Flamecaster (Shattered Realms #1)(125)

Ash shrugged. “I’m thinking it might be dead. It was heavily armored, but, still—to crash through the stone wall of a castle like that. It must have been badly injured. Maybe it hid away somewhere to die.” He paused. “Strange.”

“What’s strange?”

“Animals usually have more sense than that. It’s only humans that tend to bang their heads against a stone wall.”

“I wonder if we’ll ever find out why the empress was so eager to get hold of Jenna.”

“Sometimes I wonder if the empress wasn’t just made up, a story Strangward told in order to get what he wanted.”

“Which was?” Lila raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know,” Ash said.

“Any news about—”

“No.”

“Is it possible the Carthians kidnapped her? I mean, two of them were found dead in her room. And Strangward’s gone missing, too.”

“Anything’s possible, but even if I knew for sure that’s what happened, I wouldn’t know where to start looking.”

“I’m sorry about Jenna,” Lila said, her eyes dark with sympathy. “If you want to stay on longer, and keep looking, I’m good with that.”

Ash shook his head. “Something would have turned up by now,” he said. “Even though it was the middle of the night, somebody should have seen something.”

“Remember what I said, back at Oden’s Ford? About hope?”

Ash frowned, trying to remember. “While I try and treasure up every word that comes out of your mouth, I can’t—”

“Hope is the thing that can’t be reined in by rules or pinned down by bitter experience. It’s a blessing and curse.” Lila raised her glass. “To hope.”

“To hope,” Ash said. They clanked.

“Now,” Ash said, “let’s go home.”





EPILOGUE


In another tavern, far away in the port city of Spiritgate, Evan Strangward killed time, nursing an ale and playing nicks and bones with himself. He’d glamored his appearance, so that to any but his stormsworn guard, he wore the brown skin and straight black hair of a traveler from We’enhaven.

He shivered and turned up the collar of his coat. He sat close to the door so that every time it opened, the raw wind from the Indio howled in. He’d chosen this seat on purpose, so he wouldn’t miss anyone coming and going.

He’d been too long in these wetlands. He would be glad to go back to the sunbaked land he called home. For multiple reasons.

He heard familiar footsteps, and turned. It was Teza. Just Teza. It was what he’d expected, it was what he’d demanded, in fact, but he was still disappointed.

“My lord,” Teza said, shoulders slumping in relief. “Thank the Maker.”

Evan smiled. “Ah, Teza, I can’t imagine that the Maker is looking after the likes of me. I’ve not seen any sign of it so far.” He stood, opened his arms, and they embraced.

“Destin didn’t insist on coming with you?” Evan asked, reclaiming his seat.

Teza shook his head. “He said he could be of more use to you in Ardenscourt.”

“Not if he’s dead.”

“He says he has no plans to be dead, my lord.” Teza settled into the empty chair.

I don’t want him to be of use to me, Evan thought. I want him to forget about me. I want him to kill that monster of a father, leave Arden, and find a house by the sea.

I want him to be happy.

“The plans we make are not the problem,” Evan said. “It is the machinations of others. Did you give him the money?”

Teza shook his head, handing over a small pouch. “I tried. He refused it.”

Again, Evan wasn’t surprised, but he was disappointed. He signaled for the server.

“You’ve lost weight,” Teza said. He looked travel-worn and hollow-cheeked himself.

Evan rolled his eyes. “It never takes you very long to start in nagging. It’s this rich wetland food. We’ll be fine once we get back to salt pork, way bread, and rations of rum.”

“When you were late,” Teza said, “I—I didn’t know what might have happened.”

“I usually travel much faster by sea than you would by land, but I ran into trouble in Middlesea, and I had to sail farther north to make a landing.”

“The empress?”

Evan nodded. “The entire port was infested with Cele’s spies. I think she’s planning to come find the girl herself. Everything points that way. I’d hoped to sail from there, but it was too risky.”

“We need to be gone before she arrives.”

“I suspect she’ll land at Baston Bay. She’s one to go straight for the heart.”

The server arrived tableside. “Two ales and two lamb pies,” Evan said.

“My favorites,” Teza said, smiling, as the server hustled away.

“Were you able to arrange for a ship?”

Teza nodded. “She’s a two-masted schooner. No match for Sun Spirit, but she’ll do, I think.”

“How many of the stormsworn did we lose?” Evan asked. “Can we crew a schooner?”

“We lost Ephraim and Trey on the ship,” Teza said. “Plus the two in the tower.”