Roiven’s back is to me. The dragon doesn’t even look like she’s paying attention. She’s flexing her wings, stretching like a giant cat.
With the pale light dawning, I can see the entire island. It’s a sorry place. Low black rock stretches around me, just big enough to hold the three of us. There’s no sign of life except barnacles and a few weak, struggling thistles and weeds whose seeds were probably carried in by birdshit or the wind. There’s barely any dirt clinging between the large rockfaces; without plant roots to hold it in place it would have blown away decades ago like it did on the Bluff.
“Because theyneedyou to protect the hatchery. If I die, you can just bond to a new….” Roiven hisses.
Another pause.
“She could make me turn on them,” Roiven growls. “I don’t care who she is, you've seen what they made her into. So you can’t bring me back there… Not likethis. I’d rather die than…. Kill me or don’t, but you have to get back home before those devils attack.”
The assault on the Gray Tower. He knows it's coming.
I should kill him before he can return, War-Father’s orders or not. But from his words, Roiven doesn’t seem to care if I gut him.
Roiven throws up his hands, then turns and strides toward me. His clothes still look damp from the ocean, unlike mine. The thin rags cling to his body, showing his muscular form in far too much detail.
He sees I’m awake, and his uncanny orange eyes glare straight at me. My hand closes around my swordhilt.
Sava’s legs bunch under her, and then the dragon launches straight up into the air. Her wings snap out, blasting a gale so strong I stumble and fall back onto my ass. With a wince, I pick myself up and try not to look embarrassed. She circles as she climbs higher. The dragon coasts out over the ocean. Is she leaving us, or just stretching?
“She wants to bargain with you,” Roiven growls, stopping ten feet back from where I stand.
I squint at him.
“What?”
“Free me from thisenchantmentand she’ll spare your life.”
I can’t help but laugh, which makes Roiven scowl at me all the harder. Everybody knows witches can’t be trusted. What kind of idiot does he take me for?
In the morning light I can see that his arm isn’t bandaged anymore. There’s no blood. There’s only a pale mark on his skin where the arrow punched into his arm.
It should still be a mess of an open wound. It shouldn’t be a shiny scar of pale knit tissue.
“Tell me how you healed so fast.”
“Did you hear anything I said?” he snaps. Then my command must kick in, because he scowls and answers me. “I’m a witch. We heal fast. It’s through the familiar bond. You should already know that.”
I take a step back and drag a deep breath through my nose. I refuse to let my own memories surface. I refuse to think about how healed I was when I washed up on shore. Surely it was his own trickery. Not…
The truth slithers beneath my mind, curling around my thoughts like the tentacles of the beast in the water. A sharp pain lances through my temple, shattering my thoughts like breaking glass. I shake my head.
“I don’t negotiate with witches.”
“You’d rather die?”
“Your word’s meaningless. My command is the same: take me back to the Bluff. On dragonback,” I add quickly, before he can grab me and throw me into the sea again.
Roiven’s jaw clenches.
“I’ve already told you I can’t force her. If you free me, she’ll fly you back. Assuming we can still get in.”
It will be days before the barrier is fixed and the dragon can no longer cross over, not that I wanthimknowing that. If I freed him from the enchantment, he’d use the opportunity to kill every civilian in sight.
“And if I refuse?”
“Then Savasaeirn says she’ll kill you, pick me up, and carry me off, no matter what you’ve ordered.”
I tap my fingers against my swordhilt as I think. The Witch King might not know how to remove the enchantments on him, but if I figured it out, surely anybody could. The other witcheswould free him. I’d be dead, and he’d go defend the Tower against the War-Father’s attack.
