Page 30 of Deadly Maiden (Dragons and Darkthings #1)

Wyntre

I braced myself, intending to tell Rorsyd about the healing, but with the unearthing of his killing of my parents and then Anathema as well, I’ve exhausted my honesty.

Dressed in stained gray overalls, his latest costume, Andacc stares at Kyvin and Anathema who are batting the ball back and forth.

I am entirely confused as to why my darkthing likes to play, or the undead. Muscle memory? He must remember playing with a ball. Somehow, it’s buried in that undead brain.

“You have a pair of unusual friends.” Uninvited, Andacc stands and watches them. “Now I really have to convince you to join us. This…this is power. An undead army would?—”

“No. Just no, Andacc.” I try to sound firm in my refusal. “I can’t. I didn’t make him.”

Rorsyd’s eyes shine as if he’s loving this absurd performance.

“I came here to tell you, Cassandra and Stanton, that the C of U is planning to act very soon.”

It takes me a few seconds to remember those are the fake names he gave us. I check our surroundings. It would be a disaster if anyone strayed in and heard this. This is big. “An attack against the Aos Sin and the king?”

“Of course. More than that, an overthrow, a full rebellion. We have an army concealed and ready. I would hope to see you join us.”

“Impossible. We’re leaving Zardrake,” Rorsyd interjects, with more fire in his eyes than I have seen for weeks.

He can shift.

The exhilaration from that knowledge also burns inside my heart. What he has said though…is not his to say.

“We will consider this.” I shoot him a look weighted with unspoken words— we need to talk this through .

He nods, exhales heavily. “Of course.”

Andacc, the local expert in subterfuge, seems bemused by our interchange. He searches in a pocket and retrieves an envelope.

I take a step, hand already reaching. “From Thander?” Which would mean a reply from Landos.

“No. From Saphora in Wenway.”

“Okay. Thank you.” The envelope is scented, decorated with sketched pink flowers.

“If you aren’t prepared to help us, I will say no more. The killer drop is still functioning. Leave me a message, if you wish to, or if you change your minds about helping. Good day to you both.”

Andacc leaves via the same route, crouching to avoid having a wayward twig poke out his eye. I sit beside Rorsyd.

We’ve revealed so much to each other today. I feel cleaner, less burdened, but the healing hangs over me. It’s just a few more words. I should do this.

“Rorsyd—”

“Helping sounds simple. Helping may mean you dying.” This time he takes my hand. “I could not bear that.”

“Oh.”

“What he said means war. I’ve seen too much war. We’re finally together and on the same page.” He smiles. “A book analogy in this place. Ha . I cannot lose you.”

“Or I you.” This big bad dragonshifter who weeps when he sorrows. “Just…I don’t plan to die, and I hate what the king is doing to this land. People are dying horribly anyway. They’re being pulled off the streets and beaten, persecuted, imprisoned.” I almost spit that out, and I’m showing my teeth and panting. “Sorry. You’ve seen this too.”

“I understand this, but war is an abomination far beyond what is happening here from day to day. And I know this is selfish, but war is not for you.” He’s frowning, staring at our hands. “What I saw that day at the battle will never leave me. Thousands and thousands of dead, eviscerated people, guts ripped open, heads gone. Limbs, severed legs, and arms…and my own fire was eating up people with flame, leaving them black and smoldering. Your mother and father…” His voice catches. “I’m so sorry, but Wyntre, it cannot be you. You know almost nothing about necromancy.” He meets my gaze. “Don’t you see this?”

“I do.” That imagery is revolting. He didn’t mean to hurt me with it. I try to scrub it from my mind.

He exhales. “Good.”

“And I don’t, also. Sometimes, people have to die to achieve things.” The silence is leaden. “Are we at an impasse?”

“No. I understand the zeal in you. Tomorrow, let me take you somewhere. If I can shift, I will take you. It’s a place I love. It will give me time to see what I can say.”

To dissuade me. I can see that is his goal. “Okay. You’re certain you can do that? Fly?”

Then he stands and rolls his shoulders, stares off into the distance, as if the trees are not there. His arms are at his side. Colors flicker across his skin and the lines of scales glow and form on the sides of his face, on the backs of his hands. His eyes burn brighter, his claws grow long and wicked.

Then he lets it calm, and I hear crackling as the signs on his body subside. He becomes just a man in shape.

He shakes himself and turns to me.

Once more that swagger and that dragonshifter bravado is written in his stance. “I can shift.”

“Fuck me,” I whisper. I did it again. I healed him.

His eyebrows waggle. “Promise this, I will.” Then his expression flattens into mere curiosity. “What does your Anathema do when you leave it?”

“Oh, Anathema never leaves me. He’s been with us all the time, since I left Bollingham.”

“Really? Even when we…”

I snicker at him. “Sorry to break that news.”

As a diversion, I tear open the envelope from Saphora. I don’t expect anything astounding.

“She says I can come and stay with her, but that she is not someone who can teach me the skills of necromancy. She has other skills that she can teach? Vague. My parents were friends, but they taught themselves, by way of trial and error.” I let my hand drop. “Not helpful.”

I was thinking about going, though with Andacc saying they’re on the verge of launching a rebellion, what use would it have been? What use am I, full stop? How do I teach myself?

By doing things, same as I have been with Anathema, the bloodhawk, and maybe with Rorsyd? It’s all I have, for now. There is Slaedorth, but my own parents warned me away from it.

And they beckoned me. What else are the raven and also Kyvin except reminders about Slaedorth?

As we return to the library’s rear entrance, past clumps of people eating their breakfast and chatting about everyday non-life-threatening things, Thander’s words return to me.

“Do you remember that day in Thander’s room when he introduced us to each other, and made sure you’d take care of me?”

“Yes, I do. The golem master is a wise stoneborn.”

“What he said struck me as important. He said that he felt you are what I will need to succeed on what will be a very long and difficult journey that will test my resolve and my morals, in every way. I memorized it because it sounded like he was predicting my future. What if we are a part of some prophecy?” I look about and lower my voice. “What if we are meant to be a part of this war to take down the Aos Sin and the king?”

He doesn’t answer and only nods a few times while he keeps walking.

“Are you going to tell me that prophecies are for children?”

“No, I won’t, but they are generally dangerous for those in the middle of them. I don’t want you there. I don’t want to see you dead and dismembered.”

I swear I can hear his teeth grinding.