Page 140 of Heir

In an instant, her friend entered the tent. His wound was dressed now, and she was relieved to see the color back in his face.

“Take him to the pens. Get the interrogators working on him. I want that Loha.”

Cero inclined his head before bending to whisper to her. She turned to Quil.

“News that concerns you,” she said. “The city of Serra has fallen. Their anti-Sail weaponry has been destroyed.”

His aunt, Aiz didn’t add, had given away her position. Kegari troops only waited for Aiz’s word to strike.

Quil’s body went rigid, the closest thing to fear that he’d show.

“I will not see you again, Quil.” She moved toward him as frustration twisted his features. But no, not frustration alone. Sadness, too. Even knowing that it was Aiz who led the attack on his people, he mourned for her.

In response, she felt only a mild regret that someone she had once cared for could be so pathetic.

Aiz swept out of the tent as Mother Div oozed up from the encampment, glutted from her most recent meal.

Mother Div didn’t speak. She knew Aiz’s mind now and fed her a thick rope of power. Within seconds, Aiz’s skin stung from the wind lash, and the Thafwan coast was far behind her. Serra had fallen. The Empress would soon be hers to question or interrogate as she wished. Quil knew her story, tying off the last piece of her old self. She should feel confident. Grounded.

But it wasn’t enough. Aiz felt off still.

Hungry.

39

Sirsha

A selfish part of Sirsha wanted nothing more than to get the hells out of the Kegari encampment.ThatSirsha was the one who’d survived being cast out by her Kin and the hardscrabble years that came after.ThatSirsha would forget J’yan’s smoking heart and R’zwana’s betrayal. She would forget the creature whose mind she’d looked into; the vastness of it, the terror.

But she couldn’t run, because something else had kindled in her heart beyond survival. Her Adah coin burned; her blood called to Quil. He was here, somewhere in this camp. Hopefully presiding over the dead carcass of the Tel Ilessi. Sirsha had to find him.

She forced herself to move deliberately. Thank the skies it was dark and the Kegari were lax with both patrols and fires. One wrong step and there would be two Jaduna bodies here tonight.

Sirsha shuddered, pushing J’yan’s blank face and shredded chest from her mind.Quil. Find Quil.

She reached out with her magic, but the earth only showed her a path to Div.Track, hunt, bind!The wind shoved at her, trying to push her back the way she’d come.

“Do you want me to die?” she growled at the elements. “I can’t bind her! You saw us try—I’ll have to go about this another way, but right now, I must find Quil. Help me, please!”

The earth and wind only impelled her more frantically back toward Mother Div’s tent.

She ceased using her magic and ran, searching for any sign of the Tel Ilessi. A flag, a Sail, a pack of stuffy guards. Arrogant leaders loved itwhen everyone knew their rank—it fed their ego. There must besomethingto indicate where the bastard was.

Quil, she thought.Where’s Quil?A chant. A lifeline to keep another, far more terrifying question at bay:

What in the bleeding skies was that thing in the tent?

If it was a possessed spirit, it was the most powerful one Sirsha had ever encountered. But she’d hunted ghosts before, and her magic didn’t warp the way it had with Div. Yet J’yan’s eyes turned white before he died, a sure sign of contact with the spirit world. Sirsha’s had too, the two times she’d gotten close to the creature. Not to mention the fact that it reeked of rotted earth.

Did it matter what it was? She couldn’t kill it. She couldn’t even bind the damned thing. She couldn’t carry out this mission. Panic swept through her.

Hunt it, the elements whispered, insistent. Merciless.You must hunt it.

Unless Elias released her from her vow, the oath would slowly take control of her until it was all she could think about. Until she would throw herself at the monster—and die—rather than see the vow go unfulfilled.

Damn Elias and damn Div, too. Sirsha cursed the day she’d made that vow. She cursed herself for assuming Elias was another client with an easy job.

“Enough,” she muttered. The vow was binding until Elias broke it. When she got to Ankana, she’d take the first ship to the Empire and find him. She’d make him break the oath. As one, the wind, earth, and even water hissed at the thought, pushing her back toward Div.

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