Master of Iron (Bladesmith #2)(25)

“I don’t have one yet.”

“And your plan for escape?”

I shoot her a glare. I can’t find it within myself to look innocent or surprised or anything else. “If I had one, I’m not about to tell Ravis’s lackey about it, now, am I?”

Elany twirls a lock of her golden hair around one finger. “That’s fair.” She pauses. “I know it doesn’t help, but I want you to know that I don’t approve of the way you’re being treated. We need a united Ghadra, but this isn’t the way to go about it. You can’t force loyalty. It’s something that can only be earned.”

I wipe the sweat from my brow with the back of my arm. “A united Ghadra doesn’t do anything except create more problems at this point. And if my current situation is any indication of how Ravis intends to lead a united Ghadra, then I have no hope for the future. Just look at Kellyn.”

Elany doesn’t say anything for a moment, and I focus on my swings, turning the metal just so.

“I cared about someone once,” she says at last. “The way you care about your mercenary.”

I don’t stop my hammering or correct her assumption about Kellyn and me. Maybe once we were close like that. Now I don’t have a name for what Kellyn and I are.

“Raiders from the west sailed across the sea and ransacked my village in Orena’s Territory. They butchered my Verryn right in front of me.”

“I’m sorry,” I say quietly.

“No one has done anything about it. Princess Orena isn’t about to stage a war against the western isles, nor demand justice from the individuals who attacked. She doesn’t have the manpower or the inclination. She’s too busy trying to figure out how to rule.

“Don’t you see?” she continues. “We have to be united. None of the other royals were meant to rule. We must have a united army. A force who can stand up for the people and make sure that all are looked after.”

At that, I pause in my hammering. “Who’s looking out for me right now, Elany? Who’s looking out for Kellyn?”

“I am, dammit!” she says. “I’m helping you however I can. But you need to do this for Ravis. For all the people who are being neglected.”

We stare at each other. Neither willing to back down.

“It isn’t right what happened to your village,” I say. “Your princess should do better, but this”—I gesture to all the work going on in the forges—“it isn’t right, either.”

“This is all I have left,” she says.

“And you’re trying to help destroy all that I have left.”

Elany turns away, puts distance between the two of us.

And I continue hammering.





CHAPTER EIGHT


The next batch of weapons takes a little longer.

Along with the swords, Ravis demands spears and war hammers for some of the higher-ranking members of his army who have requested specific weapons suited to their tastes. Though it shouldn’t, the variety brightens my mood.

When it comes time to magic the weapons, I still don’t have a plan for escape. I do, however, have thoughts on the magic. Ravis said to do better, and I’ve decided the best strategy here is defensive magic. I can’t bear to create anything that will make killing easier for the army bent on world domination.

But if I made Ravis’s men a little harder to kill?

That’s better, isn’t it? In a way, I’m protecting.

Even if I’m protecting the wrong people.

I take the swords one by one and think about what I want them to do. Once again, my thoughts turn to my sister. She’s not like me at all. She’s strong and smart, and if anything bad happens to her, she bounces right back from it.

I remember when the governor’s son made her a social outcast at their school. How he bullied her and got her friends to turn on her. She was upset at first, of course, but afterward, she became as determined as ever to live her life as she saw fit.

When the glow of the memory fades, I feel the magic heating my fingers from where I touch the metal. I turn to Elany and gesture for her to take the weapon, extending it to her by the blade. She grips the hilt and waits for instructions.

I don’t give her any. Instead, I grab an unmagicked sword and swing at her, knocking the weapon from her fingers. Elany jumps backward, as though afraid I’ll run her through now that she’s weaponless and I’m not. The guards at the sides of the forge jump forward.

But the moment her sword hits the ground, the hilt flies back into her hand, even though she’d stepped away from where she’d dropped it. The guards freeze, and Elany stares at the sword as though confused by where it came from.

I smack the weapon from her fingers a second time, and the blade does the same thing. Hits the ground, bounces back into her waiting fingers.

I don’t wait for a response from anyone before I proceed to magic the next sword. And the next. And the next. Elany mumbles to some guard behind me, but I try to put everything from my mind. I can’t work if I’m stressing about all the people around. It’s just me and the sword, me and the next sword.

Kellyn shifts somewhere out of the corner of my vision, and I’m astounded that I can still be so aware of him when my focus is somewhere else.

To mix things up, I reach for one of the war hammers, hold its mighty weight in my hands, and think on what I want the heated steel to do.