Page 44 of Heir

“Where did you get this?” She heard his voice for the first time. “Howdid you get this?”

“That’s none of your—”

Sufiyan leaped faster than Sirsha thought possible, knocking her back, putting a dagger to her throat. He wasn’t blank-faced any longer, but shaking in rage, as if the sight of the ring had yanked him out of his shock.

“Answer me.” He dug the knife into her skin, and she could barely swallow. “Or I’ll cut your throat. How did you get this?”

“Get him off her!” Arelia called from the helm in alarm. “Quil, he’s going to—”

“Sufiyan!” Quil attempted to pry him away. “Sufiyan Veturius, stop—”

“A client gave it to me!” Sirsha said as Quil finally pulled Sufiyan back. “I’m a tracker.”

“A tracker,” Sufiyan said. “But why would my father—”

Sirsha saw it then. The wide shoulders, the laughing mouth, the dark hair and symmetric features. No wonder he’d looked familiar. This was her client’s son.

Whose name was Sufiyan Veturius.

Veturius.

“Bleeding, burning hells,” Sirsha said. “Your father is Elias Veturius? Hero of the Empire?That’swho hired me?”

And at the bewildered expressions on their faces, at the utter, ridiculous unlikelihood of the situation, Sirsha began to laugh.

Part II

The Hunt

13

Aiz

Aiz and Cero stumbled down the mountain, the cold cutting through them like a knife. Aiz hunched forward, tucking her hands beneath her arms protectively as Cero pulled her under his cloak. A lifetime in Dafra slum taught her that in a storm like this, one could lose their fingers in a matter of minutes.

“Left,” Cero called from behind her, barely audible over the screeching gale. “There’s a Sail.”

“We can’t fly in this!”

“We can if we’re both smithing,” Cero shouted. “You call the wind. I’ll direct it.”

Aiz had never heard of such a thing, but she trusted Cero. She spotted the lump of canvas beside a hulking overhang of rock and staggered toward it.

Cero brushed past her and hoisted the Sail onto his back. It draped around him like an enormous brown cape.

“Made it myself,” he said, and Aiz wanted to ask a dozen questions about when and how, but there was no time. “Come on!” He strapped Aiz in on his right, then plunged his hand into the Loha box. The metal flowed immediately, flashing white as it wound around Cero’s arms, triggered the engine, and shot up the empty reed scaffold of the Sail. The canvas went rigid and the engine hummed to life.

“Call the wind,” Cero yelled, and Aiz pulled the wind to her, holding it tight in her grip, even as it tried to yank away like a skittish horse. Aiz’s heart sank. Her inability to control her accursed smithing would tear the Sail apart.

But then Cero calmly braided their wind together to create a cleanupdraft. His power and control were breathtaking in their elegance. Within seconds, the earth beneath was indistinguishable from the sky.

The Sail dipped and dove in the blizzard, the snow so thick that Aiz could no longer make out Cero’s face. She hoped he could keep them from crashing into a mountain; she peered below, trying to make out any signs of pursuit. But the dark hulk of the Tohr was lost in the storm.

They touched down hours later in a coastal cave south of the capital. Aiz’s legs crumpled beneath her as soon as her feet met the wet rocks of the beach. She must have passed out, because when she awoke hours later, she was on her back and the light had shifted. The angry pink snow clouds had rolled north, giving way to a soft gray drizzle. Aiz couldn’t bring herself to move, even as she shivered.

“C-Cero?”

He was nowhere to be seen, and Aiz looked around at the seaside cave. It was immense, with a sandy half-moon beach and tunnels that branched out behind it.

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