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“Oh yes.” He smirked and rolled onto his side, propping himself on his elbow with his left hand still extended, fingers clawed, as though he gripped my soul. “Thank you, dearest brother. You’ve just made me a god.”
He crushed his hand into a fist, and I screamed.
CHAPTER35
Arin
The cell floor shuddered,stirring me from a restless sleep. The Court of War had quakes in the earth, from sandworms tunneling around their foundations. But this was Justice. There were no giant worms here. Were there? I dozed again, drifting, dreaming, until the screech of the cell door yanked me back to wakefulness and a guard stomped in.
He knelt, slipped a key in my shackles, and the cuff clattered loose. I looked at it, there on the floor, then at the guard. Was I dreaming again? I’d dreamed Lark had come and sung a lullaby. Or had that been real?
“You’re free to go.” He grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet.
“What?” This didn’t make any sense. I brushed grit from my sore wrist, finding it light without the chain holding me down. “Why?”
“I always find it best not to ask them’s in power,” he grouched. “Come along. I’ve been tasked with getting you cleaned up. Let’s get to it. We’ve got some work to do.”
While I wasn’t going to argue, the ease with which I’d been freed didn’t seem real either. Was this another part of another dream? Gods, why couldn’t I think clearly?
What could make Justice turn around and free me without a trial? Only Soleil had such power. Had the queen realized my innocence?
The guard guided me through the cell door, and I blinked into sharp light.
“You there.” Draven marched up the corridor with a second, older man following behind. “Let him go.”
I hadn’t seen Draven since the prison wagon had carted me away from my home.
The guard said something along the lines of he’d already freed me, but all I could see and hear was Draven. His stoic expression gave little away, and his clothes marked him as a lord of War. Had he come to gloat? He stopped, focused on the guard, demanding to know where I was being taken.
I didn’t think, just swung my fist, connecting it triumphantly with his jaw. He barely rocked, but the blow did whip his head to the side. And it felt good, even as pain shot down the back of my hand. Satisfying. “Betrayer.” I spat at his boots.
He flinched. “I deserved that.”
“I see why Lark likes you,” the aging, grey-haired man said.
I’d seen his weathered face before somewhere but couldn’t place where. None of this made any sense. “What is happening?”
“My name is Danyal,” he said, dipping his chin. “I’m Lark’sadvisor.”
Lark had an advisor? What kind of advisor?
Everything moved too fast. I was out of the cell, apparently free, and now Draven was here. And this stranger. I couldn’t trust either of them, not without Lark’s word. “WhereisLark?”
“I came to ask you,” Draven said. “He went to Razak, to find the er…” He glanced at the guard. “TheitemRazak has been searching for. That was yesterday.”
He’d gone to Razak and hadn’t been seen since? Oh no. For all Lark’s wonderful bravado and his promises to free me, Razak was his one fear, and his weakness. I was free, which meant Lark had donesomething. “I have to speak with Lark.”
I’d started forward when the guard caught my arm. “You can’t go anywhere until you’re checked over by a healer and cleaned up.”
“You said I was free.” I pulled my arm from his grip.
“My orders were to free you and take you to your room. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“I’ll take him,” Draven said, reaching out.
I whirled on him, the anger bright and sharp. “If you so much as touch me I will fight you, and I will not stop until one of us is no longer moving. Do you hear me, Draven?”
I stepped forward, intending to go find Razak’s cell myself and demand where Lark was, but the floor and walls tilted and my head spun. Draven lunged, trying to scoop me out of my fall. I shoved him away and glared, then staggered back and fell against the wall. The dizziness would clear soon. “I need a moment.”
