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I leaned up from Mirona slightly and took stock. This chamber was large, and the furnishings in it were far more luxurious than anything I’d seen before in Leoth. There were several trunks of fine clothing and beautiful weaponry, and one was filled with what seemed to be a trove of gold coins. These people had wealth.
I still did not see the point Kalen was trying to make so I said rather arrogantly, “I see a bed chamber, I see food and wine. Weapons…” I slid my gaze over to him, “And I see a big-headed idiot.”
Kalen chuckled. Wickedly. “The man that lies on the floor next to me is a general from Aegedonia, Gwynore. He is rich and powerful, a nymph who commands Ione’s naval services. The woman you hold in your hands is now his Yield.”
“His Yield?” That humbled me. Kalen had only mentioned that term once, so I wasn’t very familiar, but from what I remembered, it meant…“He is turning her immortal?”
Kalen just nodded, then leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes.
“How could you possibly know that?”
Kalen pointed to the chalice on the floor next to my outstretched thigh. “That is the cup she drank from, yes?” I nodded slowly. “And Donis spoke to her the Rite? Before he plunged his sword into her heart?” The Rite? I couldn’t remember Kalen ever mentioning that. He seemed to realize this, and explained, “I forget that you…well, that you forget. The Rite is just words, in a language that was probably strange to you?”
This time, when I nodded, Kalen sighed.
“IfMirona drank from the cup of oleander and if Donis spoke the Rite before he claimed her life, then she is now his Yield.”
I shook my head. “But I saw them beforehand, talking and...”And other things. “She did not seem to want to be with him. She did not seem to want to be his Yield.”
“And unfortunately, Gwyn, what you think Mirona may have wanted does not matter. He Yielded her. She is his now.”
I scoffed. “You are going to let him get away with this? He took her life!”
“It is the law,” he replied, matter of factly. “It is out of my hands.”
“Out of your hands?”
“Yes. They’re quite full already having to deal with you.”
“Deal with me?” If my mouth could have opened any wider, it would have landed in my lap.
“You see, in about an hour, when they both wake, if Donis remembers the face of his attacker…” Kalen laughed, rubbing the heel of his hand across his right eye. “...you and I are going to have very big problems.”
I looked over to Mirona, whose hand I was now holding in my blood-soaked one. I leaned forward to close her eyes with my other hand. Like I’d once done for the beast in the Binding. At least she will come back, I thought. But back to what? A life she hadn’t chosen. Sorrow swept over me for the things I could not change. It was too late for her.
When I was finished with her eyes, I found Kalen watching me, sadness etched in his mouth alongside anger.
“What do we do now?” I asked, wanting to keep fighting him, but realizing it was no use.
“Wedon’t do anything,” was his reply. Then he stood, walking over to me and holding out his hand. “You are to go back to your room, and stay there.” I took his hand and let him pull me up. He surveyed the blood packed underneath my nails and said, “We will have to wait for Rebekah to wake in the morning to clean you up. The other servants won’t be able to keep their mouthsshut about this one.”
I didn’t say anything. What was there even left to say? That I was sorry? I wasn’t. It was Kalen’s motive to keep me hidden. It was Kalen’s choice to allow such things to go on under his watch. It was on Kalen’s conscience to do nothing. So I told him I would stay in my room, and when I left, I headed straight there.
When I finally entered my chambers, I made for the terrace, slipping out onto the small balconette. I grabbed the railing, my view lining up with the black pits of Leoth’s endless valleys as I leaned over it and heaved.
If I could just get a bit more air into my lungs, I’ll be fine.
For minutes, there was only the sound of my breathing and the cool breeze that whistled over my clammy skin. Peeking through a partition of massive clouds overhead, flashes of lightning flickered into my eye-line. Trailing closely behind, a roar of thunder. I stood there, unmoving, silently counting, until dawn came. Whether it had rained, I could not say.
I was already drowning.
“NO ONE CAN CONVINCEme that there is enough time in your universe to ready me for this.”
Another pail of cold water from the kitchen splashed onto my skin like a million shards of ice. I sat naked in a great iron tub, Rebekah ruthlessly scraping at my arms with a bar of iris blossom. The strong powdery scent tickled relentlessly at my nose, but she had insisted on it for my grand debut tonight.
“There is time,” Rebekah said, “but you are right, you will never be properly prepared to meet a Sage withthathair.”
I aimed a deathly glare in her direction but the blur of the water droplets hanging from my damp lashes only made a mockery of my ire.
