“Are you OK, Tea? Tea?”
“I am here,” I rasped. It was an unsettling feeling, wanting to cough out the bilge water in your lungs when there was none there to begin with. “My leg hurts. You stink.”
“So do you.” Fox was laughing, and the sound warmed my heart. He scooped me up into his arms despite my protests. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“Are you OK?” Polaire ran to us as we approached, closing the distance.
“Yes. Thanks partly to this, I think.” I touched the stone.
“What happened to the azi?”
“Gone.” It was still hard to talk, my throat sore. “It won’t bother us anymore.”
“I thought we’d lost you.” It took me a second to realize that as happy as Polaire was, she had also been crying, tears staining her face and ruining her rouge. “You cannot do that to us again, girl! Do you know what it did to me, thinking that you were dead?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry isn’t good enough! I should have listened to Parmina—almost—after the scare you put us through! I don’t know whether to hug you or spank you!” Polaire did the former, throwing her arms around me, and I breathed in her welcoming scent of spice and lavender, trying to rid myself of the putrid memories of my ordeal. Fox gently pulled us apart and set to work bandaging my thigh, the wound I’d suffered there.
Kalen nodded at me, a shade less hostile. His fellow Deathseekers whooped and cheered, staring at me with awe.
I smiled wanly back, forced myself to speak again. “Like Fox said, there was someone else in the dragon’s mind. It was—trying to control it.”
“A Faceless,” Polaire surmised grimly, her arms still locked around me. “We must track him down at whatever cost. He killed the Deathseekers, tried to kill us, and very nearly killed you. He has to pay for everything he’s done, and I want to be one of those holding the knife.”
“You don’t need to,” I murmured into her ear, my voice soft enough so the others couldn’t hear. My voice felt weaker, and it hurt to get any more words out, but I managed somehow. “I know who it is.”
The girl laughed as the azi’s three heads vied against each other for the right to be petted, sampling the air with their forked tongues.
“It is good to see you again,” she murmured. She still looked tired, but she appeared to gain strength with every second that passed.
All the world would tremble to see such a sight, I knew—the Dark asha on the shore and the seven daeva she wielded. They were enough to break the land. They were enough to break crowns. How must Hollow Knife have felt when he created such monsters? How must the followers of Blade that Soars have felt to turn and see such horrors at their kingdoms’ borders?
The girl turned. The daeva’s eyes followed her movements.
“We leave for Daanoris at dawn,” she said.
30
The Willows had finally succumbed to the quiet. Nothing moved, save for the clouds rolling above the asha-ka, across the evening sky. After all the celebrations and all the joy that greeted our arrival, I welcomed the solitude.
Fortunately, Polaire had been insistent, demanding time for me to fully recuperate, and so the jubilation around the Valerian was muted. Mistress Parmina had been ecstatic—no doubt my price would quadruple. Rahim nearly suffocated me in his bear hugs; Likh’s and Chesh’s were less punishing. Lady Mykaela’s happiness was more subdued, her relief more palpable. She said nothing, only hugged me as Polaire had. Her tears came unbidden, staining her bedsheets, and I, worn and fatigued, cried along with her.
The Valerian household was in disarray. Kana was sick, and Farhi had her hands full trying to get errands done when there were crowds of people packing the streets along the asha-ka. These were not normal visitors to the Willows; these were people not only from Kion, but from nearby kingdoms like Odalia and Daanoris and the city-states of Yadosha, some even as far away as Istera and Drycht—all hoping to catch a glimpse of me. After two days, Mistress Parmina had had enough and enlisted the help of many Deathseekers to clear the roads of people. The revelers were persuaded to take their reveling elsewhere, and for the first time in three days, the streets stood serene and empty, while in other places of Ankyo, the people celebrated.
I made a full recovery after only a night’s worth of sleep, though Fox was adamant about letting me rest for a week more, because of the wound on my thigh. Normally I would have lodged a protest, but this time, I agreed with him. Staying at the Valerian would give me a good opportunity to keep an eye on Farhi without attracting any suspicion, and Lady Mykaela was also on hand to ensure nothing went wrong.
Khalad also paid me a visit, using the opportunity to carefully extract my memories of the fight with the azi. “The Forger isn’t in Kion,” he said. “After all the excitement, he thought he’d go and see for himself. New, rarer memories to harvest.”
“Are other people’s memories all you both think about?” I teased.
“No. We think about heartsglass too.” He grinned at the look on my face. “I was joking. I have not extracted memories from my own heartsglass for days, and my mind is clear. Which is a good time to apologize to you.”
“But why?”
“You might not remember it, but I was the boy who confronted you at the Odalian palace three years ago—the one who accused Dark asha of killing my mother. Master had just taken me on as an apprentice, but back then I was so full of anger. You were the easiest target for me.” He cleared his throat. “I almost didn’t remember what I did—until I recognized myself in one of your memories. I am sorry. I know things have not been easy, and it was unkind of me to add to your problems.”
“Apology accepted, Sir Khalad,” I assured him, smiling, unaware then of the irony of my next words. “If there is one thing I have learned from both our trades, it is that we must always be in the business of forgiveness, lest we become consumed by our anger.”
? ? ?
We had agreed to make our move on the third day after we returned, to give me ample time to rest and to prepare for the confrontation. Tonight, Mistress Parmina and Lady Shadi had left to attend some parties thrown in my honor, and the old woman intended to drag them to as many of them as they were able. This suited my plans; the longer they stayed out of the Valerian, the better.