Page 77 of A Promise of Peridot
I hoped at least my death would be swift. A beheading, maybe. The slashing of my throat. Stabbing was painful, but if deep enough, wouldn’t last long. Just not burned alive by salamanders. Or drowned. Or eaten by something rabid and snarling.
Please, not that one.
I had hardly gotten a look at the hog roasting over the massive spit or the horses decked in familiar Amber caparisons before Halden ordered me into a khaki tent and observed as his soldier tied me to the pole at its center. I grunted as my arms were angled behind me and twisted around the splintering wood.
“Hold still,” Halden said, his expression as hard and cold as steel. “You’ll only hurt yourself.”
A bitter laugh bent from my lips.
“Leave us,” he said to his underling.
Halden’s modest tent clearly belonged to some kind of low-ranking general: a stark desk with a map of Evendell and an ornate paperweight, a small hearth emitting a low heat, and a pallet with matted furs and an out-of-shape pillow. Halden sat on the chest at the foot of his makeshift bed and stared at me.
“Someone got a promotion.”
He looked tired. “Mhm.”
I let my disgust show plainly on my face before the question blurted from me. “When did you realize what I was?”
“After we were conscripted, Ryder and I got blind drunk. Hesaid you had some magical healing ability. I never thought of it again until Gareth told me what I was to do.”
“Murder Fae.”
His eyes flicked to mine, and he bit at his nail in thought. “Right.”
Revolting prick.
“I saw the way Kane protected you,” he continued. “And I took a chance. Told Gareth what I knew of your abilities. Of the way the king of Onyx was keeping you in his home like his own little prize. And then we sailed for Peridot.”
A long-familiar guilt screwed itself deeper into my heart.
Ihadbeen the one to doom Siren’s Cove. By telling Halden of Peridot and Onyx’s alliance.
“Youkilledpeople. Innocent people, Halden.”
“Lazarus is going to take Evendell whether we like it or not. He’s more powerful than anyone, even your Fae prince.”
“Kane is aking.”
“He’s the son of a king,” Halden bit out. “You’ll never find the blade, and that’s the only way to kill him. There are only two people who can speak truths such as this prophecy: the seer who decreed it, and her daughter. Their words are binding with greater magic than anything you could possibly understand. And even if somehow you do find the blade, you’ll never beat Lazarus in battle. Don’t forget how well I know you, Arwen. The look on your face tells me you know I’m right.”
I strained my face into neutrality. Did he realize what he’d just told me? There was another seer?
“I chose to align with the winning side,” he continued. “In the new world, when Lazarus rules both realms and uses all the lightehe’s mined to make Evendell worlds beyond what we can even imagine, I’ll be spared. So will my family, and anyone else I care about.”
“Like Ryder?”
A glint of emotion in his brown eyes. “I hope he’ll see reason and join us, yes.”
“The Halden I knew never could have stomached any of this. It would have kept him up every night, all night, sick with guilt.”
The look that flashed across his face told me I wasn’t completely off base.
“If you’re going to kill me, just do it already.”
“Where’s that Arwen optimism? My orders are to bring you back to Lazarus in one piece.” I didn’t have time to catch a relieved breath as he said, “But first, I need to know if you did indeed find the blade.”
“You must know I can’t tell you that.”
