Page 41 of Thorns & Fire
‘None that haven’t been overshadowed by everything else that happened there – or after,’ she said pointedly.
‘Not even patching up my sorry arse in the Bloodwoods the first time we met?’he pressed.‘You certainly weren’t gentle with those stitches.’
And you weren’t nearly as tough as you thought you were,she almost said.But instead, because she knew it irked him, she replied, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
Thankfully, it wasn’t long before Wren found herself riding beside Dessa, with Kipp and Torj taking the lead ahead.Dessa, however, seemed distant, scanning the plains before them, saying nothing.
‘Are you alright?’Wren asked her.
Dessa jolted in the saddle, turning to Wren as though surprised to find her there.‘Sorry?’
‘I asked if you were alright,’ Wren repeated.
‘Oh.I’m fine.I’ve just...never really travelled like this,’ she replied.
Wren hadn’t considered that.She had done her fair share of travelling the midrealms, during both the shadow war and the five years she’d spent as the Poisoner.She was no stranger to spendinghours on end on horseback or sleeping beneath the stars.Dessa, on the other hand, had remained in one place before coming to Drevenor.
‘I’m sorry I haven’t told you this earlier,’ Wren started.‘But I’m grateful to have you here with me.I know it’s not exactly luxury, and I know you’re delaying work on your own opus...But I’m grateful.I want you to know that.’
Dessa gave her a sad smile.‘I know you are, Wren.I just can’t help but wonder what my place is here...You, Torj and Kipp have done this a hundred times before.You know what you’re doing out here when the road is rough and dangerous.Me?I belong in an alchemy workshop, or the archives...I don’t know what I contribute here.’
‘Dessa, do you think I’d stay sane with those two idiots if there wasn’t another alchemist by my side?You contribute just as much as everyone else.I couldn’t do this without you.’
‘Yes, you could,’ Dessa told her gently.‘You’ve done it before.And I’m not complaining, I’m not unhappy, I swear it.I suppose discovering that another of my teammates was a magic-wielding royal caught me off guard.And now I find myself on the road with a princess, a Warsword and a war strategist.It’s natural that I feel a little out of my depth, isn’t it?’
Wren cringed internally.‘I understand more than you know.During the war, I was the only alchemist on the road most of the time.Everyone else was a warrior, trained to slay monsters and protect the midrealms...I was just me.’
‘There should be no ‘just’ in that sentence, Wren,’ Dessa said.
‘And I feel the same way about you,’ Wren replied.‘I’ll never tell you that your feelings aren’t valid.You have the right to feel whatever it is you feel.But please know that from where I’m sitting, you’re a vital piece of this team.We need you.Ineed you.’
Dessa smiled.‘Noted.’
‘Good.Now can we talk about something other than war and Warswords?How is your opus progressing?’
They rode on for what felt like hours, slowly approaching the ruined kingdom Wren had left behind.The barren place that had honed her bleeding, grieving heart for half a decade.She was dreading seeing its scorched plains and lifeless lands.
Astride her mare, Wren crested the final hill, her heart pounding with anticipation and fear.She braced herself for the familiar sight of Delmira’s desolation – the cracked earth and yellowed fields, the withered trees, the abandoned homesteads...The parched grasslands and the fading heather, and atop a plateau of cliffs, the skeletal remains of a city.
But that was not what she saw.
CHAPTER 15
Wren
‘Knowledge is the victor over fate.The mind is a blade’
– Drevenor Academy Handbook
‘THIS CAN’T BE...’Wren breathed, staring in disbelief.
Where once she had wandered across dust and ruin, stretches of green stretched out before her.Many of the gentle slopes were blanketed in lush grass, swaying in the breeze like the waves of an emerald ocean.Dotting the landscape were wildflowers – splashes of purple and yellow among the heather.
Wren twisted in her saddle to face the others, waiting for someone to tell her she was hallucinating, that she’d finally gone and lost her mind.But Torj, Kipp and Dessa’s expressions were etched with the same shock as her own.
‘You said it was a wasteland,’ Dessa said, shaking her head at the rolling verdant hills.
‘It was,’ Wren replied.‘Since its fall, it has always been considered dangerous, with shadow magic lingering beneath the surface.It’s why no one ever ventures here...They didn’t want the same curse afflicting them.’
