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“I imprisoned myself in Adira to save my own skin,” he said aloud, his face going hot. “I could have left for yours. I could have followed—”
“Enough,” Garion snapped, all but rolling his eyes. Swiftly, hegripped Charlie’s neck, mirroring his stance. “I am sorry, my love. Accept it, please.”
Grinning, Charlie leaned forward to kiss him soundly on the lips. “Oh, very well,” he said, grinning. “Besides, Mercury would have killed you if you abandoned the Guild.”
Shrugging, Garion rolled his neck. “I suppose I could’ve gotten myself exiled like Sorasa.”
“True.”
“Though she always was his favorite,” he added ruefully. Envy flickered in his eyes, even now. “He would have killed the rest of us for disobedience. But not her.”
For many years, Charlie had hated Lord Mercury. That hatred only deepened, seeing how perfectly he laid his hooks in people like Garion and Sorasa. Alone, but for the Guild. Easily manipulated, weapons made to be controlled. And cast off.
“Whatever path we walked before, we’re here now,” Charlie sighed, pushing a curl out of Garion’s eyes.
“We’re here now,” Garion echoed. “Here being the end of the world.”
The fugitive priest tsked, clicking his tongue. “Thepotentialend of the world.”
“Fine.” He lay back again, splayed out against the blanket. But for the Amhara dagger at his belt, he looked like a poet, contemplating the heavens. “Not that I understand the Spindle talk anyways. Other realms and demon lords. Corblood princes. Magical swords. Quite the mess you’ve put us in.”
With another tsk, Charlie settled down next to him, tucking himself tight against the assassin.
“If you recall, I was dragged into this against my will,” he muttered.
Garion glanced at him sidelong, eyes sharp. “And you chose to stay in it.”
“I did,” Charlie replied, thoughtful. As much for himself as for Garion. His voice softened. “I chose to do something with myself, if only something small.”
He expected Garion to laugh at him. Instead, the man held his gaze, his dark eyes melting. Their fingers brushed, then wove together.
“Small things matter too,” Garion muttered, looking back to the sky.
Charlie did not, memorizing instead the lines of Garion’s face and the feel of the sun on their joined hands. The smell of roses, and more rain, not yet fallen, but soon to come.
“Yes, indeed.”
37
With Me
Andry
Squires did not only tend to their knights, but learned how to be knights themselves. How to act, how to speak, swing a sword, tend armor, groom horses, set up camp. The geography of the land they were bound to protect, as they would be oathed to serve its ruler. Their education came not only in the training yard or by the campfire, but in the classroom as well. Before Andry set out into the realm, he learned the land from books and scholars.
And he learned its history too.
Old Cor and the empire. Galland’s humble beginnings and its bloody rise, the borders expanding with every new conquest. He studied battle in all its forms, from minor skirmishes to thunderous wars. Ambushes, false retreats, pincer movements, cavalry charges. Sieges.
It is a siege we will face, he knew, terrified of the prospect already.No matter what happens on the field, they will encircle us eventually. And grind us down, day after day.
Andry Trelland walked the walls of Iona every morning, studying the city as he would a map. He learned where the wall was thickest—at the bottom of the ridge, around the gates—and how far the top of that ridgejutted out above the valley floor—more than four hundred feet down over the cliffs, higher still from the top of the walls. He thought of how much grain the castle vaults could hold, and how deep the wells beneath the city ran. Which bits of stone would best suit the catapults. What provisions a mortal army would need—and how much longer an immortal army could hold out, after the mortals starved to death.
He looked at Iona from all angles, as a defender and an attacker. As a son of Galland, raised to fight for the lion. And as a traitor, set to defeat the legions at all cost.
It made him sick at heart, but still he walked the walls.
And he was not the only one. Corayne often joined him after her training, along with the two Amhara. Isadere and their lieutenants frowned at the landscape. The eagle knights of Kasa were friendly, but despaired of the ridge city. Andry understood. It felt like standing on a rock in the ocean, watching a tidal wave on the horizon. The Elders were more distant, silently carrying out the orders of their monarchs. The Sirandels in their purple armor, the Elders of Kovalinn in chain mail. The Ionians favored their green cloaks and steel plate.
