No matter how many folk you save.
Clearing my throat, I fold the lark in half and pass it back.
“I saw you lead … her toward your suite. Please tell me you didn’t take her to your shrine.”
Kaan pauses, then continues rearranging his pack as if I didn’t speak at all. He pulls the drawstring taut, knuckles blanched with tension as he knots the strips of leather.
Guess that’s a yes.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, eyes squeezed shut. “You said slowly ease …”
“I did.”
“This is not that.”
“It’s not.”
I sigh, opening my eyes. “I assume by your general demeanor that she didn’t throw herself into your arms before the corpse of her dead dragon and thank you for the missing piece of her mind puzzle?”
“No, Veya. She didn’t.”
“Shocker,” I say on a faux laugh, threading my hands through my hair, contemplating the possibility that his mind’s just as lost as the beast he’s flying off to slay. “So, what, you gave her enough gold to buy her safe passage across the Boltanic Plains so she can chase her welling bloodlust? Where there’s a big chance she’ll eventually be recognized by either of the twins, both of which have access to a certain tool. Perfect leverage to fold her into submission once they blow the lid off that jar. Lovely.”
Kaan stands, crosses his arms, and frowns down at me—his black and red riding leathers sculpting him into a larger, fiercer, more formidable form of our pah. Something I’m certain he despises every time he looks in the mirror.
“They get hold of her, we’re dead, Kaan. How long do you think it’ll be before they’re swarming our borders, ready to paint this city red and carve into our rich, untapped reserve of bloodstone? We’re living on borrowed time, and you fucking know it.”
“You done?”
I plant my hands on my hips, tossing my stare skyward.
Why is he calm? The kingdom he’s worked so hard to capture, protect, and grow is probably going to be ripped to shreds, all because he dropped the Elluin boulder on Raeve before we had a chance to assess the situation from all angles.
It’s a disaster.
“Yes. I’m done,” I mutter, realizing I need to track back down to the carter hutch. Tell the Moltenmaw riders they need to make themselves scarce—at least until I have a chance to make it to Arithia and back with her diary in hand.
Hopefully.
There’s no way she’s getting across the plains on her own. She’d sizzle like Slátra did.
“All going to plan, I should be back before The Great Flurrt to help raise the platforms.”
My gaze snaps to him so fast my head spins. “The miskunn predicted that’ll be in thirty aurora cycles …”
“Correct.”
“You’re leaving for thirty aurora cycles?”
“It’s a big kingdom, Veya. I can’t just fluff around here when there’s shit to do. I’ve been south for a while, and the kingdom doesn’t run itself.”
“Sounds like a convenient excuse to run away.”
He tips his head to the side, eyes narrowing. “You told me to tread carefully or she’ll incinerate herself. This is me treading carefully.” His stare softens a little. “She doesn’t want me around. I’m simply abiding.”
“You tossed her a sack of gold, Kaan. She’s probably halfway out the door. It’s only a matter of time before she’s wielded against us.”
“Dragon bloodstone,” he corrects, and I groan. “And she’s not halfway out the door. She walked straight past the carter hutch and headed for the western point.”
My heart stops, all the blood rushing from my face. Sharp prickles of emotion pierce the backs of my eyes.
“She’s still in there,” I whisper past the swelling pip in my throat.
Elluin.
Kaan nods—just once. “Somewhere.”
I swat a tear from my cheek.
He looks away, puts his fingers to his lips, and whistles loud.
Rygun releases a rumbling exhale that rattles my bones, followed by the scraping, creaking sounds of his immense body nudging free from his tight sleep space. The beast emerges from the darkness in world-trembling increments, cinder eyes glinting in the gloom, plumes of steam billowing from his flared nostrils—the curved tusks protruding from his boxy face a fearsome tribute to his size and age.
Kaan shoulders his pack and the trio of spears, stalking toward the emerging beast when he stills, looking back at me, then past me to my pack on the ground. “Where are you going, Veya?”