Page 116 of Oathborn
With a thousand unasked questions still on her lips, she did as commanded. They walked down the spiraling staircase, lower and lower, as the air cooled and the scent of the sea soaked into every breath.
When they reached the bottom, a heavy door barred shut waited for them. A strange, ornate lock hung from it, shimmering with a jade-green light. Perhaps a month ago, the sight of such a thing would have stolen her breath,for the illumination pulsed, faintly, highlighting tiny sigils that darted over the silver surface of the lock. Magic, the first time she’d seen it in the ruined cathedral, had seemed so wondrous, so strange. Strands of that same jade-green magic had wrapped around her wrist, had summoned the impossible, and given her the Oathborn mark.
She’d thought, back then, that she’d outsmarted Tivre, tricking him into a deal that benefitted her more than him.
She’d underestimated him.
Each fae’s magic was always the same color.The thought struck Zari, as the green glow around the lock flared brighter, as if greeting them. Or warning them to stay away.
Tivre lifted his hand, fingers moving in a practiced gesture, and the glow faded into strands of flickering light which slithered away, into the shadows. With a soft click, the lock slipped free and dropped neatly into his waiting palm.
Tivre nodded at Zari, motioning for her to walk forward. “First cell on the right. I’ll stand guard.”
A cell.
It confirmed her greatest fear. Her father was no honored guest. He waited in a prison and Tivre was his jailkeeper.
Chapter forty-four
Tobias
Tobias had celebrated his eighteenth birthday the day before he had graduated from the military academy, which meant he’d graduated hungover. The pomp and circumstance blurred into a noisy, stuffy mess of memories, though he still remembered Lord Commander Lockwood’s commencement address.Yougraduate into a rare time of great peace, soldiers. It is your solemn duty to ensure that those after you are afforded that same privilege.
Those words lingered in Tobias’s mind long after their hats were thrown and their badges were pinned on. Peace. Everything his father had fought for. Everything so many had died for. He knew the body counts from the battles, long before Javen had dragged him to the memorials.
Even for a soldier, war was nothing to hope for, nothing glorious, nothing noble. War was brutal and merciless and cruel.
War had been a necessary evil to repel the fae threat. If they ever took up arms again, it would be for the noble cause of self-defense.
Or so he’d been told.
And so he wanted to believe. Javen’s story certainly highlighted the fae Queen’s cruelty. She’d destroyed Javen’s safehouse, had his wife and child killed… How many Rhydonian bombs had turned fae buildings into rubble? How many Rhydonian bullets had made orphans of fae children?
Tobias groaned, rubbing his face with a hand. He’d sat outside of town, his back against a tree, for hours now, debating all that he’d learned. Javen and Lockwood were plotting something. So were the fae, and Zari Ankmetta was part of them. Zari, an Oathborn. He couldn’t quite believe it. She’d seemed so normal, so ordinary. Then there was that golden-haired fae. She’d wanted peace, and Javen had insisted she would die for her belief.
Tobias flipped through the handwritten fae dictionary again. His fingers found the word for peace.Ashali.A page later, a word for talk:Athalesh.Shyly, as if the trees might laugh at him, he said that second word out loud, as if all one needed to create magic was the right word.
Nothing happened.
The birds continued to chatter. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees. War loomed, ever closer. Still. The business card remained in his pocket. Did he contact whoever that man had been? Warn him about whatever was going on now?
Commander Lockwood strode into view, his rifle over a shoulder, a radio clipped to his belt. “Get up, kid. We’re headed into town for dinner.”
Great. Just what Tobias needed. Another meal with a terrifying officer.
Tobias never thought that he would be sitting at a restaurant with Commander Samuel Rew Lockwood himself. Indeed, of all the strange recent occurrences, this felt the most surreal, perhaps because it was so ordinary. There had been no fae attacks, no mentions of Blood Ember, and no magic. Lockwood looked no different from any other middle-aged officer. The cropped hair, the neatly trimmed beard, and the civilian clothes that were all just a little too starched.
“So, uh.” Tobias sipped his beer. It tasted faintly of pine needles, which made his nose wrinkle. “You and the captain are good friends?”
“I would argue that we are good friends indeed.” Lockwood cut another piece of chicken. “No doubt he’ddisagree.”
“I know the feeling.”
Lockwood raised an eyebrow. “You’re the first direct report he’s chosen in the years he’s been part of the Cobalts.”
“Really?” When he’d heard that before, Tobias had assumed it to be nothing more than the usual rumor mill.
“And he was solitary when he was in my Crimsons, too. I had to tell him I’d get him court-martialed if he didn’t start eating with the other soldiers.”
