The Last Namsara (Iskari #1)(55)

“She’s here,” Jarek’s voice rang out.

Torwin went rigid. Asha’s arms tightened around him.

“See the lantern? She’s hiding somewhere. Get me some kindling.”

“Yes, commandant.” The sound of booted footsteps echoed off the walls.

“If she wants to play with fire,” muttered Jarek, “I’ll beat her at her own game.”

He’s going to smoke us out, Asha realized.

She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t let Torwin get caught. If Jarek found him, he was as good as dead. Maybe worse than dead.

There was only one way out of this.

Breaking Torwin’s grip on her, Asha pushed herself up onto her toes and whispered against his cheek, “I’ll come for you at nightfall. Be ready to fly.”

Before he could stop her, she took a deep breath and stepped out of the fissure, into the light of Jarek’s torch.





Twenty-Six


Cool air rushed against her skin, its chill replacing Torwin’s warmth. Jarek stood at the entrance to the caves, his back to her, as if afraid to set foot inside.

“Your thief is right here,” she said.

Jarek spun. His eyes narrowed as he took in her mantle, her unbraided hair.

“You’ve committed a crime against the king,” he said. “Against your own father. Why?”

Footsteps echoed through the caves. They belonged to one of his soldats, carrying a bundle of kindling in both arms. The soldat stopped, staring into the inner sanctum. “The sacred flame,” he whispered, eyes widening.

Jarek’s eyes sliced into Asha, waiting for the answer to his question. When she didn’t supply it, he grabbed her arm and marched her through the narrow crypt passages, toward the vaulted stairway that led up into the temple.

Asha didn’t fight him. The sooner he dragged her out of here, the sooner Torwin could get to the tunnel and escape.

Jarek searched her for weapons and found none, so he took her mantle instead. In the archway of the throne room, his fingers yanked at the tassels around her throat. He stripped it off her and threw Asha to the cold stone floor before the pedestal holding the empty basin.

The floor connected with her knees and she bit down an angry cry.

“What is this?” Her father’s slippered footsteps echoed softly through the room.

“Here’s your thief,” said Jarek.

Her father stood over her. She didn’t raise her eyes from his finely stitched slippers protruding beneath the golden hem of his robe.

“Asha? Surely there’s been some mistake. Asha, get up.”

She didn’t. How could she face him? She kept her forehead pressed into the tile work.

“I found her beneath the temple, and the sacred flame in the inner cave.”

“Impossible.”

She imagined Jarek shaking his head.

“One of my soldats saw her take it, my lord.”

She imagined the look dawning on her father’s face.

“Asha? Can you explain this?”

She tried to imagine herself through her father’s eyes. When he’d first proposed his deal, she was the fiercest of dragon hunters, willing to do anything to get out of her binding. Now? If her father knew just how deep his oldest enemy’s claws were in his daughter, what would he do? Would he realize she was beyond saving? Would he cast her away? Find someone else to kill Kozu?

“Tell me why you did this, Asha.”

Her voice shook “I—I’m sorry. . . .”

“I don’t want an apology!” His voice boomed, echoing through the throne room, empty save him, his commandant, and a handful of soldats. “I want your answer.”

She swallowed, staring hard at the blue and green tiles beneath her hands. She needed to be careful what she said. Jarek couldn’t know about her deal with her father. And her father couldn’t know about the Old One’s commands.

“I did it for . . . my hunt.” She glanced at Jarek, whose arms were crossed hard over his chest. “This particular dragon is . . . more evasive than the rest. I needed something to bait him.”

“So you stole the flame?”

“This dragon cannot resist it.”

Liar, she thought, then dared a glance upward. Her father’s face darkened as their eyes met.

“Please,” she whispered. “I need you to trust me.”

His gaze softened at those words.

“My king,” interrupted Jarek as he stepped forward. “You can’t allow her to escape punishment just because she’s your daughter. It sets a precedent. Do you want to be remembered as the kind of king who upholds the law only when it suits him?”

Silence echoed in the throne room as the dragon king looked from his Iskari to his commandant.

“Have I not done everything you’ve ever asked of me, my king? Have I not defended your walls? Put down your revolts? Kept your secrets?”

At this last question, the dragon king’s face darkened like the sky before a storm. Asha wondered what kind of secrets her father entrusted Jarek with. The thought made her jealous. They must have been large ones. Ones strong enough to make him buckle under pressure, because that’s exactly what he did.

“What are you asking me for?” said the dragon king, looking back to his daughter kneeling at his feet.