Page 47 of The Kingdom's Reckoning
Graeson tensed. Slowly, he peered through his hair. A small group of people stared back, their faces drained of color. Their expressions varied from horror to fear to disgust.
Graeson pushed himself into a crouch and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "You would throw up too if you barreled through the sky."
One man held out a dagger, his hand trembling. "Stay back."
The god chuckled. Graesonalmost did too until he scanned the group. His attention fell to a little girl holding her father’s leg. Her small blue eyes darted between Graeson and Nyrri, whose growl was a low hum as the drakonis crouched into a defensive position.
Graeson pushed to his feet despite his body’s protest and held up his hands. "I do not wish any of you harm."
The man with the dagger took a step forward, signaling for the others to move behind him. "I said, stay back!"
Freezing, Graeson eyed the strangers. Their clothes were covered in soot, and ash was smeared across their faces and necks. He sniffed and smelled a faint trace of smoke wafting from them.
"What happened?" he demanded, fear spiking through him. Kallie had to have gone this way. Was she hurt?
"Are—are you one of them?" the girl’s father asked.
"One ofwho?" Graeson asked, confused.
"Don’t play dumb!" the man wielding the weapon shouted.
"Whoever you think I am, you are gravely mistaken," Graeson said.
Inside, the god snarled. Graeson did his best to keep him contained, but he was exhausted, his energy depleted from the long day of traveling. The Borganian border was only a few more hours away, and he wanted to reach it before nightfall. With every minute that passed, the sun sank lower and lower. Shadows were already spreading across the terrain. While Nyrri didn’t have a problem seeing in the dark, Graeson would have a hard time identifying anyone through the trees. Their window of opportunity was closing in, and both of them knew it.
"Who attacked you?" Graeson asked when no one moved.
"Like you don’t know," the man spat.
Another member of the group stepped forward. "They wore the Frenzian crest," an older woman said. "They came from the skies."
"Theskies?" Graeson asked, unsure if he had heard her correctly.
The woman nodded. "Some of them looked like the same species as…" She eyed Nyrri, whose lips pulled back into a snarl. "So you can see our hesitation to believe you."
Graeson’s entire body went rigid. The war had begun. Had they found Kalisandre? Had she already tried to?—
"Jewels!"
Graeson’s attention snapped to the little girl who stumbled forward. The father tried to grab her by the wrist, but she slipped from his grasp.
The girl, Jewels, cocked her head at Graeson, eyes wide and unblinking. "You won’t save her."
Graeson’s heart skipped a beat at the girl’s words. Even the god was on high alert. "W-who?"
She blinked up at him, and the hue of her eyes brightened, melting into the same shade as the sky. Goosebumps ran down Graeson’s neck as she stared at him.
"The one you’re after. You won’t save her," she said.
Graeson’s gaze snapped to the father. "What is she talking about?"
"I-I don’t know," the father said, snatching Jewels from the ground and eyeing those around him. "Sometimes she says things she doesn’t mean."
Graeson’s brows drew together as his attention flicked from the man to his daughter. A strange thought popped into his head.
It wasn’t possible. She couldn’t be a seer. Unless…
"She’s just a child," the father pleaded as he cradled his daughter in his arms. Tucking her head against his chest, he whispered something into her ear. But Jewels continued to stare at Graeson, sadness curling her brows inward.
