Page 100 of Heir

Quil nodded tiredly, and Sirsha wondered if he’d slept at all while she’d been dead to the world. From the shadows under his eyes, she didn’t think so.

“We learned what we needed to,” he said. “Most importantly that the Kegari are led by the Tel Ilessi.”

“Rue la ba Tel Ilessi.” The hateful phrase came immediately to Sirsha’s mind. “They kept saying it.”

“He’s a holy figure,” Quil said. “We met him. In Jibaut.”

The man Sirsha had held off with her blades, the one who crackled with magic. “Pity I didn’t have better aim.”

“No,” Quil said flatly. “I’d rather dispatch him myself.”

Sirsha had seen Quil fight in Navium. Hells, she had a body count of her own. Still, she was unsettled by the calm implacability of his words. But then, this was war and he was a prince of the conquered. Of course he’d want to kill the man who’d engineered so much suffering.

Her oath coin with Elias prickled unpleasantly, reminding her that she had her own mission.

“Let’s get out of here,” Quil said, as if he felt the same impulse Sirsha did. “We’ll discuss what’s next on the road. Join us when you’re ready.” Quil walked out, Sufiyan and Arelia following him into Loli Temba’s main room. They spoke too low to hear, and Sirsha reached to the earth almost instinctively to listen to what they were saying.

Then she stopped. If Quil wished to tell her what he confided in his friends, so be it. If not, she’d focus on the job. She was done being duplicitous.

Skies, if she’d known she’d get so soft spending time with the Martials, she’d have swum out of Navium’s harbor.

Sirsha dragged herself to the privy and splashed water on her face. One glance in Loli Temba’s mirror told her she needed a bath, clean clothes, and a week of sleep.

She made do with a comb and the sweet-smelling balm Loli used on her scars. When she emerged feeling marginally human, Loli Temba waited, Sirsha’s pack in hand.

“Subtle,” Sirsha muttered.

Loli Temba ignored the dig. “Be on watch for the creature’s magic,” she said. “It comes quickly and without warning.”

Sirsha reached to the earth, the rock. It remained silent. But as they made their way to Loli Temba’s stone door, Sirsha’s neck prickled. A whisper. A warning.

“Maybe you should stay here while I scout.” She turned to Quil and the others. “It will be safer. If the killer wants me—”

“You have a better chance of survival with us at your back.” Quil drew his scim, Sufiyan unhooked his bow, and Arelia held up a contraption that looked like a cross between a slingshot and a dagger.

Sirsha’s eyes felt funny and hot.Stop being ridiculous, she told herself sternly.Eventually, you’ll part ways with them, so don’t get attached.

Loli whispered to the stone, and the roar of the waterfall filled their ears. Beyond it, a chorus of frogs sang an ode from the pool below, and evening bugs chirped and chittered. A brightly patterned lizard darted across the rock behind the falls.

Loli Temba slipped ahead, moonlight reflecting off her pale skin. Sirsha followed first, then Sufiyan and Arelia, with Quil bringing up the rear, jaw tight as he surveyed the jungle.

They made their way to a set of steps at the edge of the falls that led to a barely noticeable seam in the thick jungle underbrush. A trail. Loli listened, a breeze pulling at the feathers in her hair. She nodded once.

“Go,” she whispered. “Quickly. The jungle remembers you, Sirsha. Let it aid you if you need.”

“Thank you, Loli Temba,” Sirsha said. “Forgive me for bringing trouble upon you.”

Loli Temba rolled her eyes, and though her smile was but a twitch of her mouth, it changed her whole face. “Thank me by not returning, little one,” she said. “At least not until—”

There was a moment of warning. An instant when the air seemed to moan in pain and the earth, so quiet, suddenly bellowed at Sirsha.

Run!

Sirsha’s voice caught, and she shoved Arelia into Sufiyan, who staggered back into Quil. She turned to warn Loli.

But she was too late.

One moment, Loli Temba was lifting her hand to grasp Sirsha’s in farewell. The next, she was screaming as a gray apparition appeared before her. It was roughly Sirsha’s shape but in no other way human. The creature flicked one claw toward Sirsha’s friends, knocking them onto their backs. Then it turned to Loli. A gash appeared in the Karkaun woman’s chest as the killer slowly cracked her open to reveal her heart.

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