Page 255 of The Sun He Buried

Varrik puts his sword beneath my jaw.

“You came faster than expected.”

Eirik’s hands hang at his sides.

“Remove the blade.”

Varrik presses it closer.

“I asked for a conversation.”

“You were given an answer.”

“Your answer was a mistake.”

“You took her to improve your chances of a meeting.”

Varrik looks toward the bodies.

“It worked.”

Eirik’s purple eye fixes on the sword at my throat.

The bond gives me everything he keeps from the room.

He wants Varrik dead.

He wants him alive long enough to take apart.

He wants my skin away from the blade.

Baldr moves one step to the side.

Varrik sees him.

“Stay where you are.”

Baldr stops.

His grip tightens on the sword.

Varrik looks back at Eirik.

“I’m only a general. Kill me and the ones I answer to still come. You gain nothing.”

Eirik’s head tilts.

“I didn’t come to gain.”

“Then what?”

“You took her.”

Purple light flashes through the mask.

Varrik’s sword drops away from my throat.

His anger reaches Eirik first. Then the fear. Conviction follows, hot and hard, full of roads, hidden camps, and faces I can’t see.