Unhewn Throne 01 - The Emperor's Blades(87)

He knew he ought to be thankful about his own injury. The arrow was a through-shot, missing all the main arteries and organs, missing his lung by the space of a finger. The medics had gotten to the wound quickly enough to clean it out with some sort of fluid that burned like acid, but that seemed to have stopped any infection. With a little bit of rest, Ren said, he’d make a full recovery. That kind of luck didn’t come around too often, and a soldier was supposed to appreciate it when it did, but Valyn was in no mood to be appreciative. Once he got past his immediate concern for Ha Lin, the reality landed on him like a stone: Annick had shot him, had drawn a bow in broad daylight in front of two trainers and put an arrow through his chest.

When Ren came in with a bowl of broth, Valyn beckoned him over. His voice was too weak to do much more than whisper, but the words came out harsh and hard.

“Did they get her?”

“Get her?” Ren replied, setting the bowl on the bedside table. “Get who?”

“Annick!” he rasped. “The girl who f*cking shot me!”

The medic shrugged. “Didn’t take much getting. She seemed as surprised as anyone else that the arrow wasn’t a stunner.”

Valyn stared. “How could she be surprised? She’s the one who shot it! She shot three of them!”

“But only the one that hit you had a chisel point. The other two were stunners.”

“No,” Valyn said, shaking his head at the memory of the arrow scudding through the dirt beside him. Seeing the point on the second arrow was what started him running in the first place. “No. At least two had live heads.”

“You can tell it to Rallen,” Ren replied with a shrug. “The Master of Cadets is holding an inquiry. Looks like she’s going to be nailed for combat negligence. There’ll be a review of her conduct, and she’ll be suspended right up until Hull’s Trial.”

The words hit Valyn like a hammer.

“Combat negligence,” he managed. “And in the meantime, she’s walking around free?”

“Where d’you want her to be?”

Valyn’s mouth hung open. “How did she explain the fact that she had even one live head in a training contest?”

“Said something happened to the head. Said the arrow that hit you was supposed to be a stunner, but that she must have got it wrong somehow.”

“I’ll say something happened to the ’Kent-kissing head,” Valyn erupted. He tried to sit up, but pain blazed through his wound and he subsided weakly on the cot, exhaling between clenched teeth. “What happened to the head is that she switched a stunner for a razor.”

“Look,” Ren said, wagging the spoon at him. “I don’t know all the details, but we’re on the Islands. You’re with the Kettral. This isn’t a sewing circle. Give men and women bows and swords and tell them to start leaping off birds and blowing things up, and every so often someone catches an unhealthy bit of sharp steel somewhere it doesn’t belong. I’ve been here a while and I’ve seen it before. A stunner and a chisel don’t look all that different, especially when you’re in the middle of a fight.”

“And Rallen is buying this?” Valyn asked, amazed into something like acceptance.

“Rallen’s seen it before, too. It’s a training accident. Not worth sacrificing the best sniper in the class for.”

Valyn shook his head, unable to respond.

Ren clapped him on the shoulder with a hard, callused hand. “Look, kid. I know how it feels. You took an arrow through the chest. You’re angry. But there’s such a thing as plain old shit luck. You may be the son of the Emperor, but not everything’s a plot against you.”

The medic stumped out the door, leaving Valyn with those words spinning in his head. Not everything’s a plot against you. It was tempting to believe that, to believe that the whole thing was just a horrible mistake with a surprisingly fortunate outcome, but there was the Aedolian to consider. The ship was coming to take him away from the Islands. To keep him safe. According to the murdered man, anyone could be involved in the plot, anyone at all.

*

Annick came just before the evening meal. Valyn was staring out the window, trying to decide if the boat in the middle distance was an imperial sloop or a trading vessel when the door swung open soundlessly. He looked over to find the sniper standing still and silent in the doorway, the ever-present bow in her hand. He realized, with a twist of fear, that it was strung.