Page 76

Chapter

Fifty-Four

Liv

Following the Eagle’s advice, I wake each morning with determination, choosing to not be pathetic. I’m determined to be strong and resist the magic. In doing so, I have severed the cord I had to him.

“ C an you walk in there and pretend you are the Ikhor and in control.” Maev fixed my bright white hair outside a large set of doors made of aged and dried wood. We were in grungy clothes and standing in a castle. In the biggest city I had ever seen.

After nearly two months of travel, we’d finally reached Avenmae, only to be stopped outside the borders by city patrol—so much for sneaking in undetected.

Because the Elders had no word from Ollo in the months since the airship last sent a signal home, the Aerial Elder had ordered patrols for either an attack or the Ikhor’s return.

We were ushered immediately through massive white wood gates, through a city that shone with bright white stone buildings and led to the grandest building of them all—Avenmae Castle.

I held onto the wall outside the large doors—I could barely stand. The march through the city had been dizzying, and I remembered little of it. Weeks of travel had turned me into something I didn’t recognize. It would take a lot more than Maev’s fiddling to make me presentable.

“Of course I can.” I gave Maev one of her own looks, my new favourite thing to do. “I spent my whole life pretending to be something I am not. Why would now be any different?”

“Dramatic much?” Maev scolded me. “It’s only for a few minutes. They will be too scared of you to push you into anything if they see you as powerful. Pretend to be bad and scary.” Her hand waved in the air between us. “Or whatever it is you’re supposed to be these days.”

“I can do scary.” I smiled. I was scary. I had been repressing the magic since the canyons, boxing up every emotion I could, and it was taking a toll on my body and mind.

Someone had recognized Maev immediately upon her arrival—to her great confusion—and she informed the men at the gates she’d returned with the Ikhor. I noted more than a hint of disappointment when Maev introduced me—a city guard had muttered, “A woman?”

“Once we get a good night’s sleep, we will meet up with Cal, get the info we need, and get supplies together. We should be out of the city in a week and off to visit the shrines. The hardest part will be convincing them to lend us an airship.”

“Because they won’t want me leaving?” I asked.

“Yes. If my Mechanist professor won’t let me use the ship I’ve been doing tests on, we may have to resort to theft.”

My jaw dropped. “You would do that? Steal from your own people?”

“I’m not so bold as Ollo, but when desperate, I can be quite creative.”

“We both have to be bold now.”

My two fingers still refused to close, the scar over my shoulder ugly and jagged. Maev’s arm was burnt and scarred where I had marred her skin during my transformation. We both wore markers of our long journey here.

I stared at my feet, hoping Maev’s instincts were right, and Ollo was okay. Brekt hadn’t visited me again, though I watched for him every day. Maev and I were waiting, hoping to hear if the Guards had learned any more about Ollo’s whereabouts.

She snapped her fingers in my face. “You are the Ikhor. You can burn the whole place down to the ground with a thought. Don’t forget that when you walk in there.”

“What are you preparing me for?” She was making me more nervous. “I thought you argued your Elders were fair people?”

“I don’t know what they will ask you. But you’re shaking, and it doesn’t line up with the image you’ve taken on. If you don’t want to be forced into fighting against the Guardians, don’t let the people in there tell you what to do.”

Maev had promised me a mountain of empty crystals to release the magic and ease the stress on my body. I only hoped she could locate them before the end of the day.

We decided to hold off telling the Elders that the Guardians were coming to Rydavas.

We wanted to speak with the Guards before the aerial units scared them away.

Maev explained Avenmae had the manpower to overrun the Guardians.

It wouldn’t matter when the units discovered their enemy had come to their shores.

This begged the question—why would the Council send their people here in the first place? Did they really not know Avenmae existed?

“Ollo risked his life for this moment. For me to bring you before the Elders.” Maev stared at the door and I wasn’t sure she was speaking to me.

“But things could change now for our people if we find the gods instead of following an army. I pray to Rem that Ollo’s sacrifice was worth it—that spying for the rebellion and lying to the Elders about our plans was worth it.

Otherwise, he died so I could betray him and fail anyway. ”

“His sacrifice was to make sure you got home,” I said. “You didn’t betray him. You’re here, after all. He’d care more about that than following the mission given to him by his Elders.”

I held my breath. Maev told me she would let nothing bad happen to me, but I was on edge.

“But for the sake of getting along,” Maev continued, “try not to burn the place down. We don’t need a repeat of Ouras’s temple. We need to have a discussion with the Elders, and then you can rest. I promise I won’t let them ask anything of you today.”

“Okay. Let’s go then.”

Maev pushed the doors open and strode into the massive room.

Avenmae was a new kind of beauty. Light streamed in at sharp angles from large windows on both sides of me. Pale grey stone made up the room, and the furnishings were bleached wood, like the doors we had just come through. The blue rug below my feet muffled my footsteps.

I tilted my head back to take in the mural painting on the high, arched ceiling. It was strikingly familiar, and it took me a moment to remember the painting at Ouras’s temple and the inn in the Last City.

Yet here, the Aspis was painted as a terrifying beast—jaws open wide with blood pouring from its teeth.

Bodies lay on the ground below where it hovered, surrounded by warriors dressed in black.

The next section over showed a glowing being, arms spread as it hovered over the body of the beast, now lying dead at its feet.

People on their knees surrounded the being, praying to him while he shone his light on their hunched forms. How different from the terrifying way the Ikhor was painted in Veydes.

It made my blood thrum as I walked toward the front.

Everyone had an opinion about me. In the Guardian lands, they feared I would be their death.

Here, they worshiped me as their saviour, and I understood now what Brekt had meant when he said he felt empty, because if he had told the world that he was the Aspis, then he would have no longer existed.

Just as I felt in this room—Liv no longer existed here.

I wasn’t a person to them, but a symbol.

The only person who knew I was real was at my side, and I truly hoped she only ever saw me as Liv.

Ahead sat a group of intimidating figures.

Twelve, I counted, in wooden chairs in a half circle.

Their heads swivelled our way when we entered.

Several of them stood, and I noticed one stoney-faced man, grey at the temples, wearing clothes similar to Ollo’s—the Elder of the Aerial Division. He didn’t smile like the others.

One woman held a hand over her mouth as I stopped a short distance away.

Maev halted at my side.

“Where is Ollo Pretruq? He was to deliver the Ikhor to the Elders.” The Aerial Elder was stiff in every manner. He had near-white skin and pitch-black eyes—a Day-leg like Kazhi, from the wind clan.

Maev cleared her throat. “He was shot down in the Canyons of the Lost. We were being chased by Guardians, and he distracted them to help us get away.” Maev delivered the news with a surprisingly steady voice.

Several Elders exchanged looks.

The Aerial Elder sat straight, looking down his nose at Maev.

“I was made aware that Pretruq had compromised the mission by taking his sister to Veydes to locate the Ikhor. Your father visited my division many times to demand the whereabouts of his children. I would be glad to end those visits with an explanation of why a student alchemist was on a mission strictly designed for a Senior Pilot.”

“I am a graduated alchemist and a studying mechanist, nearly done my program. I had a device that was able to locate the Ikhor. We succeeded in finding her much faster than Ollo had planned. It was our return that caused the delay. And when we lost Ollo … we returned on foot.”

“Pretruq knew the risks when he went on this mission,” the Aerial Elder said. “Your father will be proud of his son, who located the Saviour for our people. His sacrifice will not go unnoticed.”

My jaw slammed closed with an audible clack at the lack of concern for Ollo, for what had happened to him. I squeezed my fists to stop myself from shouting at the man. Ollo had risked everything for these people.

“Please introduce us,” said a woman with golden hair.

“You can call me Olivia,” I said to the Elders, not waiting for Maev. Only my friends could call me anything less formal.

Several whispered, and again, I heard their surprise I was a woman.

“Olivia.” The golden woman—a Day-leg—bowed her head, her long strands of hair falling from her shoulders as her hand covered her heart.

When she straightened, tears welled in her eyes.

“I am Cloudine, Elder of the Crafters. I speak for the artistic souls of our people. I have been restless waiting for your return when I finally heard the pilot Petruq had located you. I was worried you were lost to the Aspis.”

I glanced at Maev.

“They must have thought I was Ollo when we were spotted approaching the city,” she whispered.