“Oh. I’m sorry.” I can’t imagine what that feels like, having never had a sibling. And I don’t want to reach into his head and find out.
“So when I saw you, I was focused on the battle, and figuring out who you were. But afterwards…? I began to wonder how you got there. And whether anybody else might be there, too, brainwashed or Enchanted.”
“Like your brother.”
“Like my brother,” Roiven agrees. And then, speaking slowly: “or like someone bonded to the kraken, since he seemed to vanish when the last ship did, when we stopped sailing. Either the kraken died, or he bonded someone who couldn’t reach us. So until you…”
“You thought he was dead,” I supply. “Because you didn’t think he could be bonded to somebody in the Empire, until you realizedwhatI was, and that I was a knight, which meant there could be others too.”
Roiven’s arm tightens around me.
“Exactly. I had nightmares thinking about all the witches I could have killed, taking down those ships. I started sneaking onto them, trying to find the people we’d lost.Tryingto find the kraken’s bonded.”
“Yousnuck onto a Hellion?”
“Yes.”
“But your eyes. You’re obviously…”
“I cast an illusion.”
“You can disguise yourself? That seems hard.”
“I only needed to do the eyes. The rest of me isn’t so remarkable.”
He’s got to be joking. I can’t imagine Roiven blending in on an imperial warship. Maybe he didn’t last more than a minute before they caught him. If he were dressed in a black and gold imperial sailor’s uniform, his long hair tied sharply back and ribboned… orange ribbons, I think. Or maybe blue.
It feels wrong to picture that. And it definitely shouldn’t turn me on.
“Humbleness doesn’t suit you,” I decide. “So you met me, thought you killed me, and then were desperately searching for… me, without knowing it wasme?”
“Sort of lucky I got dragged before you in chains, when you think about it,” Roiven says. “Savasaeirn says she wants to digest. Think you could sleep?”
Is all of this, every bit of kindness he’s shown me since the kraken rose out of the sea, just an attempt to get me to fight for him?
It’s an unpleasant feeling. I want to believe Roiven doesn't hate me anymore.
But then. I was a knight, a murderer. I killed his friends. I’ve killed his people. I’ve destroyed villages and hunted dragons and drained Enchanted.
I couldn’t really blame him, if that was all he wanted from me. If he was willing to play any game to make it happen.
“Yes,” I answer, far too late. “I could sleep.”
We land, and I don’t ask Roiven to tell me whether he still hates me or not, because I know he can’t lie. And there are some truths I'm just not ready to stomach.
30
Weleave so early the next morning that the sun isn’t up, although the sky is beginning to brighten. From up high on Sava’s back, the blue glow of the Hellions draws an eerie line across the horizon, until the sun finally washes it away. After that, the blue glow is barely visible; the horizon a little too bright and too blue but not so stark as it was against the dark.
In the early afternoon, we reach the large mountain that I saw in the distance the evening before.
From far away the mountain was devoid of life, like any other in the seas. But the closer we get the more I can see, hidden like the village, visible only from above. Ridges of rock guard roads and rows of houses. If we came from a village, this is definitely a city.
The mountain itselfisthe Tower.
We circle over the top of the mountain and Sava drops into it, Roiven’s arm tight around my waist. This must be a dormant volcano, because the mountain’s top looks like a giant has scooped it out. The ridges of the caldera are at least forty feet tall, and if I had to guess, a mile wide. Sava fits easily inside, and as she lands I seeother dragons. A red half the size of Sava gallops over, wings tucked. A clutch of dragon hatchlings, each scaled in a different vivid jewel tone, stumble behind the red as they try to keep up, their immature wings dragging at their sides. Roiven and Sava both feel the same fierce pride at the sight of the young dragons.
Roiven climbs down before me. I wait a moment on Sava’s back, looking around as an uncomfortable feeling twists in my gut. Part of me still can’t believe I’m doing this; believe that I’m here willingly. I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things in the past few days, and maybe it hasn’t all sunk in yet. I stare at the rugged stone ground, and squint at another pair of dragons on the far end.
