Page 93 of Shadow Throne King

Sidestepping, I rested my hand against one of the walls, panting and squeezing my eyes shut. Distantly, I heard Tallu saying my name, the whisper of blood monks as they argued about whether the curse could even affect me the way it did Tallu and Hallu. And louder than any of the noise was the echo of sibilant whispers in my head.

What had been different last time?

Why hadn’t this happened before?

The answer hit me immediately. I knew in my bones what was different.

This time, when Centipede had bitten me, I had been afraid. During our first fight at the Mountainside Palace, I had felt alarmed by the small, unfamiliar monsters crawling from a corpse, anxious because I was missing the weapons I needed to kill such creatures.

But I hadn’t felt the bone-deep fear that lived inside my heart now. Tallu was dying, and I could see no way through. The curse that had hold of him was written by blood monks, from a sect that had been killed by his own people when we had both been children. It was seared into him now, as much a part of him as his blood and bones.

More than that, when Naî and I had freed Prince Hallu from a centipede, I had seen what the curse looked like: threads of fate spun by the animalia Spider.

What hope did I have against fate?

So this time, when Centipede and his venom bit into me, it had found the fear it needed to grow its eggs under my skin, in my brain. It had found the fertile soil to nurture the whispers that would eventually drive me into madness, as they had Asahi and Pito Bemishu.

I closed my fist against the wall, feeling my dull nails dig into my palm.No.

I might be afraid, but I was a warrior from the north. I was the son of Queen Opûla, I was a member of the Silvereyes clan, my sister would one day sit on my mother’s throne. I had survived worse than this.

My fist pressed harder into the rough stone wall of the tunnel, and I could feel bits of it scratching my skin, scraping my knuckles. Raising my hand, I hit it against the stone, feeling the reverberation up my arm.

Centipede thought to use me? More fool him. I was a hunter, and I knew how to set a trap, even if it was in my own mind.

He wanted me, and I would use that to find him. Squeezing my eyes shut, I listened, feeling the whispers echoing in the hole inside me that had once held my magic.

I felt myself pulled in Centipede’s direction, felt my bones and blood echo with the vibrations of its burrowing into mybrain. More than that, I could see and hear through the dark stones like Inor.

“I can hear him.” My words echoed in the cavern.

“What?” Tallu demanded, in front of me. He frowned, reaching for me, and I let myself lean into his touch.

“I can hear Centipede under my skin. I told you before, and you said you couldn’t.” I remembered asking him and his puzzled confusion at the question. “I’ll lead us to the source of the whispers.”

“He might not hear them, but I could,” Iradîo said, frowning. “And I do not hear them now.”

“I have been listening to them longer,” I said, and even though it was true, it felt like a lie because I knew the real reason for my ability was the poison even now seeping into my veins.

Frowning, Tallu tightened his lips but said nothing more. I could feel the worry even without his voicing it.

Koque looked at Tallu, her eyes narrowing in appraisal. Finally, she reached out, her pale fingers light on Vostop’s dark clothes. “Let us go, Vostop. The longer we wait, the more chance Inor has of finding us.”

“We’ll go at the same time,” I told them. It might give them some grace, some leeway. We would certainly be making more noise since we didn’t know the way. “Good luck.”

“Koque—” Tallu looked down. “Whatever Hallu sees, it is not madness. It was a curse from our father. Do not fear him.”

Koque’s face softened, and she handed Hallu to Vostop, approaching Tallu. Raising her hand, she brushed his hair back from his face, her expression gentle. “I did not fearyou, did I?”

He relaxed into her touch and held her gaze for a moment. She took back her son, and Vostop opened his hand, pressing it to the stone. The rock and dirt shifted away from his palm, the whole mountain seeming to sigh.

There was no more speaking, as being heard in the dark was too much of a risk. Vostop led us as far as where three tunnels met and then pointed in one direction. He held out his arm, and I took it, forearm to forearm in a near-universal display of comradeship. Then he turned down one of the branches, Koque a silent shadow behind him.

The twins paused only briefly before following Vostop, and I waited for Iradîo to go with them. She merely lifted an eyebrow as the light from their lantern faded. In her arms, Naî was no more than a handful of white scales and fur. The rocks around us were so dim I had to narrow my eyes in the dark. But she shoved at my shoulder, and I understood without words: she had spent so long looking for me that she wasn’t about to give me up now that I was in front of her.

I sighed, and she shoved at my shoulder again, harder. Finally, I nodded. I wouldn’t have left her either.

Lerolian’s voice sounded in the dark. “This way.”