“Glad to hear it,” Syla murmured.
Something about the distaste—and was thathatred?—in the captain’s eyes made Syla wonder if it wouldn’t have been better for her if shehadn’thad a use. Then, presumably, her death would have been swift.
But she had a mission. She couldn’t let herself be killed. Atleast as long as the rider wanted something, Syla had hope of escaping.
“Throw out the pack,” Lesva repeated.
Syla eased to the door and dropped her belongings to the ground. The bow that Lesva had used to kill so many soldiers hung across her back with a quiver, white-feathered arrows sticking out of it. A lot of them. Maybe she’d already yanked those she’d used out of the bodies of the dead.
“Wouldn’t want to waste,” Syla murmured, climbing out as ordered and keeping her eye on the sword.
She wouldtryto use her magic, she decided, but she had to touch someone to establish a link, whether to heal or to hurt. And Lesva didn’t looktouchableat the moment.
“Is there anything you need in that pack to reach the shielder?” Lesva asked.
“I just need to be alive to access it.” Syla held up her moon-mark, knowing she wasn’t giving anything away. The riders already knew it was required to access and use the shielders. “And I’ve got food and water and candles.”
“Open your pack.”
As Syla knelt and did so, Lesva looked up and down the road. Expecting more enforcers to arrive? Or maybe she knew about Fel. But Syla had sent him away. She couldn’t hope that he would come to her rescue.
And Vorik? Syla had no idea where he was. Though she believed he had evaded capture, he had no way to know where she was. He might believe she was still at the temple. Even if he knew she’d left, it wasn’t as if he could ride his dragon over the protected island to look for her from the sky.
Syla suspected she was on her own for finding a way out of her predicament.
“Those candles are huge,” Lesva remarked as Syla pulled items out of her pack to show they were innocuous.Mostof them were.
“I think it’ll be dark in the place where the shielder is stored.” Syla couldn’t tell if her captor was suspicious of the candles. Did she recognize the faint scent? “I want to be able to take notes and draw schematics.”
“You’re not going to get to do that.” Lesva waved with her sword to indicate Syla could close the pack with all the items inside. “Put that on, and start walking.”
Glad Lesva hadn’t forced her to cast the candles aside, Syla tied the pack shut and shouldered it, but she was wary, with dread curling through her stomach. “Walking where?”
“To theplace where the shielder is stored.” Lesva echoed back the vague words. “You’re taking me there.”
“To what end?”
Eyes closing to slits, Lesva said, “I’m going to destroy it and bring its broken shards to General Jhiton. Then he’ll see my value and promote me.I’llbe his most trusted officer, not Captain Vorik.”
Syla almost asked if Vorik wasstillthe general’s most trusted officer or if Lesva knew anything about his supposed affiliation with the Freeborn Faction. After all, she’d attacked Vorik. She must have believed him an enemy at the time? Or… had she? Maybe she’d simply wanted to get him, as a competitor for that general’s favor, out of the way at the same time as she tried to capture Syla.
“Together,” Lesva added, “we’ll destroyallof your shielders and claim these lush islands for our people.”
Together? She and… the general? Jhiton? Did she imagine being more than an officer for him?
“If you destroy all the shielders,” Syla pointed out, “the islands won’t be protected from aerial predators. They’ll end up as ravaged and dangerous as the rest of the world.”
“Not with our dragon allies guarding them. General Jhitonwon’t make a foolish mistake. I know he has this all planned out. Wewillbe triumphant.”
Something about the gleam in Lesva’s eyes reminded Syla of Sergeant Tunnok’s face when he’d been contemplating his political future and a son ruling the kingdom. Whatever Lesva wanted, it was probably more than a promotion.
Syla didn’t care about the specifics. All that mattered was that she couldn’t lead the woman to the shielder. If it came to it, she would have to die before doing that.
29
With Captain Lesvafollowing close behind, sword tip pointed at the back of her neck, Syla walked toward the volcano.
Hours had passed since they’d left the squadron of enforcers, every man dead, most with arrow holes in their eyes or hearts but some with their throats cut. Lesva had been ruthless. And to have killed so many, she had to be more capable and deadly than Syla had ever imagined a woman could be. That Lesva had the same kind of dragon-gifted magic as Vorik… There was no doubt.
