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There was only one way forward, one fate I couldn’t walk away from. We’d been tangled together since my mother’s death and it would always be like that, until I stopped him.
Razak.
If I could cross into Justice’s lands, there was a chance I could learn of my brother’s fate, and perhaps stop whatever he had planned. The letters had indicated Umair and Pain’s crown was somewhere in Justice, and Razak had allowed himself to be caught and transported there. Weeks had passed since then. He might already have the crown and be free, but either way, I had to know.
“Can you get me into Justice?” I asked Danyal.
He skinned a critter he’d trapped in the brush and was skewering it to roast above the fire. I’d learned he was a man of few words, unless I asked about my mother. He’d talk for hours about her. I owed him a great deal, not least my thanks. But I couldn’t remain here, hiding out in the woods forever.
“Why?”
“Razak has a plan and I fear its only winner will be him, while the rest of the shatterlands suffers. He must be stopped.”
“And it has to be you who stops him?”
I stared at the fire and recalled how my mother had tried to do good, tried to make Umair see the wrongs. She may have failed, but I was still alive, and as Danyal had taken great pains to tell me, she lived in me. I owed it to her to make right the wrongs. Nobody else was going to. “I know my brother. I can get close to him. I may be the only one who can.”
“Or, you could leave well alone and live your life a free man?”
“He has bounty hunters looking for me. There is no freedom while he’s alive.”
“Ah, then it’s revenge you seek.”
I couldn’t deny it. I wanted to wrap what was left of my fingers around Razak’s neck and watch the light fade from his eyes.
“You don’t need to say it, I see it in your eyes. You want to tear him apart, and I don’t blame you. But I will caution you. That desire for revenge almost got you killed. If you walk back into that world, I may not be there to save you again.”
“I cannot hide in the woods and eat whatever that poor creature is for the rest of my days.” I laughed, and he seemed affronted. Had he planned for me to stay here, with him? “Did you think I would?”
His grizzled face fell. “I want to see you safe, Zayan.”
“From all you’ve told me of my mother, she’d want me to stop Razak. Tell me I’m wrong, and I’ll stay.”
He cursed under his breath.
“I thought so. So can you get me into Justice?”
“Since Razak outed you as his brother, you’ve become notorious.”
“Then I’ll disguise myself. Can you get a blue gown?”
He rolled his eyes. “They’re Justice, not the Court of Love. They are not so easily fooled by a pretty face and flattery.”
“Have you visited there?”
“Visited? Not of my own free will.”
Well, now I was intrigued. “You were arrested?”
“I was detained, served time in their jails.”
“Then youcanget me inside.”
He grumbled his frustration. “I’ve just pulled you from certain death, what makes you think I’ll throw you back among the wolves?”
I smiled. “Because you know I’m right, and besides, we belong with the wolves.”
“Zayan, you belong somewhere far away from all this, where you can be yourself for you, and nobody else.”
