Page 19 of A Simple Truth

“What I am trying to understand is what were they trying to accomplish? Send a message of some sort? Were you able to retrieve any information from the one you’ve captured?” I turned to face Servos.

“The Royal Guard got to him first, so we weren’t able to gather intel with our ways, and they’ve come up empty.”

“It’s nothing but a theatrical performance, to spook people, plant some unrest,” Andrias proclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

“If so, it was quite entertaining leaving Destroyers and Royalsdead,” Lachlan spat out, getting a rise out of the scorching stare from Andrias. This time, I ignored those two, as my eyes pinned the only one whose opinion truly mattered in this case, and it seemed that he had the same idea, as our eyes met.

“It seems we are still missing a big piece of this puzzle,” Hosam agreed. “But no doubt, Rebels will have to be dealt with before we launch the war with the elves.”

“Why doesn’t the Queen send her army of the dead to eliminate the vexatious insurgents?” Lachlan questioned as he crossed his arms.

“Because,” Servos started. “We need to know where to send those armies in order to kill them, and unless you know something we don’t, we’ve yet to discover where they have their base, if they even have one at all.”

“We can no longer deny that they’re organized after the Svitar incident. Perhaps even more than we thought before,” I added.

“Agreed. We’ve dealt with minor insurrections before. But this? An attack on a city, directly at the Royal castle? It was more than just a minor outburst,” Hosam supposed out loud.

“On my last visit to Lord Inadios, he mentioned that some of the sympathizers were rumored to be gathering their belongings for the journey North. Though Lady Eanaya has been keeping a good rule over the land, I’ve stationed a few of my own soldiers in many of the villages and towns. We’ve been monitoring any and all boat movements and other transports to see if that rumor has any value to it. So far, it has been fruitless.”

“The Queen has been dumping her cursed creatures in the North for the past twenty years. They roam free in that gods forgotten forest, so unless Rebels went there to die, save your soldiers' strength for somethingactuallyuseful.” Andrias cast a venomous look towards me, still pissed about our earlier encounter.

“What we need is to send a message,” Servos declared. “One that will be heard across all of Esnox. To take a Destroyer’s life…They all will have to pay. And whoever they are, we need to draw them out.”

“Agreed! There is a town in Asford that had a minor protest last fall about the tithes going up. They’ve paid up, but they’d be an easy target,” Andrias arranged.

Consciously, I let my jaw muscle ease, though the tension that was building up in my muscles remained throughout the rest of my body.

“Where is it?” My eyes turned to Hosam. He was considering it. Disappointment chilled my blood, slowly turning my heart into ice.

“It’s northeast territory, but they have a port just a few miles from the town. We could be there in two days on the river if we send a small group,” Andrias replied.

Heavy silence loitered in the moment as the lives of thousands lingered in the air. The fate of innocents was being decided now.

“Do it,” Hosam ordered after a moment of contemplation. “The little cockroaches want to play dirty, let’s see what their next move is then,” he uttered, and I resisted the growing urge to turn them all to ash.

“I’ll go. It’s been a while since I spilled some innocent blood.” Lachlan chuckled, sending me a questioning look. “Bellator, want to relive the good old days?”

I accepted the challenge.

“Sure. My battalion will join the raid.”

“It’s settled then. Bellator and Byrningham will leave tonight.”

14

FINNLEAH

“Are we not waiting for the others?” I asked Zora as we walked past the training rings to the farthest corner of the camp, far into the fields, where the wet grass trailed past our knees.

“No. Today is going to be just you and me,” Zora replied.

“Why?”

“Because I think we can both agree, it’s time for you to learn to summon fire.” My brows crawled up at her words, but I silently nodded in agreement, ignoring the anxiety exploding within me. “And who would be a better teacher than the girl that can’t summon fire at all?” Zora sarcastically chuckled, opening her palm and summoning what looked like a ball of heat, almost invisible to the eye, except for the slightly murky sphere. “This is what heat looks like. Just like some humans are stronger than others, so are Destroyers. We all range in the depth of our powers with what level of temperature and heat we can summon. There is a certain hierarchy to our powers. Destroyers that can only summon sparks are the lowest level, then heat summoning Destroyers, such as myself. Then we have the fire summoning—Bombers and Shapers—depending on whetherthey can shape the fire into objects or not. Most of the Ten are Shapers. Then there are the raw fire wielders, such as you and our dearest General. Justice Wielders, such as you two, are wild cards. They can do it all, and then some. Your heat shields are impenetrable, your fire can turn things into ashes with a blink of an eye or a snap of a finger, the shaping ability is a lot more grand, and so on. Oh, and unlike any other Destroyers, you can also suffocate fires.”

“Okay.” I nodded, absorbing all the information, hesitating to ask the one question that had been floating in my mind from the moment I had learned I possessed the powers.

“It’s the biggest honor for Destroyers to serve in the army. Most of us that enlist are Bombers and Shapers. If other kinds want to serve and pass the trials, which very rarely happens, are usually the ones assigned to run the logistics of the army or our nurseries. As you can tell, we strive for order and structure.”

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