Page 43 of Skyshade
“That was quite the display.”
Isla stopped brushing Lynx’s fur to find Astria standing behind her, posture straight as ever, donning those curved crossed swords on her chest.
“Thank you,” Isla said. “I was sick afterward, but it’s the show that counts, right?”
Astria made a huffing sound that almost resembled a laugh. Then she frowned. “Tynan had it coming. For someone ordered to wear gauntlets all the time, he found plenty of excuses to go without them.” Isla felt a rush of joy at having been the one to end them. It didn’t seemlike the first time he had ventured into a room at midnight and made a person a prisoner in their own skin.
Grim’s general reached a hand toward Lynx, and Isla opened her mouth, ready to warn Astria that Lynx had developed a reputation for biting Nightshades.
But, to her surprise, her bonded allowed Astria to touch him. He only started to growl when she got too close to his ears.
“So,” Isla said, looking the woman up and down, trying to find some similarity. “How long have you known?”
Astria’s hands absentmindedly drummed her swords’ hilts. “That you’re my blood? Grim told me right before you were married.” She frowned. “Right after I suggested you might be a spy and he should consider putting your head on a pike.”
“Nice,” Isla said, knowing how lucky Astria was to have escaped that conversation with her life. She began brushing Lynx’s fur again. “And the fact that we’re related changed your mind?”
“No,” she said, considering her. “It isn’t ever too late for Grim to take my advice.”
Isla looked over her shoulder at her. “And it isn’t too late for Grim to get a new general. I hear the position runs in the family.”
Astria smiled. Then laughed a little.
Isla smiled too.
She bent down to clean between Lynx’s pads. He made a peeved sound and tugged his foot back. She glared up at him. “Do you really want another rock incident?” she asked him. There had been a stone lodged in there for a week, and it had gotten infected. For as tough and ancient as Lynx was, he had been awfully dramatic during the days of resting his foot.
He begrudgingly lifted his leg, and Isla spotted a pine needle lodged right between two of his pads. She shook her head, and tried to pull it out, but it was stuck. Lynx growled.
“Here,” Astria said, bending down low. She pulled it out quickly, and the leopard roared. Then he glared at Astria, who took a few steps back. She watched Isla work until she was done, and then said, “I looked for him, you know.”
Him. By the intensity of her tone, Isla knew exactly who she was talking about. Isla slowly rose to face her cousin.
She remembered what the augur had said: When you learn the truth of who you are...your path will become clear.
She was desperate for any detail about her parents. She wanted to know them, even through the eyes of others.
“I searched the newlands with the ruler, just in case there was a chance he was alive. Then...when too much time had passed...I grieved him.” Her nostrils flared. “He was like a brother to me, and I don’t understand his choice. I don’t know why he chose her.”
Her mother.
Lynx growled low.
“He wasn’t...an emotional person,” she continued, eyes studying her bonded. “I can count on a hand the number of times I ever even saw him smile. He wasn’t cruel, no...but serious. About his duty. About serving his realm.” She frowned. “Now that I know he didn’t die, that he left...I can’t respect his decision. I can’t respect what he did.”
Isla understood. Even though she was talking about her father, and not in the greatest light, Isla appreciated that Astria was even talking to her at all, let alone telling her something so personal.
Isla knew what it was like to choose her heart over duty. If that was what her father had done, she couldn’t judge him. But things were more complicated than that.
Her father and Grim had searched for the sword that controlled the dreks together. Her father had found it.
“He stole the sword, to keep it away from Grim. He must have believed Nightshade was better off without it.”
He must have believed Grim would use it to overtake Lightlark. He must have been trying to save the island, the same way she was now.
Astria shook her head. “Even if that’s true, that wasn’t his call to make. We serve our rulers. Their word is law. We are their sword. He knew that.”
Isla didn’t know what to think. She just wished that she had known her parents. How different her life would have been, if they had survived...
