A knock sounds on my bedroom door. I sense the shade of feeling outside of it.Astria.
“Come in.”
She opens the door and stills when she sees the state I’m in.
“You almost died, didn’t you?”
I don’t deign to respond.
She shakes her head, and begins to pace. “You need more help on the scar. Let me send another legion. We can move the forces at—”
I wave the suggestion away. “You’ll just be giving more food to the dreks.”
It’s true. Still, Astria’s expression hardens. Shecaresabout the warriors she oversees, not just as forces for our purposes, but aspeople. Her feelings are her failing, but she’s done a better job to strategically employ our forces across the island than I ever could, and she’s never betrayed me. Unlike my former general, apparently.
“Then allow me to go with you next time.”
“Perhaps,” I say, knowing I likely won’t. Astria is one of the few people on my council I actually trust. She’s not after anything others are. Not money, not acclaim. She works quietly and efficiently, and I admire her for it.
“What are we going to do about this?” she says. “First the dreks. Then, storm season will be starting.”
She’s right. It’s been years without them. The deadly storms are bound to start up again.
Every year, there is another problem. Another obstacle.
I’m tired. So very tired of all of it.
“I’ll figure something out,” I say.
Her belief in me has never wavered. But for the first time, I feel something new ...fear. She’s afraid for our lands. For our people.
I am too.
Astria leaves, and my eyes close once more. There’s some comfort, I think, to the darkness. In it, I can almost imagine our problems have vanished.
But seeing Astria has reminded me of her cousin. My previous general.
The Wildling’s father.
He was loyal to a fault. It’s why I never questioned his disappearance. I figured he died. It’s still difficult to consider another possibility.
He was more powerful than all my men combined. He had impenetrable armor. He was as cold and unfeeling as I was, and that made me trust him. He didn’t suffer from the whims of my other warriors.
Side by side, we battled the dreks. He saved my life more than once. Without him, I wouldn’t have been able to keep them at bay for so long. He was the one that helped me implement the metal barriers that have held for decades, the ones that are now starting to give way. If it wasn’t for the fact that I could feel his emotions—feel his lack of emotion—I might have even been threatened by his abilities. I might have believed he planned to overthrow me.
Then, we discovered a way to stop the creatures forever. Cronan’s sword: a blade that controlled them, a weapon that had been lost for centuries. Together, we worked to find it. We followed countless leads. I made him the relic to make searching for it easier. I’ll never forget that look as I set it in his hand—a look ofgratitude. I hadn’t dug into it. I had assumed he was grateful for the honor of having been gifted something from his ruler.
Now ...
Perhaps he wanted to leave. Perhaps it’s what he always wanted.
When he didn’t return from that last quest to find the sword, I didn’t look for him. The only way he would turn his back on his duty was death. I believed that with every shred of my being.
With him lost, the search for the sword dwindled. And now, here I am. Decades later, still dealing with the same problems.
I feel my nostrils flare as I consider his choices. If he hadn’t betrayed me, we might have found the sword. We might have ended the dreks once and for all.
If he hadn’t betrayed me—
