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But it didn’t matter, because Amily, even pregnant, slid herself between me and the Scourge. “We all know what must be done.”
“Must we?” Pend asked, his voice mocking. I hated him when he talked to Amily that way. “But you could save them, Amily. I thought you loved to be the savior.”
“You know why we can’t, Pend. You know how much I wish we could. But it would endanger all our secrets.”
“And nothing is as precious as your secrets.”
“Damyn.” Lysander’s deep, commanding voice startled me when I was so focused on their conversation. “Go look for any more wounded who need our help.”
As I was moving through the field, I heard the cry behind him. I knew what a death cry sounded like. Sure that Lysander and Pend and Amily all had bloody swords, I didn’t turn around.
I checked each body, plunging my sword into the Scourge as I passed them, searching for a living shifter. All the while, I turned over what Pend had said about secrets.
Then a Scourge who looked all but dead rose up from the ground. I raised my sword, cut it down—but in its last throes, it sank its teeth into my thigh. I let out a cry, before plunging my sword through it.
Then I crumpled to the ground.
Amily cradled my head in her lap. The poison throbbed through my veins.
I waited for the knife. I understood why, as much as I dreaded and feared it.
“We agreed…only for our sons,” Pend said abruptly.
“He might as well be,” Amily snapped in return.
I thought I’d remember forever that Lysander did not pause, didn’t hesitate. “Don’t be ridiculous, Pend. He’s ours.”
“I’ve got too many spells on mine already,” Terra said lightly. “Gorian, you never use yours. Lend it to me.”
Gorion gave him a baleful look. “I don’t know what your objection is to the wordplease.”
Teris rolled his eyes. He seemed completely relaxed, not at all disconcerted. He didn’t seem to care very much that I was dying in front of him. But Amily’s bright blue eyes looked down on me with affection, her hand cool on my fevered forehead.
Ultimately, I would remember none of what happened that day for a long time, but I would carry it anyway, deeper than bone and blood. The way Lysander and Amily had loved me when I desperately needed a family, the fact they had cared for me as a son, and it settled deep in my soul. It would determine, forever, how I felt about their tiny daughter.
So Amily, with her stone, healed me. Then she turned over to Teris the disagreeable work of taking my memories.
“You say it’s because I’m better at this magic,” Teris observed with a smile. “but I think it’s because you like to pretend you’re justbetter.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Teris,” Amily said.
* * *
When the princess was born,months later, bells rang out over Rylow.
The palace cooks baked a thousand sweets, and I sent the servants out to distribute them to all the children of Rylow, so they could celebrate the birth of the princess as much as her parents. I joined them, passing out little parcels of glazed nuts and toffees and smiling so hard it felt my face would crack.
I’d seen Amily’s red-rimmed eyes after each of the Elders had their children and she and Lysander did not. I was glad she and Lysander were happy.
As I was running up the castle steps, Pend and Joachim were coming down, looking deep in conversation—and deeply unhappy.
Joachim’s eyes narrowed when he saw me, and he abruptly cut himself off before I could overhear. “You can be my page when Lysander is done with you.”
I froze, staring at him.
“I knew your father,” Joachim went on, sounding kinder than usual. “He was a noble knight. I see you’re always touching this—” He reached out a finger and hooked my necklace with one finger. “Do you think it was a gift from him? Do you think he remembered your mother’s name?”
“Enough, Joachim.” Pend sounded weary. “There’s no need to be unkind to the boy.”
