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But Tendo flew like the air was his kingdom. The wind itself roared with his anger and pain. He pumped his wings as if punishing the realm below.
The glory of the Imperial Capital swept past beneath them. The whitewashed clay walls of the Imperial Palace’s oldest wings. Then the newer additions, grander renditions of the same style, rising higher, sprawling broader, their foundations decorated with red-orange bas reliefs that glowed with magic.
And then the city. The largest human metropolis in Akanthia, the entire world. The collage of contrasting architectures fit together in perfect coordination. This testament to mortal glory was busy with spell lights and the tiny, sparkling auras of people, even at this hour of the night.
Lio could see the boundaries of the city ahead when he finally shouted, “Are you planning to fly halfway across the Empire? Tell me you’re not heading back home to the Sandira Court right now.”
Tendo didn’t answer. But he spiraled into a descent toward the vast arena below.
He landed atop a pillar, breathing hard from his flight. The flat top was broad enough that Lio could set himself down beside his friend without getting knocked off by Tendo’s wings.
Lio didn’t have to ask where they were. He recognized it from the stories. The Battle of Souls, the most prestigious tournament in the Empire, took place here. Five years ago, this was where Solia had defeated Tendo in battle and broken his heart.
Lio doubted Tendo wanted the concerned, kind words that were the language of love at House Komnena. “You’d better not be considering deserting me,” Lio said instead. “We have that council tomorrow evening with the Empress’s bankers. I’ll never get through their droning without your dirty mercenary jokes to keep me entertained.”
Tendo gave his characteristic snort and crouched on the pillar.
Lio took that as an invitation to sit beside him and pointed down at the arena below. “So tell me, would things have turned out better if Cassia and I had tossed you two in there instead? If we were wrong to reunite you in a luxurious palace bedchamber, our apologies.”
Lio didn’t wish to cross the veil by prying further, but it didn’t escape him that Tendo smelled like fire magic and woman. Promising. What had gone wrong?
“This would have turned out better,” Tendo gritted, “if she had not let me believe a lie for five years.”
Lio grimaced.
Tendo’s aura vibrated with magic and fury and anguish, his feathers riled. “I watched the Golden Shield arrest her in this arena. I believed she was locked away in the Empress’s most secret prison, suffering Mweya knows what.”
Lio gave a nod of encouragement, listening in silence.
“I devoted years of my life to trying to find her and break her out.” A bitter laugh escaped Tendo. “But I was looking in the wrong place. I didn’t think to check the Empress’s right hand.” His voice rose. “Don’t tell me I ought to be grateful she was safe all this time. Of course I am. The things I imagined she went through—” He broke off, his voice cracking. “I would have done anything to see her free and unharmed. I did do anything. I gave more than just years to the cause of rescuing her.”
There it was. The most poisonous wound inside of Tendo. A stain on his honor.
That would be a very difficult one to heal.
“I set aside the good of my subjects,” Tendo cried. “I broke all my bonds of loyalty to our mercenary band. I, a Sandira royal, a gold roster warrior, crawled through the grime of the Empire’s worst dungeons with no regard for the law, just for the hope of finding her. And she let me do it.”
Tendo surged to his feet again, standing with his toes on the very edge of the pillar, looking down at the arena as if into his grave.
“Don’t tell me she had her reasons. I don’t want to hear her excuses about duty and the greater good and protecting my freedom. While she was upholding all those pretty things, I was throwing them all to the winds for her sake.”
“I’m so sorry, Tendo.”
The shifter rubbed his face again, snapping his wings. “You have nothing to be sorry for, my friend.”
Lio rose to his feet and joined Tendo on the brink. “I understand what you’re experiencing, and not because Hesperine Blood Union lets me feel your emotions as if they’re my own. Did you know that Cassia once told me she could never stay with me? She decided to give up Orthros and return to Tenebra to become queen.”
Tendo’s gaze snapped to Lio. “She left out that part when waxing poetic about your love.”
“It was highly unpoetic.”
“You would have died without her blood.”
“She didn’t know that at the time, but that was little comfort. I wanted her to choose me freely, without needing the threat of my impending death for motivation.”
“Those two sisters really are the most dangerous shadowlanders ever to reach Orthros or the Empire’s shores.”
“That’s what makes them so irresistible.”
