Page 157 of The Last One
My fingers grow numb, and I slowly lift my eyes to meet his shiny lavender ones.
“Hmm?” he says, blinking.
“You served me before?”
He squints at me, confused. “Of course. When you were just a little one, and then, when you stewarded all of Vallendor, keeping watch over the realm from the top of Mount Devour.” He gives me an amused grin. “I taught you everything. Languages. Writings and music and alchemy and lore of every race, every discovered realm…” He looks at me, clear-eyed again. “You felt so familiar to me the night you sought refuge in my cabin, and now, I know why.”
My mouth hangs open as I remember the night Veril and I ran into each other after the burnu fight. He’d looked at me, wide-eyed, and said, “You’re here.” That’s what he meant. And now, my mind fills with the vision of the castle, the party, the old man… “Idoremember.”
Veril bows his head. “But we’ll catch up later. Are we ready?”
I’m not ready.I stand and then crouch to lift him.
Veril flaps his hand and starts on our way. “I’ll walk for as long as I can.” He shuffles beside me, quicker than before, his revelation spurring him on. “When we get to Caburh—”
A hiss. A sucking sound. A thump. Veril gasps and whimpers and falls to the ground.
I turn around, alarmed. My heart drops, and I go cold.
Standing behind me are the emperor’s men. Sinth, the Dashmala, still holds the long handle of his pike, the pointy end lodged deep into Veril’s back.
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It’s his gasp that shatters my heart most of all—the sound of shock, the sound of sudden pain, the sound of a sharp, thick blade piercing the precious treasure within. Seeing that wooden stake, not seeing the hidden tip of that pike, seeing the blood spurt from this newest violation, the proud blood of the Renrian, my counselor, teacher, and friend.
So cruel.
I shout, “Veril,” as I sink beside him to the ground.
But it’s too late.
That gasp.
The world around me fractures, and hot tears spill from my eyes, scalding my cheeks.
Veril lies still.
How did the emperor’s men find us?
I turn to face the soldiers. They huddle behind the Dashmala, gaping mouths, eyes wide with shock. That is, until they realize that there are more of them than there are of me. Math makes them brave, and now, they move from behind Sinth to draw their swords. One soldier withdraws an arrow from his quiver and raises his bow.
Sinth shouts, “Hold,” to the men behind him. Then he points to the man at my feet and shouts, “He murdered my kin.”
“You do this for something that happened a hundred years ago?” I shout, my hands burning bright white.
The giant Dashmala sneers at me, and his mouth lifts in a humorless smile. “I’ve never been so happy to see a gerammoc terrorizing the night sky. I would’ve fired thousands of arrows and swung my sword hundreds of times, fought countless aburans if that meant I got to see this murderer carried across the meadow.”
The fiery arrows launched at the gerammoc—those boltswereshot by soldiers. If Sinth and his men followed the gerammoc to shoot it down, they would’ve seen Jadon, Philia, Veril, and me running away from both monsters.
Sinth reaches for the sword in his scabbard and points it at me. “You—” His yellow eyes peek at me—from my hair to my chest and legs—and come to rest on my face. “We share a heritage, and yet you’re traveling with the murderer who sent our forefathers into the fiery chasms of Riddy Vale?”
The Dashmala—who, to this day, hate me.That’s what Veril told me.That chasm appeared due to a simple spell and the tilt of my head. That’s what he said.
“Therewasno fiery chasm at that battle,” I shout at him. “Only frightened women, children, and old people hiding behind an illusion, praying that Veril’s enchantment would hold and that the Dashmala who’d come to kill them would see nothing but that illusion and retreat.”
I step away from my friend on feet I can no longer feel, focusing now on the man responsible for his death. “You are Dashmala,” I growl, “and yet you fight for an emperor who forces you to believe in him?” Blue currents sizzle behind my lids—I see my anger before it even reaches my eyes. “These men consider you an outsider, a scourge, a barbarian turned eunuch, and if I don’t kill you, then eventually they will.”
Sinth laughs. “I am commander of Ser Wake’s battalions. They will do as I command.” His yellow eyes darken into bloodred globes. “Killing you, the one who murders our brothers-in-arms. Killing those who’ve betrayed him, including the whore who betrayed our future king. That’s what I’ve been sent to do, and I will do it.”
