Page 102 of Oathborn
A momentary emotion flickered on Javen’s face. “I told you to remain at camp.”
“And they insisted we scout for the others.”
Javen flung his cigarette to the ground. It lay smoldering in the fog-dampened grass. “They wanted to be heroes, so they died likefools!”
Never before had Tobias heard Javen shout with such fury. His hand hadn’t moved from the hilt of the blade.
Still, Tobias thought of the blonde fae’s desperate plea, her insistence that she wanted peace. Not only that, but her trust in Tobias, someone she’d barely met. He couldn’t give up. “Sir,” Tobias began. “This mission seems to be changing. First, we went in search of Miss Ankmetta, then, you heard news of… of Blood Ember,” he did his best to say the monster’s name without a quaver, “but now… what is it you and Lord Lockwood are planning?”
“You’re intelligent, aren’t you?” Javen asked, almost goading him. Sometimes his questions resembled the feints of a boxer, trying to draw out a reckless attack from an opponent. “What do you think is the plan?”
Tobias pulled his shoulders back, trying to remain unaffected by Javen’s words. It was never easy to do so, not when part of him so deeply wanted to be respected by the captain. That need warred with the reason Tobias had joined the military, that deep longing for peace. “Based on what I heard, it seems like Lord Lockwood is looking to strike back against the fae.”
He didn’t sayto break the Accords.Nor did he include Javen in the plan, because he still desperately wanted to believe Javen wouldn’t. That thought drove him to add, “Captain, if you know the fae so well, then surely… they can’t all be bad, right? I know the Oathborn are dangerous, but there must be innocents among the fae, just like there are innocent humans.”
Javen withdrew another cigarette and lit it. He closed his eyes, but still looked furious, not contemplative. “Is anyone innocent, in the end?” he mused. “She… she would have agreed with you. But she is gone and her hopes with her.”
She.The way Javen said the word carried such grief that Tobias knew, instinctively, who he must be referring to. “Your wife?” Tobias asked. “Was she a fae?”
Javen’s eyes opened, and he flicked a half-lidded glare at Tobias. “Does it matter what she was, when she is dead and the one who killed her still lives?”
A lump stuck in Tobias’s throat. “Blood Ember.” It made sense now, why Javen would drop any other mission in pursuit of that terror. “You want revenge against it, and so does Lockwood.”
Javen rewarded him with a small nod. “As for your other questions, I recommend not bothering yourself with such thoughts. They will do you no good.”
Finality rang like a bell in his words. The conversation, and Tobias’s attempt at delivering the fae’s message, was over.
Tobias mustered a salute. He was exhausted, confused, and disappointed in the captain, but still, he was trained to be a good soldier, and so he would be. “I have completed the mission as requested, sir. Permission to retire for the night?”
“Granted.”
As Tobias wheeled his bike away, he was distinctly aware of Javen staring out at something beyond the horizon. Something Tobias couldn’t see, nor did he think any mortal could.
Chapter thirty-nine
Tivre
Tivre had managed to avoid dealing with small children his entire life. The loud, chaotic little things never made much sense to him. Javenthal had gone to every naming day celebration, welcoming each and every new citizen of the isles. Tivre skipped them all, which gave him very little knowledge of anything around children.
So he felt woefully under-prepared, a rarity for him, in his planning of ways to keep Ashali safe. Miss Maye seemed genuine, so he decided he could trust her as much as Tivre trusted any mortal. Which was to say more than he trusted any fae.
Still. Ashali was Oathborn. The Queen would sense her magic, soon enough, and send another Oathborn to retrieve her. The child would then be shaped into yet another perfect little soldier for the Queen, like so many before her.
Closing his eyes, Tivre cast out his magic once more, searching for signs of other fae. He found them, soon enough, identified as bright pillars of sigil light of magic near the Divine Falls. He recognized the magical signature of the three Oathborn; Rosala, Cassam, and of course, Daeden. None of those would be any help. At worst, they’d bring the child back to the Queen themselves. Closer to Kirkton, though, that was Hazelle’s primrose-pink magic.
She was only a mile from here. What, in all the stars, was she doing?
Still. She was his best chance at alerting someone who would also oppose the Queen in matters of keeping an Oathborn safe. He shaped magic quickly,the sigils far easier now that they were this close to the isles, and when he was done, threw them in the air.
A small bird, made of glittering light, flapped its wings and took off, heading toward Hazelle. He could only hope she’d receive the message before the other Oathborn noticed the pull of Ashali’s magic.
The last precaution he took involved a walk back to Miss Maye’s townhouse. From outside, he sketched a row of sigils, weaving as much magic as he dared to keep her safe. It didn’t feel like enough.
All he could offer, once his magic hovered in the air, was a song. He set his violin to his shoulder, glad for the magic which had kept it safe on the long journey, and began to play. The notes would drift up to Ashali’s room, hopefully, and bring her a small amount of comfort.
Not from magic, but from the song itself, a simple, classic melody that every fae child was rocked to, on long nights when sleep did not come to them.
Sleep, sleep, for dawn is soon. Tomorrow, tomorrow, shine as brightly as the moon.
