“As whatever she needs,” I corrected, and took a step closer. “Whatever you need, too, Tolek. I’m here for you.”
He brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, fingers lingering along my jaw. “I know,apeagna. Thank you.”
At that moment, Cypherion’s voice rose through the trees, reminding everyone we had to hurry if we were going to make it to our stop tonight—a fact he was disgruntled by. Malakai and Tolek had been dragging him off his horse at every rest point, forcing him to sleep and eat, though he wanted to keep riding.
“He’s worrying me a bit, too,” I whispered to Tolek.
He narrowed his eyes on the swinging vines ahead. “He’s been a bit cagey about this contact of his in Valyn and what the plan is.”
I sighed. “I trust him implicitly, but…” I didn’t want to admit it. To even suggest Cyph was allowing nerves to rule hisdecisions. We’d all be acting the same way if it was us in his position.
Tolek seemed to understand, squeezing my hand. “He’ll relax once we get her. Let’s keep going.”
As we walked on, I squeezed Tol’s hand back. “Thank you,” I told him. “I couldn’t do any of this without you.”
And I knew how much pressure he was putting on himself. To decode the scrolls, to translate the Endasi, to keep me and everyone else here safe.
Tolek lifted my hand to his lips and placed a chaste kiss there, though the promise burning in his eyes was anything but. “It’s my pleasure, Alabath.”
The next morning,I woke to Cypherion prodding me in the shoulder.
I rocked upright, blinking away the sleep as the jungle canopy and closely packed trees swam into focus. “Is everything okay?”
“I heard from my contact in Valyn.” Cyph’s voice was frantic enough to rouse Tolek beside me, his hair standing on edge and stubble thick. “We have a meeting place and time.”
Chapter Twenty
Ophelia
Valyn had changedsince our summer exchange when we were sixteen. We’d stayed in one of the old temple academies then, one they’d converted to house visiting trainees. The halls had been packed with teenage warriors. Flirtations, trysts, and fights waited around every corner, but it had been grounded. A routine and tours of the historic sites of the city, ending each day in common squares on the temple grounds mingling among the warriors. Festivals, sneaking out, getting caught…
Now, nearly six years later, as Cypherion and I wound through the streets of the furthest edge of the capital, the air was heavy with an untoward combination of magic and gritty, hostile spirits. Every breath was ominous, like a Fate could tear through the heavens, reach out celestial hands, and pluck us from the cobblestones.
“What district are we in again?” I asked.
“Technically none. This is a twelfth zone that doesn’t fall in a district,” Cypherion answered from beneath his hood. “Be careful where the incense is thickest.” He jerked his chin toward a dense cloud of lilac haze up ahead, glittering in the orbs of mystlight hanging from brass lanterns over each doorway.
“That’s not the kind meant for Starsearcher sessions, is it?” I asked.
“Not in this part of the city,” Cyph muttered. “Those ones don’t only affect Starsearchers.”
Needing my head free of drug-induced haze, I kept a wide breadth from the clouds and followed Cyph quickly down more winding walkways, all surrounded by various shops and draped in greenery that began to feel like a maze.
He’d been relentless getting here. Once he received word of tonight’s meeting place from his contact, we’d ridden hard for three days. He likely wouldn’t have stopped once if the exhaustion wasn’t about to drag him off his horse. I offered to fly ahead with Sapphire, but she could only carry two of us at a time, and travel by night. His informant had been very specific that we’d need everyone for this plan.
Only Cypherion and I were meeting him now, but that didn’t stop Tolek and Malakai from trailing us to be safe. Looking over my shoulder, the two warriors were feigning interest in a tavern window where the barkeep could pass beverages out to the now-empty courtyard.
“You’re sure you trust this person?” I triple-checked with Cypherion, studying him for any sign of faltering.
I was certain he’d never willingly lead us into danger, and I was watching to ensure his sharp mind hadn’t been affected. As far as I could tell, he was as calculating as ever—acting quickly but not rashly.
Pushing a hand through the greenery draping tightly across the stone walls and shoving lightly, Cyph said, “I would trust the man we’re meeting with very few things in life. But this…” He walked a few feet and repeated the action. “This, he cares about.” A subtle click, and a door creaked open in the flora-wrapped wall, a sliver of dim light pouring over the stone walkway. “And he has reparations to make.”
It was…well,it was a hidden tavern.
One with booths cut into the walls, and low, curved ceilings forming shadowed meeting places. It was buried two floors beneath the ground, as the fighting dens I knew Cypherion frequented often were, or the less savory gambling halls I’d visited with Tolek.
Cypherion led us to the bar and ordered two of the cheapest ales. “For appearances,” he said, looking over my head as he leaned against the chipped granite counter.
