The Storm Crow (The Storm Crow, #1)(47)
I grinned, quickly filling her in on my run-in with the boy in the Colorfalls. Whoever he’d been, he hadn’t run into me by accident.
“We have to go see him tomorrow,” I said.
“Will Razel let you out of the castle?” Kiva asked. “And what in the Saints’ name happened earlier?”
I gritted my teeth at the mention of the queen but told Kiva everything.
“Zyuka!” she snarled, throwing her hands down onto the table before her. From my spot where I’d dropped onto the couch facing her, I let out a low whistle. Kiva rarely spoke Korovi.
“Agreed,” I replied, though I didn’t know what the word meant. “I should have expected it. Besides, I’m supposed to be keeping my head down, and challenging her wasn’t the best way to do that.”
“She sent your guards home! She’s trying to isolate you and make you easier to control.”
Was this why she hadn’t set the wedding date? She wanted to break me first? Caliza had said Razel didn’t make threats, but clearly, something had changed. She’d looked unhinged. “She’ll come after you next. It’s probably why she let you stay.”
Kiva snorted. “I’d like to see her try.”
Her confidence ate away at the anxiety inside me. “I won’t sit here like a pawn for her use. I’ll convince her to let me go.” I spread the paper out between us, pointing at the title. “I think this advertisement is real. It could be a good cover for coming and going from the castle.”
Kiva leaned closer. “A lab assistant?”
I nodded. “More than that, he might be able to help us hatch the egg.” She looked up at me, her lips already parting to tell me it was a foolish idea. I hurried on. “No one knows how, and the information’s not in any book I could find. So I need someone who can figure it out on their own.”
“You want to experiment on it?”
“It’s either that or do nothing.”
She frowned. “And what? Hope he doesn’t ask what this egg-shaped thing is doing with this very Rhodairen-looking girl? You can’t trust him.”
I spun the paper so the writing faced me. “First, he’s Ambriellan, so I don’t think he’ll be looking to turn me over first chance, particularly if he’s a rebel. And second, I’m not planning on bringing him the egg. But a few theoretical questions won’t hurt.”
Kiva leaned back, folding her arms. “I don’t like it, but I don’t have another idea.”
I smirked, scanning through the flyer again. At the bottom, written in almost illegible handwriting, was the address and his name: Caylus Zander.
Fifteen
It felt good to have a plan again, as difficult as it would be to enact. It relied on me playing a part I wasn’t sure I could. Razel wanted to control me, to break me, and like a desert snake with its prey, the more I riled against her, the more she’d constrict. So I had to stop reacting, stop challenging her, and instead play the demure, compliant little princess she wanted.
It started with asking for permission to leave the castle.
After my morning check on the egg, I sent a note to Razel asking to take a trip into the city, then left with Kiva for the training grounds, where we found a small space far away from Illucian soldiers to train. It felt like walking into a den of wolves. The force of their glares was palpable, as if each one of them were imagining the feel of their blade piercing my flesh.
Their treatment of one another wasn’t much better. All around us, they bested one another viciously in the sparring rings or at swordplay, leaving their opponents bleeding in the dust. There was no camaraderie here, no love or respect. Just sharp blades and the smack of bone against flesh.
My focus waned as Kiva and I stretched. I kept catching groups of soldiers looking at us, then quickly away, their laughter echoing across the foggy grounds. News of my encounter with Razel last night must have spread.
“Ignore them,” Kiva said.
I tried. I really did. But when one soldier imitated me cowering in fear to the snickers of her cohorts, I snatched up my bow, seized a dulled practice arrow, and nocked it. In one smooth movement, I turned, drew, and loosed. The arrow struck the practice dummy they were standing around between the eyes.
They stopped laughing.
Kiva grinned. “I forgot how good you were with that thing.”
Satisfaction warmed my blood, but as I turned the gold-veined black bow over in my hand, thoughts of Estrel crept in, and the feeling faded. How many hours had she spent teaching me to shoot with this bow?
The smile vanished from Kiva’s face, and I spun about to find Razel striding toward us, Shearen and another Vykryn her ever-present shadows. My skin instantly grew hot, my heart beating erratically.
Breathe. I drew a deep breath, holding it until my lungs burned, then let it out silently as the queen halted before us.
“I received your request, Thia dear.” She held up my note between two fingers, her head tilted like a predator considering its prey. “After last night, I have to say I’m concerned for the safety of my citizens. You clearly possess an unhealthy amount of rage.” Her eyes slid from me to the arrow I’d driven between the dummy’s eyes. “What if you were to lose your temper and hurt someone?”
My eyes widened. I possessed an unhealthy amount of rage? I was a threat to her people? She’d practically tried to kill Ericen yesterday! I started to reply when something jabbed into my side. My gaze snapped down to the pommel of Kiva’s sword as she shifted it out of view.