Page 55 of Oathborn
Javen howled with rage. Magic burned in his eyes and along his arms, all his careful glamour shredded away in his rage. If any Rhydonian saw him now, they would barely recognize him. Another crack of magic, as loud as cannon fire, snapped through the air as he shouted, “Show yourself, Blood Ember!”
Ah. Clarification indeed. For that anguished howl had not only provided a name, but was also not in Rhydonian. For Javen to lose control, to shout in a language Tivre knew the man had sworn off… vengeance had overtaken his reason. If Tivre wanted to, he could attack now. Even his cloaking glamour, hasty though it may have been, seemed to be enough to keep Javen’s eyes off him.
Tivre risked another glance at the figure astride the horse, noticing the bloody mark on his neck, a sure sign Javen’s own magic reserves were rapidlydepleting. Nor did Javen have the Crescent Blade he’d once wielded, which had amplified his power greatly.
With Javen this distracted, Tivre would have a solid chance of winning the fight.
Victory would mean killing the oldest friend Tivre had. Even if that friendship was long since corroded, Tivre found himself unable to attack. His hand remained outstretched, the first of a chain of sigils floating there. Still, he couldn’t strike.
He tried to tell himself that killing Javen would protect not only Zari, but Daeden too, but his mind responded by replaying childhood memories. Games of chess and cards, days spent together in the library, evenings sitting by the grand fireplace, begging stories off whatever adult fae was near.
The hoofbeats thudded again, as Javen turned his steed to plunge deeper into the forest, the noise of his shouts fading as well. Tivre pushed himself to his feet, leaving Javen behind in the woods to demand vengeance from a ghost.
There was no way Blood Ember had survived. Tivre was sure of it. He had to be sure of it, or he would surely be Blood Ember’s next victim.
No amount of cleverness or luck would save him then.
Chapter twenty-one
Tobias
As the eldest of five, Tobias had plenty of experience telling people what to do. He also had plenty of experience being ignored, especially when his sisters joined forces and staged full-scale rebellions. Which was exactly how tonight felt: him, trying to lead a handful of Crimson soldiers who clearly believed he was the most useless officer in the entire military. Young officers like Tobias already faced some amount of quiet skepticism from older, yet lower-ranking enlisted soldiers but this was far more extreme than anything he’d faced before.
The Crimsons snickered at his questions, mimicked his accent with barely concealed smirks, and so far, had responded to his orders with a mix of casual indifference and theatrical boredom. They were older, sharper, and undeniably more experienced, buttechnically, as an officer, Tobias outranked them.
Not that anyone seemed inclined to notice.
Javen had made that point after Tobias balked at the concept of leading the squad.“You wish to be a leader,”Javen had said, still studying a map of the nearby woods.“So seize this opportunity to prove you can be one. Find Miss Ankmetta and return her to this building.”
So far, Tobias was pretty sure he’d only seized the opportunity to look like a fool. The three Crimsons, Drace, Erik, and Jones, were currently smoking and discussing the failed search. Meanwhile, Tobias tried not to dwell onthe question gnawing at him. Why would Zari betray her own nation? He couldn’t reconcile it. No matter what the others claimed, he couldn’t picture her with a sword in her hand, let alone turning it on a soldier. The image simply wouldn’t take shape in his mind; it slid away, replaced by the memory of her calm voice as she’d taken care of him and the other wounded men.
Still, he couldn’t shake a strange feeling he was missing something, some clue, or perhaps some memory, or a memory of a dream. It nagged at the edge of his mind, a faint whisper that he was forgetting something. He clenched his fists, trying hard to tease out whatever had slipped away, and all that came to him was the flash of a pretty face and a beautiful smile, both belonging to a woman who was an utter stranger to him.
As soon as the image appeared, it vanished again in a flurry of pink dancing lights.
Tobias sighed and returned to the map. Currently, they were in the center of the town, close to Zari’s last-observed location.
Zari was practical and intelligent, a woman like her wouldn’t bolt into the woods without a plan. Scanning the map, Tobias noticed the largest parcel of land, labeledThe Lockwood Hunting Lodge.
An idea formed, based on what he knew about Zari’s father, General Ankmetta. He’d read a biography on the general while he’d been at the academy, which had detailed Ankmetta’s lifelong friendship with Commander Lockwood. The two men had gone to school together, lived near each other, and had been the two key leaders in the last years of the war.
Would Zari have ever visited the lodge here in Wesburg?
It was worth investigating. Tobias signaled for the others to follow as he headed for the lodge. The dark building looked abandoned, except, in the faint moonlight, he thought he could see a faint trail through fallen leaves. “We should search here.”
Drace shook his head. “I doubt she’d climb that fence.”
Tobias wasn’t so sure. “If I can climb it, so can she.”
“But she’s a girl,” Erik, a gray-haired, wiry man, scoffed. “A useless thing in skirts, run off with a fae blade.”
Already halfway up the gate, Tobias laughed. “You don’t have sisters, do you?”
Tobias dropped to the other side, his boots hitting hard on spongy soil. He grinned when he spotted a set of footprints, indentions clear in the long grass. The feet in question were small and delicate. Zari’s, for sure.
He saw no other signs of life, nor footprints beside her own.
The other Crimsons clambered over the fence and began theatrically inspecting the tracks. Tobias bit his tongue, trying not to grin, and savored the quiet satisfaction of being right. Jones pulled out his radio to relay the find back to headquarters. Tobias held his breath, hoping Javen would be the one to respond, that his captain would finally see he’d done something worthwhile. The radio crackled with nothing but silence.
