Page 90 of Tale of the Heart Queen

They all look like shit. Like they’ve been chewed up and spit back out, their clothes torn and all in need of a bath or five.

“What the hell happened to you?” I ask.

Nadir and Lor exchange a wary look.

“That’s a bit of a long story,” she says. “Maybe we should go inside and talk once you’ve dealt with things out here.”

I run a hand down my face as raindrops begin to patter against the ground. I look past the wall where the crowd still mills, but they seem settled enough. We’ve averted disaster for one more day. But just barely.

“I guess you better come inside,” I say to Lor.

We enter the palace and make our way towards the king’s study.

“How did you find each other?” I ask, gesturing to the entire group.

“We ran into one other in a village a few days’ travel from here,” Lor says. “It was kind of a miracle.”

“Where were you coming from?” I ask.

“Alluvion,” Lor says, and then adds, “Kind of. Also, the Evanescence.”

My eyes almost bulge out of my head at that. “What do you mean the Evanescence? Like the Evanescence?”

“We’ll try to explain everything,” she replies, exchanging another look with Nadir. It’s clear these two have been through something incomprehensible.

Finally, we arrive at the study, and everyone gathers in the room. Lor and Nadir stand at the front with their hands clasped as they address me, Hylene, and Tyr. It’s obvious the others know this story, but they wait patiently as Lor and Nadir take turns explaining everything.

She chokes on her words, and it’s clear how much strain she’s been under. After she reaches the end of her tale, she falls silent before Nadir fills in his half. It’s a wild story that gets weirder by the moment, and if it were anyone else, I might question the truth of their words.

But it was obvious from the first time I met Lor that she was no ordinary prisoner.

“How did you get Zerra to stop attacking?” I ask.

Lor shakes her head. “I’m not sure. Once Nadir and I moved into the forest, it stopped.” She exchanges a worried glance with Nadir that I can’t parse out.

“I’m not sure what else to say other than what the fuck?”

“I know,” Lor says. “There’s something else.”

“What else could there possibly be?” Hylene chimes in.

“I kind of stole the arks from Zerra,” she says, and Nadir digs into his pockets, tossing the lot on the table. The dark rocks imbued with silver sparkles clink together, and I stare at them in disbelief.

“I stole Alluvion’s, but I can’t do that to you. I should never have done it to him either, but I was desperate,” Lor continues.

“I don’t know where the ark is,” I say.

Lor’s shoulders drop. “I was afraid you’d say that. Everything we’ve learned suggests that only the ascended have knowledge of the arks.”

Every eye in the room falls on Tyr, and as if sensing our scrutiny, he looks up.

Hylene maneuvers herself across the room, then drops to a crouch and takes his hand. She whispers something in his ear, and though his face remains expressionless, he dips his head.

“The ark,” he says in that soft, thin voice that breaks my heart every fucking time. “Of course. I know where it is.”

CHAPTER 34

LOR