Page 30 of Four Ruined Realms (The Broken Blades #2)

Royo

The Temple of Knowledge, Khitan

This plan is shit.

We’re all gonna split up again like we learned nothin’. Every time we go separately, it all goes to the Ten Hells. Now, Aeri and I need to get an egg from a vicious parrot in the mountains. Just her and me alone for up to a sunsae.

I’d rather deal with a rotting, hundred-year-old corpse.

I spin my axe like a top as I sit with it between my knees. I can’t be alone with her for that long. Whatever I tell myself, however strong I want to be, I know I’ll break. Those eyes, that smile, that carefree happiness, not that I’ve seen much of it these days. And more than that—the way she makes me feel. She pretends like I matter to her, like she loves me. I’ve managed to mostly keep my distance, and I can remind myself that she’s a liar and an actor. But alone with her, I’ll fall for her all over again. I strangle the axe handle. I can’t do it. My heart won’t survive a second betrayal.

Mikail is over by the fountain. He’s in the middle of an intense discussion with Euyn, but I need a word with him. Euyn and I can swap places, like he said. It’ll be better for everybody.

Okay, it’ll be better for me, and what’s the difference to him?

Mikail and Euyn are so focused on each other that they don’t even notice me walking up to them.

“Null,” Euyn says.

Mikail shakes his head.

“We have to kill him,” Euyn whispers.

“I’m sorry?” Mikail says.

Euyn’s eyes dart to the side. “He knows too much. And they will come back—they will realize there should have been ten priests. My sister will murder him like the rest of them, or torture him, and he will give away our locations. It’s a kindness to kill him now, cleanly and without pain.”

Mikail stares at Euyn, speechless.

“Who are we killing?” I ask.

They both turn and face me. Euyn’s cheeks flush, and Mikail looks annoyed at best. Furious is more accurate, his jaw clenching, his eyes hard.

“No one,” Mikail says. “I don’t kill people if I promised them safety for their aid.”

“Mikail…” Euyn says.

“No.” Mikail’s sharp voice echoes through the fine space.

Aeri flinches, and Sora pauses. I look down at my new boots like they suddenly got real interesting.

“If your sister chooses to break the edicts and spill blood in the temple, that is on her,” he continues. “Be more than your family.”

Euyn reddens. “I am the crown prince of Yusan!”

Mikail leans forward, his features hardening. “You are nothing .”

Euyn stares like he was just smacked in the face. Nobody moves.

Well, this ain’t the time to ask.

I go back to the table. Aeri is tracing her finger over a map of the region, and she resumes asking questions as the priest shakes his head yes or no. He’s leaning a little closer to her than he needs to, if you ask me. I feel my blood rise and heat warming my face, but I clear my throat and focus on something, anything else.

Sora is closing a book on Khitanese poisons. I guess she doesn’t know the ones here like she does in Yusan.

“We need to leave now, Sora.” Mikail wanders over, his normal self again, as if he didn’t just break from Euyn. I’d worry more about what the change in their relationship means for all of us, but we gotta survive the missions for it to matter.

Aeri jots down some notes. She thanks the priest, putting her hands to her forehead. I wonder if he knows he just had a princess salute him.

Luhk smiles and walks us out of the temple.

“We can give you safe passage home,” Mikail offers.

I quirk an eyebrow. Why’s everybody so concerned about this guy? Yeah, he helped us, but it’s not like he wanted to. He only did it because we dragged bodies outside for him—it was a deal. That’s it.

The priest shakes his head. “This is my home. With the head priest deceased, I am now the only keeper of the temple.”

“But you can’t stay here,” Sora says, her eyes pleading.

“They’ll come back,” Mikail urges. “I assume this was the work of General Vikal, and she won’t simply give up.”

“Then I will die for my god, protecting what I love,” the priest says, looking around with a smile. “There are far worse ways to go. But if I abandon what I love just to live, what kind of life is that?”

His words hit all of us. Everyone pales or flinches, thinking about what we left behind. For me, his words are a gut punch. Hwan is still locked up and may die while I’m here. But I didn’t abandon him, not by choice, and I will make it right. Even if the only thing I can do is kill the man who wronged him—I will. All I might be left with is revenge, but sometimes that’s enough.

“Thank you for allowing me to honor my fellow priests,” Luhk says. He turns to go back inside.

“Wait,” Mikail calls. “Why did the Yusanian Ambassador have the key to your temple?”

“Our keys unlock all temples,” the priest replies. “It might have been this one or the one in Yusan. Or even Wei or Gaya.”

I thought these guys were supposed to be smart.

“That doesn’t seem real wise,” I say. “To use the same key for all your doors.”

“Maybe not, but it is our commitment to knowledge transcending realms that matters,” the priest says. “Priests of one nation are always welcome in the temple of another. And there is a safeguard. Only those who bled on the altar of knowledge, of keeper blood, can use those keys. The locks will not turn if the key doesn’t recognize the blood of the user.”

Everyone turns and stares at me.

I point to my own chest. “Wait, what? Me?”

“You opened the door,” Aeri says, beaming.

The priest raises his eyebrows. “I thought you pried it open after me, but if you were able to use the key, someone in your line was a keeper. One of your parents, I assume. That is your key now.”

Mikail gives it to me, although he eyes me skeptically. He couldn’t be more confused than me. I figured Aeri was too slight and Mikail’s fingers slipped or something when I opened it. That it was just muscle. But…I didn’t have to try. The key turned like my house key, and the door popped open.

None of it’s possible, though. I don’t know nothing about my father. And my mother died in Tamneki a decade ago. I guess either could’ve been a keeper like the guy said. But it don’t make sense. They weren’t scholars or priests. Yusan doesn’t have female priests, and even if they did, my mother worked a dozen different jobs trying to make ends meet. She never mentioned anything about the God of Knowledge.

Aeri looks so happy, smiling widely.

I guess we both got blood we won’t talk about now.

We get back onto the ice and close the door. I wonder how long the priest will be alive. Then again, with what we’re about to do, he might outlive us.

It’s dark out, with a huge moon hanging over the lake. The five of us stand on the shore in the quiet night. This could be the last time we see each other, but no one says it. Words spoken have got a funny way of happening.

“How did you two get here?” Mikail asks Aeri and Sora. He hasn’t looked at Euyn once.

“Winter horses,” Aeri answers. “They’re tied up that way.”

She points to her left. So that’s how they caught up to us. They had fast horses and didn’t have to run through the snow chasing after a bunch of deer.

“All right,” Mikail says. “Vashney in ten days.”

We all nod. The three of them leave, and then it’s just Aeri and me in the snow. She shivers, and I remember she’s still in a ball gown.

“We need to get you out of that dress,” I say.

Aeri arches an eyebrow, her lips curling into a smile. “I thought you’d never ask.”

I can feel the blood rushing to my face. I stomp off away from her, headed somewhere south.