Page 48 of Realm of Crows (Wings of Ink #5)
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Ephegos’s smirk drives the nausea higher up until it pushes against the back of my throat and I need to swallow the vomit so I don’t choke on it.
He nods at Ennis and Frenius before retreating his claws from my side, leaving only the knife half-stuck in my abdomen, exactly where the nausea originated.
An onslaught of pain now joins the mingle of sensations as I allow myself to breathe again.
“We’ll continue this another time.” He’s already heading for the door in the back, his ponytail dangling with every step. “Take him back to his room.”
Ennis and Frenius bow their heads until the door closes, then loosen their hold on my limbs. A shaky breath escapes Frenius’s mouth while Ennis bends over me to extract the knife and sheath it in one of the many loops on his belt.
“A hundred thousand?” Ennis prompts. “That can’t possibly be true.” He exchanges a glance with Frenius, who sits on the edge of the table, keeping his magic around my ankle to make sure I don’t get any ideas.
“I told him we might be outmatched attacking such a large territory, even if we have seventy thousand human soldiers equipped with the drug, a hundred Crows, and six hundred Flames.” Frenius’s gaze meets mine for a beat, wisdom swirling in his dark irises.
Whether he revealed the numbers of Ephegos’s military resources on purpose, I can only guess, but something tells me he knows exactly what he’s doing.
“Don’t forget all the machinery Erina had built. Even Aceleau’s enchanted walls won’t hold when they meet the drug-infused missiles,” Ennis amends.
“Drug-infused?” I murmur, half-intending to hold the words in, but my need to make up for what I just did by learning something I can use against Ephegos is overwhelming.
“We shouldn’t have said anything,” Frenius whispers, eyes darting around the room as if he’s expecting Ephegos or the Tavrasian King to step out of the shadowy corner and take his head. “Ephegos explicitly forbids to speak a word to anyone outside his circle of trusted Crows.”
That puts a twisted grin on my face. “It seems I am one of his trusted Crows.” I cough away the fresh onslaught of nausea as my healing powers seal the fresh wound to my stomach.
“At least, he believes I am, or you wouldn’t be able to share a word with me.
” Because that’s how the magic of bargains and promises works.
“Well, not trusted, perhaps, but he holds the bargain over my head, and he just forced me to spill Askarea’s secrets by exacting his power.
He has control over me.” I hate speaking this truth, but it comes with a small consolation.
“I assume you didn’t share those numbers with me because you thought I wasn’t listening. ”
Ennis and Frenius exchange a glance that could mean anything, but when they turn back to me, Frenius shakes his head, sighing.
“This might be the only room in this fortress where no one can overhear conversations. It’s the only place where we can exchange ideas and plans that Ephegos and his hardline followers won’t appreciate.”
My heart races in my chest as I gather the meaning of his words. “You are saying you are not hardline followers ?”
Both Ennis and Frenius nod. “And this might be your only chance to talk before Ephegos marches into battle, and we all die for his glory.”
A shudder runs through Ennis as he seconds Frenius’s statement with a nod .
“Can we take off the manacles?” the male asks, jerking his chin at the silver loops around my wrists and ankles still tying me effectively to the table. “Or will you try to escape?”
“Not if you tell me there are more Crows like you in this Shaelak-damned fortress and that you have an actual plan to stop Ephegos.” Hope has never tasted as sweet—and as scary.
“We’re not the only ones,” Ennis whispers as he flicks his finger, releasing me from my shackles.
“I might have broken through those bonds on my own, you know?” Sitting up, I rub my wrists and ankles, checking for injuries.
Frenius brushes back his hair with a half-smile. “I was counting on that. If you’d decided to break free and fight Ephegos to the death, I wouldn’t have stood in your way.”
Having sworn the same oath to Ephegos, all three of us know there is no way of doing that and surviving the consequences of the bargain.
If there is anything we can do, it has to be smarter than a blunt attempt on the Crow’s life.
It can’t involve any of us harming Ephegos, or the magic of bargains will strike back.
“How do I know I can trust you?” The possibility of them luring me into believing they are on my side is crushing, but I can’t turn a blind eye on any eventualities.
This is not just about what I want or what I believe in.
It’s about the future of this world and the freedom of its peoples.
“How do I know Ephegos didn’t put you up to misleading me into trusting you so you can get more information out of me. ”
Ennis and Frenius share another look that makes my stomach contract in anticipation of the worst, but when they turn back to me, their faces are open, no longer the unreadable masks of Ephegos’s soldiers.
“We swear that our allegiance is with King Myron and Queen Ayna,” Frenius says.
“We have made the same mistake you have by believing Ephegos and letting him push us into his rebellion. We understood when it was still about his sister and revenge for his family. But this is no longer what we stand for. We don’t want a Crow Emperor.
We want a realm of peace where our kind can find a new home. ”
“It’s all we want,” Ennis agrees with a solemn nod, and my heart nearly bursts—because they cannot lie, and that means I have allies in this shithole.