“He didn’t kill Teo.”
Marina’s head jerked up toward mine. “What?”
“He didn’t.”
“You’re sure?”
Was I? “I am.”
So fast I didn’t realize he was going to do it, Baz knocked the blade from Marina’s hand and wrapped her in a headlock. With how tiny her body was compared to his, he had her lifted off her feet, her body pressed to his broad chest. All too easily, he could snap her neck, and a goblin wasn’t like a sänglure. Marina wouldn’t survive it.
“Don’t you dare hurt her,” I said, while I swiftly calculated the best ways to defend her.
Before I decided on the best approach, he lowered her to the floor and released her, shoving her away from himself, then snatched up her blade.
With a ferocious scowl, he beckoned me closer. “Come.”
“No.”
“Do you want your collar off or not?”
When I hesitated, he snapped, “You either trust me or you don’t.”
I don’t, teased at the tip of my tongue.
But apparently I did trust him, because I went willingly into his open arms.
Also, I’d lost my fucking mind. Enemy, Sora! He’s your enemy, my thoughts frantically yelled at me.
My body, however, sank against his, as if we belonged together—when we damn well didn’t. We never would, never could.
This was all wrong.
Chapter 28
A Goblin, a General Prince of an Empire, a Crown Princess Heir to a Stolen Kingdom, Warrior Captains of Legend, and a Castle That Is Many, Many Impossible Things
Opalesians had long been fond of uttering, People make plans, the demigods knock them askew, and the dragons set them aflame. I’d grown up hearing the saying both on the streets of Montressón and later in the palace—all over Zaraga. It was universally understood: make plans at best to waste your time, and at worst to taunt the demigods.
The demigods, it was well known, loved their fuckery.
So I should have damn well known better than to spread my wings with hope. I especially shouldn’t have made plans of any kind in conjunction with my mortal enemy. As it turned out, Baz and I did not go straight to his chambers to confront the specter who would know, at the very least, why she so closely resembled my mother. Instead we went … wherever the fuck Mauldrene wanted us to go.
She rearranged her passageways so many times and in so many different ways that I had to admire her magic—while also wanting to kick her in her castle-balls. Whatever sorcerer had conjured the spell that gave Mauldrene her oomph had been a scorching genius. In a land so filled with faithum, objects imbued with the stuff were common enough. But one of this caliber, operating on this scale? I’d never even heard of anything close to it. Compared to Mauldrene, every other magical object was a trinket.
Mauldrene had offered us only two options: forward as she directed … or whatever she would do to us if we were to disobey. Given that we’d already lost four days wandering through her guts when all I’d done was spring a little secret latch, Baz and I weren’t interested in testing her punishments.
Mauldrene led and we followed, rounding up group members as we went. First, roundabout to Terencia’s chambers, where we recovered Zi and Night, along with Lev and Moncho, who were still shaken by whatever Terencia had done but pretending very intently that they weren’t. Before our arrival, Mauldrene had pulled the pair of dead bodies into the floor, through which—we later learned—she’d delivered them to a staff room downstairs. The staff cleaned and wrapped the bodies for burial. Mauldrene later deposited them in the stables for delivery to Galmeen, precisely as Baz had intended.
Next, Mauldrene marched us back to the hall where we’d left Ed and Félix. Terencia’s guards had made no progress in her recovery. The more they rammed the wall, trying to shatter it, the more fortifications Mauldrene built into it. The wall had thickened greatly, extending ten feet farther out than when it had sucked the empress inside it. Baz ordered the guards to continue their work, though I suspected solely to keep them from asking questions he didn’t want to answer, such as the location of their emperor. Presumably another set of guards was entrusted with Junot’s safety.
Maybe Mauldrene had them trapped somewhere too.
Baz dismissed the servant girls, who immediately scampered away, and signaled that Ed and Félix should join us. The Bazrians were reunited at last.
Baz also tried to dismiss Marina, but she and I had vehemently refused, and Baz, displaying some healthy self-preservation for once, hadn’t pushed.
Probably never before in the Opalese’s fraught history had a goblin walked with a general prince of an empire, a crown princess heir to a stolen kingdom, and warrior captains of legend. If Marina was in awe to be the first, my spunky little friend didn’t let on. Despite the fact that the Bazrians, even Zi, dwarfed her, she held her head high and her spine straight, as it had been B.A. She was careful not to flop her big dragon feet, though I imagined only I noticed what care she was taking.
