both had a father that couldn't be called much better at all than mine. Alright, maybe Molec wasn't an outright murderer, but on the other hand, he'd been responsible for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, by leading such a poor rule.

  Lucian had stepped back, was saying something about seeing me later on, that he was headed out to the ocean to swim at the behest of Estrid—and wish him well, since Estrid made Arrin swim as well, and he and Lucian both froze; all of this, obviously, words of departure, but before he left, I stopped him with a call, straightening upright, and moving off from the rail.

  He looked back, a few yards off now, waiting for me to speak.

  I wanted to tell him that I was sorry about his brother, of course I did. That I could have done better, that I should have, that it was my fault because I could have stopped it. But I was so far from being able to say any of that.

  I spoke strictly all the same.

  "Thank you. For trusting me. I won't disappoint you."

  He looked solemn for a moment. Then he nodded once, smiling. Looking as if he expected no other sort of answer from me.

  And I was glad I got to say it to him. But I wished I'd said it to his brother when I'd had the chance.

  ELLIA:

  Life was wonderful once I got to tell Cole about all of our plans for the war. I stopped feeling as if I couldn't think on it without becoming short of breath. I'd wanted to tell him for so long because of how solemn he grew over the topic, how much it mattered to him, and I had expected that he would remain this way, even after he knew. But it wasn't so. Instead he'd grown light-hearted over it, even making jokes over the battle, the sort that made it seem as if it might be the most hilarious thing in the world to attack Akadia.

  "Suppose we just send in one of the Vermilion Birds with their endless fire and have them drop some right in the middle of the city. Wouldn't that take care of it?" he'd suggested.

  To this I'd argued that the endless fire didn't work that way; it only attached to one object, and only lasted so long before burning out. I'd also pointed out that that would end up killing everyone in Akadia, and we needed just as many of them to survive as not.

  He'd shrugged, and went on in a way that made me think he hadn't held out much hope for this plan anyways. He also asked questions, endless questions, but the thing about them was that they were always wrong.

  "Princess, Akadia is smaller than Yanartas, yes?"

  "No, Cole." And then I'd have to go on and explain the entire layout of the city to him.

  This process repeated dozens of times over, but the amazing thing about it was that we usually ended up reaching excellent conclusions from it. One night, he'd begun making endless assumptions about Malatos Lox, and he was so absolutely off about all of it, that I'd had to go through detailing every bit of military decision that Lox had made. We'd talked about him for four hours straight I think, and by the end of it, one or the other of us, I couldn't remember who'd mentioned what, but we'd concluded at least half a dozen strategies that he was bound to use in any attack against a large city. I'd been able to point them out to the Warriors at one of our meetings, and then I wasn't so sorry that Cole knew so little about Akadia and Lox and everything after all.

  That wasn't the only night we'd spoken over it. I couldn't think of all the things that Cole and I ended up proposing for the Warriors to look into, I only remembered that I hadn't minded talking over military strategies in such a way since I was a young princess, who'd known nothing of what wars were really like.

  But my favorite thing to discuss with him were the Constellation animals, and that's what we were doing now. He was sitting on my floor, cross-legged, pushed up to a short wooden table we'd brought in ourselves; it was spread with papers. I was standing at my stove, proving to him that I could actually cook something with it, since, any other nights that we skipped the Warrior's Chamber dinners, we'd always kept to eating berries or nuts.

  Avoiding the Warrior's Chamber dinners was a new routine for me. I'd always had the option of course, but when I did, they would always worry over my absence, unless I went to assure them myself that I wouldn't be coming. Much to my delight, this was something Cole had realized and since had taken it upon himself to inform them on my behalf when I would or wouldn't come. This wasn't the only privilege he acquired me. Even now, as we stood in my cabin, it was perfectly warm thanks to the tarps he'd attached to the outside of my walls. He'd explained that it was a trick of the Kanthians; I liked it because it looked beautiful and reminded me of Shaundakul, as much as I was grateful for the added warmth and absence of howling. When we spent long hours in my cabin, as we so often had in the past weeks, it was perfectly cozy.

  "Qinglong, Zuque, Baihu, tell me again while they all have two names," Cole was saying,
drawing my attention back down to where he sat. "Don't even ask me to repeat the last one."

  "It's Xuanwu," I replied, "As with a "z". Zu, an, wu."

  "Tor, toi, ses, is easier to say," he responded, mimicking my tone.

  "If you ever met Carceron, the leader of the Echrians, you'd make sure to learn to pronounce them right. He won't even respond to the other titles."

  Cole made some sort of noise, turning back to the pages, which were mostly pictures of the black tortoises, or maps to Genbu; rumors to what their people were like and so on.

  This was because... of a conversation we'd had only this morning. He was taking his response to it, very seriously.

  We'd been out in the jungle. I'd brought him there. I'd brought him, more specifically to the hot springs, which Minstrel had told him about a while past.

  "See, they're steaming," I pointed out, jumping happily from one boulder to the next. The springs were set into a wall of rocks, with numerous levels, and shrubbery only around the outer edges of the space. Because of the winter, the sky showed through a little, cool silver, but the jungle was so thick in these parts, that even without leaves, above was shrouded by branches. "So you don't have to worry about being cold," I went on, "Even with the snow."

  I smiled, hands on my hips, both swords attached there. There was snow all around except by the pools, since we were away from the volcano. We'd tramped through the jungle in snow.

  Not having yet heard a response from Cole—after he remained silent for a few seconds longer—I looked back in his direction. He was just frozen at the edge of the forest. When I made a face at him, he quickly righted himself, clearing his throat and walking forward to the edge of the water.

  "It's pretty, isn't it?" I said, guessing that was the reason for his hesitance.

  He cleared his throat again. "I'll admit. When you said you had something to show me in the dangerous jungle of Yanartas, I was expecting something closer to a den of wild-cats, or maybe a particularly fascinating species of insect. Some girls like that sort of thing."