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Had Kallus looked toward me to read my reaction? Or had he been lost in his rage about Kallus hurting me? Everything was such a blur that I didn’t know now. I’d been in fights before, but that chaos… the blood spraying everywhere as Kallus’s army invaded, the way they’d sprung from nowhere… that was a true battle like I’d never been in before.
We climbed out the window and half-walked, half-slid slid down the thatched roof. Damyn leapt ahead of me at the end, landing lightly on his feet, and turned to raise his arms toward me.
I landed beside him without stumbling. I didn’t need him to catch me.
The two of us started to make our way out of the village. But then, from the other side of the houses, we heard people screaming. The door of the house we’d just left was kicked open, and angry voices filled the house.
Damyn shot me a stern look. “Keep moving,” he mouthed. “We have no idea what Kallus will do if he catches you.”
“I’m probably the safest person on the isle right now.” I darted to the right.
But Damyn must have been expecting that trick, because he lunged with me, yanking me against his chest. “No, you aren’t. You have no idea why he really killed Joachim. He’s been manipulating you all along.”
His words were harsh, but true. He added in a barely-audible growl, “You might be in the most danger of anyone on the isle. And you’re mine to protect, either way.”
I had no chance to form a comeback. The sound of soldiers’ voices floated to us around the corner, coming ever closer.
Damyn pressed me against the wall of the house, covering me with his body.
CHAPTER45
Honor
The soldiers never reached us.They were so close that I thought they were about to round the corner, and then one ofthemlet out a sharp inhale of breath that ended abruptly in a splutter.
The noise of villagers’ crying, screaming, and pleading had faded, as if they were all being moved away. But now, the soldiers nearest us were crying out too.
Damyn dealt me a stern look. “If I tell you to run, you run.”
“Of course,” I said smoothly, as if I were always the model of compliance. But he was obviously about to humor me if he felt the need to bargain like that.
He admitted, “I need to know what’s happening too. Butcarefully,Honor.”
“Of course!”
He looked remarkably unimpressed, but the two of us snuck around the corner. The bodies of the soldiers were gutted on the ground.
“Maybe you’re right,” Damyn muttered. “Maybe those crazies of yours are around here.”
“They’re your crazies too,” I reminded him. “You made them who they are.”
Damyn looked unenthused atthataccusation.
Now that we’d rounded the buildings and could get a glimpse of the village square, the soldiers’ work and the fate of the villagers was spread out in front of us. The soldiers were crowding the villagers into a barn. A few of them carried torches. Caris, the general, stood behind them, grinning madly. Fear lit in my gut.
“You were right, we needed to see. To stop this.” Damyn said softly, his voice not carrying past me.
An explosion rocked the ground beneath our feet. The soldiers’ cart, where they had been carrying supplies, jolted into the air then crashed into the ground, disintegrating into a thousand pieces. The soldiers cursed and turned outward, the torches all but abandoned as they faced away from the villagers.
“Branok,” I said, relief flooding my chest.
“Not every bit of chaos is Branok,” Damyn muttered, but Iknew.
He’d had all those cards and dice and potions he’d stocked up before, and whatever happened to our magic now, perhaps he could still activate those with the smallest bits of remaining magic.
“We’ve got to get the villagers out.” Damyn reached down and drew a heavy battle ax from the outstretched arm of the dead soldier.
I seized the handle of the second soldier’s axe, but I could barely lift the damn thing to put it over my shoulder. This was a man’s weapon: heavy, crude, frightening. I preferred daggers.
