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I release his hand to wipe my palms over my eyes, banishing tears. I don’t know what I’ll do if he hates me now. I don’t know if I could bear staying in Cagmar. But if I leave to seek out Tayler’s township, I’ll never be able to return. And if I never find Tayler, I’ll die from exposure.
I don’t know. Ijust don’t know.
“Lark.”
Startled, I whip around to see Unach behind me. She has a bandage around her left bicep but no other injuries. A sigh slips from me. “Unach, you’re safe.”
But her expression flattens. She glances at the other patients. Half are awake. “Come. Now.”
Biting my lip, I spare a glance to Azmar. I don’t want to leave his side, but I can’t be here when he wakes.
After rising from the stool, I follow Unach out of the infirmary and toward the tribunal, which is presently empty. We pass through a dark, narrow corridor before she wheels on me.
“Why did you leave?”
I’m taken aback by her question. I hadn’t considered explaining myself. My thoughts had been only for Azmar. “I ... My father is the leader of one of the human battalions. I told Qequan I could get him information on their strategies.”
Her gaze narrows. She hasn’t regarded me so coldly since I first arrived. No, even then, her behavior wasn’t laced with this sort ofmalice. “And that’s why they threw you in the dungeon? Because you couldhelpthem?”
I shrink back. “H-He’s my father, Unach. They thought I was a traitor.”
She hums low in her throat. Steps to one wall of the corridor, then the other. “It’s a funny thing, Lark. My brother was so beside himself when we heard you’d been arrested. I thought it peculiar. You weren’thisservant, after all.”
We’re friends,I want to say, but the words stick to my throat like flour.
“And then he insists on speaking to the council himself.” Her voice takes on a low timbre. “And then you leave. And he is miserable. Uncharacteristically so. Azmar is a level-headed trollis. It takes a lot to rattle him.”
Fear, slick and oily, coats my belly.
She turns to me, her gaze a fire, and slams her fist into the wall. Were it not made of stone, it would have broken. “Youliedto me, you little wretch.”
She lifts her other hand. Half-embedded into her palm is Azmar’s bloodstone, delicately wrapped in copper wire.
My heels fuse to the floor. “Wh-Where did you—”
“I took a tour of your room.” Every word is a well-aimed dart. “You think I don’t know what my brother’s bloodstone looks like?”
She whips the precious stone away. I want to grab it from her, but my arms refuse.
“You disgusting little maggot.” Her voice is little more than a whisper. It cuts me down to a stump. “I don’t know what you did, but you arenothingto us. Nothing to me, and nothing to him. The only reason I don’t denounce you to the city and feed you to a spreener is forhim.” She juts her finger in the direction of the infirmary. “Howdareyou? After everything we’ve done—”
“Please, Unach.” I clasp my hands over my chest. “I love—”
She shoves me, and I stumble back, my shoulder colliding with the rough wall. The flames in her eyes have grown to a bonfire. Her mouth snarls like a feral dog’s.
“If Ieversee you again, I will break every damn bone in your body,” she seethes. “I hope Grodd has his way with you. I hope you rot in the bottom of the canyon.” She reels back and shakes her head. “You disgust me.”
She turns her back and charges away, merging with the shadows, vanishing into Cagmar’s maze. My fingers dig into the rocky wall beside me, desperate to keep me upright. I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. I can’t get enough air. My blood flows too thick in my limbs.
I’ve lost everything, haven’t I?A jagged pain cuts from my crown to my ankles.I’ve lost everything.Crumbling on the spot, I hug my knees and weep into my shirt.
Cagmar’s chill penetrates to my heart, and absolutely nothing can warm it.
I haven’t been called to the south dock. My right to visit Azmar has been revoked, refusing me entrance into the infirmary. I haven’t seen Perg since I first returned; he’s with the army or scouts somewhere. Or perhaps he’s found reason to despise me, too.
The next two days become the most miserable of my existence. I wish I were a child again, pinned under my father’s thumb, naïve to the world around me, unaware of the trollis except for the occasional story. I could better bear disdain in that awful house than revilement here.
I fear most that Azmar will join the trollis in their hate. He has reason to. I’ve stripped him of his accolades. I’ve ruined his relationship with his sister. I’ve caused him grave injury. I ... I used myfearon him.
