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“There’s a horn?” Jess gaped at them.
Fyn bestowed a small smile on her. “It is rarely used, but you will know it when you hear it. You can hear it all the way across the Gilded Peaks and halfway across the Restless Sea.”
“We did not hear it,” I said, which drew everyone’s attention to me. The air outside the cave was cooler, even though it was daytime, and I was very aware of the dampness of the fabric against my skin. I fought the urge to rub my arms briskly for warmth.
“You are Torq.” Fyn said this as a statement, not a question. “House Swoll.”
I could tell from his bearing and the way he addressed me that he was also a high-born. “I am.”
“He is a Blade,” one of the other cadets reminded him, as if I was not standing right in front of them.
Fyn flicked his gaze to the cadet and then to me. “You have our gratitude for saving our fellow Assassin, but you probably wish to rejoin your team in searching for your stone.”
I glanced at the Assassin stone. “I do not know if there is any point.”
Fyn grunted at this, acknowledging that I was right, but I could also tell that he did not want to return to the academy with a Blade first-year in tow.
I allowed myself to look at Jess, wondering if she would take the side of the Assassins. But I would not know the answer. A deep booming voice broke the tense silence.
“Torq!”
I spun to see Kort crashing through the trees on the opposite side of the pool. His blade was out, and his uniform was dirty. He looked like he’d been through as much as I had.
When he registered the group of Assassins around me, Kort cocked his head. “Did you switch sides, brother?”
“He did not,” Fyn answered before I could. “Your Blade rendered assistance to our cadet, and we were offering our thanks before he rejoined your school in the hunt.”
Kort’s shoulders relaxed, and he beamed at me. “Come on then. I hung back to look for you, but the rest of us are high in the peaks.”
I dreaded the thought of going higher into the cold mountains in a damp uniform. I might have recovered from nearly drowning, and the blows I’d sustained from Dom did not ache, but I did not want to join a hunt that was pointless.
I jerked my head toward the Assassin stone in Jess’s hands. “The battle has been won, but not by us.”
Kort’s jaw dropped, and he ran down to where the pool became a stream and leaped from stone to stone until he’d reached our side. “She found it? The Assassins have won?”
“Unless another school returns their stone sooner.” Fyn cast a stern look over his team of cadets. “We should not waste any more time returning to the academy.”
“Go.” I stepped back, putting distance between me and Jess.
Fyn gave me a curt tip of his head, as he turned and waved his cadets forward. Jess gave me a final glance as the quartet of Assassins started to move toward the academy. For the briefest of moments, I wondered if she might choose to stay behind, if she might choose to stay with me. But then I remembered that she had been the one to insist that the night had meant nothing, and we had both reached an unspoken agreement that we would not speak of it. Jess shot me a small smile then turned and strode away without looking back.
Kort put an arm around my shoulders. “Don’t look so depressed. There are other battles ahead of us.”
Then both our attention was pulled from the retreating Assassins and to the Drexian ship that was descending through the atmosphere. My breath caught in my throat as I recognized the distinctive emblem of flames on the hull.
Inferno Force.
Chapter
Sixty-Four
Volten
Istood on the cracked stones of the shipyard as the glossy, black ship hovered above the ground before landing and causing the ground to tremble. The Inferno Force ship was only a transport, but it was still larger than the fighters that were lined up outside the academy.
I coughed from the dust the engines kicked up and the powerful scent of fuel, as the ship’s ramp started to lower. The admiral had briefed me on the former High Commander he was expecting, but I had not thought he would arrive in an Inferno Force vessel. As far as I knew, Kax had not been Inferno Force, even though his brother Dorn had.
The ramp touched down with a jolt and the ship powered down, the engine rumbling before finally going quiet. Then a Drexian was striding down, his long, black hair flapping behind him. This was definitely not how I had imagined the former High Commander.
