Page 69 of The Eye of the Fifth
The bolt clanged on the other side of the thick iron door and it opened, light spilling through and eradicating the black shadows. A woman stepped in, face hidden under a hood. She held a flaming torch in one hand, closing the door behind her with the other.
The torch was hung on a bracket on the wall, then she moved toward him. She pulled the gag from his mouth. ‘Hello, Gedeon.’
He knew that voice.
Sunsi stepped back, folding her arms across her chest. ‘I should have known they would react badly. You won’t find many friends down here,’ she said, pulling her hood back and revealing her usual long auburn braid resting limp over her shoulder.
‘I suppose it will be like normal, then,’ Gedeon said blandly. ‘I never did have many friends.’
‘That fledgling girl would disagree. Apparently she’s been threatening to break the door down and release you herself for the past two days,’ Sunsi said drily.
At least someone remained loyal to him. ‘Is she alright?’
‘Aside from being furious at your imprisonment? Yes. She is very well.’ Sunsi pursed her lips. ‘Why didn’t you do it?’
‘You are asking me why I refused to kill a child?’
‘I’m asking why you refused to killthatchild,’ Sunsi said bluntly. ‘I am asking why you did not burn the air city and its people like you were told to. I am asking why you ran from the Throne Room, instead of staying by your mother’s side. You have given up everything. Why?’
You have a great deal of honour in your heart. You must decide who it belongs to: the prince of Zarynth, or the Warden of Fire.
Gedeon blinked away Tanwen’s words once more. ‘I don’t know,’ he said, and the truth of it twisted his gut.
‘Bullshit,’ she said harshly. ‘The whole city is on alert looking for you. There is a bounty for your capture; a hundred gold coins to the man or woman that brings you in alive.’
‘Alive,’ Gedeon repeated. ‘Why alive?’
‘Does it matter?’
He looked at her for a moment, then said with perfect composure, ‘So, thiswasa trick? I trust you with my life and you pick up the reward? I’ll admit… I thought I meant a little more to you than that.’
Sunsi gave a tight smile. ‘You don’t know me at all, Gedeon.’
They stared at each other, and it was as though all intimacy between them had never existed. Outside of those black walls, away from the silky sheets of his bedchamber, she was a stranger. Someone he was beginning to realise he had never truly seen.
‘Where am I?’ Gedeon said, shifting a little.
‘Haven’t you realised what this place is by now?’
‘I have a hunch.’
Those hazel eyes bore into his as she bit the inside of her lip, as though deciding something. She crouched before him. ‘I took a gamble in allowing you to come down here. When you refused to killAmala, you proved that you are not the male that everyone believes you to be.’
‘I refused to kill a child. I proved nothing.’
‘And was it worth it?’
He held her too-knowing glare. ‘That remains to be seen. Am I to stay bound and confined to this room for the rest of my life? We fae have long lives- I fear it will be a rather miserable existence.’
‘That also remains to be seen,’ Sunsi clipped back, but then her expression softened with sadness. Earnest, almost. ‘Those that dwell down here are good people, Gedeon.Yourpeople. They hide underground because it is safer than living up there under the Empress’ rule. I need to know that my trust in you is not misplaced.’
‘What are you asking of me, exactly?’ probed Gedeon, though he had a growing suspicion he already knew the answer.
‘Are you hungry?’
That certainly had not been the response he expected. Hunger had not bothered him at all these past two days, but even as the thought arose, his stomach, empty and suddenly awake, growled expectantly. ‘I could eat,’ he admitted.
Sunsi whipped a dagger from her hip and sliced the rope from his wrists. Severed, it fell to the ground. He flexed his fingers, feeling some of his replenished magic respond with a comforting tingle, though he made no move to wield it.
