Page 17 of Unrivaled
But all I could hear was my father’s staccato steps approaching.His pace never altered.Not until he stopped at my door.
Thomas was gone.Isolde was at my shoulder, peering around my arm, her brow furrowed.
I forced myself to look.
“Chay.”He’d worn that crest on his shield only months ago.Relief rushed through me.“Chay, it’s from Raider’s Ban.”
He was already beside me, crowding close, craning his head.“What news?”
Isolde made a bored noise, set down her drink, and vanished.
My fingers were graceless.My mind was more so.I hadn’t been able to make out the meaning yet, but… “It’s signed by Darrius.”He’d be so relieved.
Had he heard Darrius’ bootheels and felt safety?
“He’s alive.”His head fell to my shoulder.“He’s alive.Or he was, when this was sent.”
I glanced at the date at the top, shaking my head.“It’s post-plague,” I told him, trying to skim the information.It crowded in my head like traffic trying to pass through the market.I dropped my hands and let the scroll flop against my thighs, resting my forehead against his for a moment.
How isolated had I felt until now?
The entire world could’ve been dead.They could’ve been, but they weren’t.
I blew out a long breath and tried to gather my thoughts, lifting the note again and taking my time on each word, letting the information soak in.One person and one cart at a time—that’s how you eased market traffic.
“He’s writing to everyone,” I told Chay, knowing he’d been waiting in terror for news about the family of his heart.“It’s an official letter enquiring after our safety.He names you.”
He pressed a kiss to my shoulder.It felt like a plea for closeness, but in that moment I needed to let my eyes finish their journey over the hand-written letter.“He wrote it himself,” I realized.“This isn’t an Inker’s work.”
“Kadan?”Chay asked, the word rough.
I shook my head, re-focusing on the scant information.Reports indicate the population to the south-east has suffered the heaviest losses…I skimmed from point to point, feeling my heart rate pick up again and the world blur before I forced myself to slow, to breathe.My hands trembled.Kadan wasn’t my friend, and there were no steps outside the door, but my hands were shaking.…didn’t reach beyond the Yeehruhung River.Deaths within Raider’s Ban to the plague are nonexistent.
“He says no one in ’Ban got sick,” I offered.
I heard him release the breath he’d imprisoned and felt him pull away.His hand went to his mouth as he paced away from me.
My head spun at the ramifications of that news.“Where’s the Yeehruhung River?”
Chay glanced over, eyes overbright.“South of Raider’s Ban.About a seven-day ride, six on the road.Why?”
“He says the plague didn’t pass the river.”
He looked at me as if he couldn’t quite make sense of the words.My belly twisted.I’d written to Yasmine more times than I wanted to count.I’d even sent some of those missives.I’d got naught back.
Ignoring that wound was easier than acknowledging it.
I offered him the parchment so he could get his own proof, but he shook his head, laughing a little, and waved at his eyes.“I can’t read this script, Embers.Whitehoof.”He scrubbed his face.“They’re alive.They’re alive anduntouched.”
And they had wheat.I looked down at the parchment in my hands and thought of the people I’d need to inform of this news.They’d had some losses, he’d said, in the south-east.A few dozen.That was it.That was the extent.
Dozens.
I’d seen more than dozens ofcartsroll out of this city laden with our dead.
The rush of envy and anger took me off-guard.From Darrius I got an update.From my father?
A threat.
