Page 64 of Thorns & Fire
Farissa dropped the sample and fell back into her chair, as though she needed the extra support.‘Elwren...’she said quietly.‘I admit, I didn’t quite believe it...’
‘Nor did I, and I was standing before it myself,’ Torj said from where he was leaning against the door.
‘And there was more?’Farissa looked to Wren.‘More flowers?More plants?’
‘Morelife,’ Wren confirmed.‘Like all the land’s prosperity has lain dormant for decades and suddenly awoken.’
Farissa stared at the rose on the table.‘You didn’t misidentify it,’ she said.‘It is indeed a silvertide rose.Perhaps there’s a slight variation in its strain due to the different growing conditions, but yes...you were right.I hope you brought enough back with you to study and propagate?’
‘I did.Soil samples too.’
Farissa’s fingers hovered near the seemingly innocent bloom, not quite touching its petals.‘Kingdoms, rebel factions and midrealms guilds will vie for control over land like this,’ she said quietly.‘Especially now, amid so much uncertainty...’
As Farissa’s words washed over her, Wren’s mind went strangely blank before it plummeted into a sea of images.Fire and ashes, scorched fields and thorns.A blend of what she’d seen in the past war and what might now loom close in the future.The promise of violence was thick, polluting her lungs after breathing in the fresh air of her homeland.
Wren desperately wanted someone to tell her that everything would be alright, that things weren’t as bad as they seemed, but neither her former mentor nor the Bear Slayer said a thing.Breath shuddered out of her, her gaze meeting that of the Warsword who came to her side – the man who might be bound to her in a way she didn’t yet fully comprehend.
‘Delmira just became the most valuable asset in all the midrealms, didn’t it?’she asked.
Torj dipped his head in confirmation.‘And you, the most valuable target.’
CHAPTER 25
Torj
‘Though historically Warswords were trained to slay monsters alone, past battles have proven time and time again that they perform best within a unit’
– The Warsword’s Way
AS THEY RETURNEDto their adjoining rooms, Torj faltered.The fire had left the poisoner.He saw it in her sagging shoulders, in her absent anger, in her vacant stare.
Without saying a word, Wren waited by the door so he could enter and do his usual security sweep, which was unlike her.She usually protested, complained that he was breaching her privacy...Instead, she watched on with a blank expression, as though she barely noticed him there at all.
Her quarters were as chaotic as ever: her desk in disarray with dozens of pieces of alchemy paraphernalia scattered about, her bed unmade beneath the stained-glass window and several half-drunk cups of tea, the tannin leaving rings of brown along the ceramic.Kipp had ensured her pack and other supplies were delivered, and they sat neatly by the door.Torj checked the bathing chamber, beneath the bed and the latch on the window.He strode through to his room, which Thea had been occupying, and found it exactly as he’d left it.
‘It’s clear,’ he called out to Wren.
‘Good,’ she said, her voice devoid of emotion.‘I have to get to work, so if you’ll excuse me.’
‘Let me help.’The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
For the first time since they’d arrived back at Drevenor, Wren looked at him –trulylooked at him.‘You want to help?’
Torj found himself nodding, motioning to her workbench.‘I’m a soldier.Give me an order.’
‘You want me to...order you about?’
It was only because he was desperate to see her feel something, to vanquish that dead look in her willow-green eyes, that he winked.‘You like the sound of that, do you, Embers?’
That anger flared back to life, and for once, he was glad for it.Anger was better than apathy.‘What have I told you about the name?’
‘I seem to recall you enjoying it immensely...’
He hoped she’d come out swinging.
And she did.
‘I wasn’t the only one.’She stalked up to him, closing the gap between them until she was close – too close.Her words were a dark, sultry promise.‘I seem to recall you moaning that very name in my ear...I remember you telling me to go up in flames with you.’
