Blood Oath (The Darkest Drae Book 1)(15)

Lungs burning, I crouched in the darkest shadows of the rich housing by the fountain garden, sucking in long gasps of air. Where was it best to hide? The fields? Lord Irrik would find me if he flew overhead. Nothing could hide from the black-winged beast in the open.

I froze.

Lord Irrik.

Without conscious thought, my head spun to face back the way I’d come. I’d left my mother with the most ruthless and cruel of the king’s lapdogs. My blank gaze blindly searched the barren square, thoughts running rampant. As I did so, the light from the twin moons caught at something.

The welded flower on the side of the fountain.

The one my mother had taken me to see most days of my childhood. It was our flower.

Gut-wrenching horror clenched my stomach. I gasped. I’d left my mother all alone with a Drae while soldiers were going door-to-door searching for me.

I let my pack fall to the cobblestones and stared at the welded flower, the dark night’s heat swirling around me. My skin prickled in chills as anxiety stabbed me in a thousand different places. What had I done?

I abandoned all pretense of hiding, taking the most direct route back to my window and to the woman who had raised me.

There was still time to help her. There had to be time.

I pushed through the stalks of maize and climbed to just beneath my windowsill, pressing myself against the warm stone wall, and listened before entering. If the soldiers already had her, I’d need to formulate another plan to save her from the king’s dungeons. I’d be useless to her if we both got caught.

Hysteria rose in my throat, and I pulled myself back from the brink by my fingertips.

“How can that be? What you’re saying is impossible.” The rumble of Lord Irrik’s voice carried out to me. “That would mean—”

“It’s why he must never know. You need to protect her. You must swear to me. If there was any other way, don’t you think I would take it? If you take me to the king, he will find out.” My mother’s voice was choked and filled with tears. Before tonight, I’d never ever seen her cry, aside from peeling onions.

“I didn’t know,” Irrik said quietly.

He’d followed several of us home after The Crane’s Nest.

He’d assigned the soldiers to tail each of us.

Even if he’d changed his mind about having me followed for whatever shocked him so much about Mum and me, he’d started this whole thing.

Whatever was happening now, fault rested with him.

I stood to go inside but returned to my crouch at Mum’s next words.

“Promise me you’ll keep her safe,” my mother said in a rising voice.

He said nothing, and I was left to wonder if he had nodded or not.

Mum spoke again. “You must do it now.” A moment of silence passed, and then she continued, “This has Phaetyn blood on it. It’s the only way.”

“How do you even have this?” Lord Irrik said, breaking his silence. He sounded flustered for the first time. “I can’t do what you’re asking of me. You know I can’t.”

“Yes, forgive me. I’m not thinking . . .” Mum trailed off. After another beat of silence, she said, “Your soldiers will not stop hunting until they have a head for the king. You tell him I was alone, that I was the one the soldiers were meant to follow. You promise me you’ll look after my baby.”

Their words made little sense to me, with the exception of the phrase, “head for the king.”

I remembered her tears before I’d left, her nonsensical mutterings, and finally, finally my mind deciphered what they’d meant.

Goodbye.

Someone hammered on our front door. Several someones shouted. But these realizations came to me as though from a great distance.

She’d lied to me. When she’d pushed me to leave, there had been no intentions or expectations of her seeing me again. The realization was like a punch to the gut, and my mind refused to believe what my instincts told me was happening. Until I heard her gasp. There was something about the sound…as soon as I heard it, I knew.

Lord Irrik swore, and I pulled myself over the ledge in time to see Mum crumple to the floor, the hilt of a golden dagger protruding from her chest.

I screamed.

My mother’s eyes widened as she saw me. Her hands uselessly grasped at the hilt buried too deep for her to pull out. Her mouth opened and closed, her words lost in the space between us. Lord Irrik pushed me toward the window, yelling something, but I pushed back, the same fire crawling up my hands as our skin touched. I had to see my mother, and I screeched at him.

“Leave, foolish girl,” he hissed, picking me up and flinging me toward the window. “She sacrificed herself so you could get away.”

I crashed into the wall, my right side missing the window by only a hair’s breadth. The air rushed from my chest, and pain exploded from my shoulder and hip from the impact. My mind couldn’t process the chaos surrounding me, and I sat dazed where I’d landed, loud footsteps pounding closer.

Irrik crossed the floor in a single stride and picked me up once more. He stared down at me in disgust and strode to the window— —just as several soldiers crashed into my bedroom.





7





“Lord Irrik,” exclaimed a burly soldier from the open doorway. The soldier wore an aketon similar to Lord Irrik’s, but the material was loose and the color navy. Above his left shoulder were twists of gold, a symbol of rank in the king’s guard. He held his blade out, as if he’d anticipated a fight, but upon seeing Irrik he allowed the tip to drop to the floor, and his snarling expression smoothed.