Page 91 of The Last One

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Veril holds the fife to his lips and blows into it, producing a high, clear note. “Some would say ‘yes.’ The drought is creeping across the realm. Sickness is killing scores of people.”

“Miasma,” I say.

“Yes,” he says. “There is no cure. There is no treatment. No one, not even my order, knows its origins. We don’t know why some survive while others don’t.”

“Do you think Elyn is here to end this realm because of Miasma or to find a fugitive?”

Silent, he stares at me with tender eyes, and the only sound is the crackling of burning logs in the hearth. Finally, he says, “It’s hard to say. But I’d guess that she’s after something larger than a disease.”

But surely it’s not me—what would I have done to hurt an entire realm? Then the warm relief of realization sweeps over me. “It must be Wake she’s after.”

“Perhaps,” Veril says, his voice hard. “He will do anything to be called Supreme. But who am I to—?”

The light shifts again, and this time, both Veril and I catch that wedge-shaped shadow darting past the windows. “That wasn’t a burnu,” I whisper. “Whatever that was, it flies.”

Veril flaps his hand. “Owls, Just Kai.”

“Owls in the daytime?” My leg throbs, a painful reminder of the burnu attack.

“Owls, crows… No matter,” he says, his lavender eyes gleaming. “Life in my lovely forest is different. Remember, dearest, we’re protected here. Elyn and her otherworldly can’t sense your presence because of my enchantments.” He plays a note on his fife.

“Do you actually play that thing or do you just blow notes?” I ask.

“Every good Renrian is skilled at some sort of instrument. This is mine.” He closes his eyes and plays one more single note on his fife—and this note sounds smoky.Or I’m just feeling slightly woozy. He takes a breath, then plays a song that sounds more like wind moving through a canyon. His fingers drift across the instrument’s holes, but the tune is unlike any I remember hearing. It makes no sense—it has no meter, and it flutters up and down the scale. He pauses, then says, “Your secret is safe with me, Just Kai.”

“What secret?” I ask, my voice thick.

But he just continues to play.

As I listen, my eyes grow heavy, and the inside of my stomach turns slick and strange. My heart races, and the room brightens. The prickly things stored in the jars in the alcove twist, and the walls ooze with blue sludge, and I sway in my wheelchair. Did he put something in my…? This can’t be the memory tea, can it? I can’t eventhink,let alone remember.

My throat tightens, and I clutch my neck. “What did you do?”

The last thing I see before everything goes black is Veril staring at me, sitting very still, and he’s smiling.

27

Iwear armor the color of blood and gold. My fingertips end in silver talons, and my pendant sparkles with fantastic light. I stand high upon craggy silver-gray rock. Down below, the frothy surface of an angry sea pulls beasts and men beneath its murky surface.I drag my talons, now speckled with blood, across the air, and I glimpse my reflection on each silver finger. My mouth bleeds. My skin is shredded and raw. And now, I stand alone on this barren mountain, crying, weeping, screaming,“Help me! Save me! Hurry.”

My eyes open to dark ceiling beams in a room buzzing with light. The shadows of flitting butterflies and bumblebees dance across the wall. My mouth tastes like metal and walnuts.

Where am I?I turn my head, and my bones creak.

“Good morning.” The Renrian sits on a small stool in the corner of the room and chews on the stem of a cold pipe. His eyes are no longer that sharp lilac; they are now soft brown flecked with red and blue light.

“Kai!” Olivia rushes to my bedside in noisy taffeta. “I wassoworried about you!” Her eyes cloud with tears, and she flaps at her face. “I told myself not to cry, and here I am, blubbering like a baby.”

Philia comes to stand beside her. “Welcome back.”

“Where is…?” I push up on my elbows, looking for Jadon.

He’s standing in the corner of the room. His blue eyes, dark with worry, match the blue of his tunic. “I thought that I’d taken too long and that you…” His voice is hoarse and strained. “…that you wouldn’t need your amulet anymore.”

Because I’d died. That’s what he won’t say.

My heart quakes. “Did you find it?”

He shakes his head. “I looked for hours, Kai.”