Treason: Book Two of the Grimoire Saga (a Young Adult Fantasy series) Page 20

  “Listen, Kara. What if it doesn’t work out between you and Braeden? You could never be impartial. He’s the Heir to the Stele, after all. He’ll distract you both during your time together and when your relationship ends. He—”

  “When? Don’t you mean if? Unless I’m mistaken, you can’t tell the future.”

  “No, I can only make predictions. And based on his father, his heritage, his upbringing—”

  “Stop.”

  The Vagabond paused, his mouth open to continue.

  Kara pushed herself to her feet. “You, who preach equality, peace, and freedom, would dare imply that Braeden’s using me solely because it’s what any other man in his lineage would do?”

  “That is a factor, yes.”

  “You hypocrite! You won’t let me free him, but you won’t trust him because of the lineage he’s bound to?”

  The Vagabond rubbed his neck. “I never said this was fair.”

  “Has it ever occurred to you that you might be wrong about something? About anything? Ever? Does that thought ever come to you before it’s too late or before things can’t be fixed?”

  The Vagabond flinched as if she’d slapped him. “Kara, that was cruel.”

  “No, it was a wakeup call. You have to see yourself as I see you right now. Yes, you’re wise. You’re brilliant and powerful and amazing. But you aren’t perfect. You make mistakes, and no amount of time locked away in a book simmering on your thoughts can make you omniscient. You’re mortal! You’re still—”

  “I’m what? Hmm? Human?”

  Kara tightened her jaw and stepped back. She needed to calm down.

  He seethed. “If you’re willing to risk millions of lives for puppy love, Kara, be my guest. You seem to know far more than me!”

  “Look, I think we both need to calm down. I’m sor—”

  “If you waver, you will fail. I will not let you fail, even if it means getting rid of him myself!”

  Kara’s eyes narrowed. She squared her shoulders. “And what does that mean? You’d kill him?”

  “Get out!” the Vagabond screamed.

  I obviously hit a nerve was the last thought she had before a sharp pull on her stomach wrenched her over the chair and into the darkness.

  Kara sat quickly upright, the sun blinding her as it streamed through the window. It took her a moment to get her bearings. Just a second ago, she had been about to placate the Vagabond. She’d been about to apologize in an effort to calm him down.

  He’d kicked her out. Just like that. Oh, he was definitely imperfect. So was she, but at least she knew it.

  She looked over, but the Grimoire still lay open beside her. She wished it away before she noticed Braeden standing by the door.

  “We need to go,” he said without looking at her.

  Kara nodded, but all she could think about doing was grabbing his shirt and pulling him closer. Should she do it? Kiss him again? Did he want that anymore? Maybe sleeping on it had changed his mind. Maybe he was already over her. The prince had likely broken plenty of hearts in his time.

  She would always care for him. He’d done so much to help her. But the Vagabond’s face haunted her. He’d been angry. Violent. What would he do if she gave in? He’d already threatened to let Braeden die if she disobeyed him. Would he outright kill him? Could he even do that?

  Braeden wouldn’t survive a fight with the Vagabond. The first Vagabond didn’t have a physical form, sure, but he could possess Kara. He’d done it twice already. If he did it again, Braeden might not defend himself if it meant hurting her. The Vagabond had to know that, too.

  However much she hated it, Braeden would only be safe if she remained distant. She sighed, cursing under her breath, and couldn’t look at him.

  “What are you going to do once we get out of the Stele?” she asked.

  He stretched. “I’m going back to Ayavel. The Bloods and I want the same thing, and I get a say in the war now. I’ll make sure of that much. Are you going to the village?”

  Kara almost missed the pause before he asked the question. She almost didn’t catch the slight tremor in his voice. He’d obviously been trying to be casual about asking. The hesitation, the fear—it was hope she would go, not a real question. He wanted her at the village and out of harm’s way.

  A sliver of happiness twisted in her gut without her wanting it to. Maybe his apathy was just an act to appease her. Maybe nothing had changed, except that he would pretend not to care.

  Kara sighed. Maybe, when this war was over, she really would find happiness. Flick stretched as he woke up from where he’d curled up along the wall.

  She looked up at Braeden and couldn’t help smiling. “No, I’m not going to the village. I have—um—an errand to run in Ayavel. But first, I need to visit an isen named Stone. He was the first Vagabond’s mentor, and I’m supposed to ask him something.”

  The prince cringed. “An isen? I’m coming with you.”

  Kara should have refused. She should have told Braeden to go to Ayavel and kept him at a distance. But she wanted his company, and she couldn’t tell him no.

  Five hours later, Kara and Braeden tore through the forests on Ryn’s back, following a map from the Grimoire to Stone’s last known home somewhere in a distant mountain.

  “I think that’s it up there,” Kara said, pointing through the trees as Flick squirmed in her satchel.

  A path, now worn and beaten with age, cut through the mountain. It led up to a low cave almost completely hidden by a row of trees. If Kara hadn’t been looking for it, she would have never known it was there.

  “Let’s go, then,” Braeden said, his voice still flat.

  Kara patted Ryn’s neck, and the giant wolf dissolved into dust. With a sigh, she wished she and Braeden could go back to the way things were. She missed seeing him smile.

  “I think I should go. Stay here,” she said. “Um, please,” she added when she saw him glare at her out of the corner of his eye.

  “It’s an isen, Kara. I can’t have him stealing the Vagabond’s soul and controlling the Grimoire.”

  Kara nodded. Valid point. The first Vagabond trusted Stone, but even an isen could change in a thousand years.

  They started up the trail and crunched their way along the loose rocks and dust. When she neared the cave entrance, Kara looked around the corner and resisted the impulse to gasp.

  A man sat cross-legged on the floor, glaring up at her out of the corner of his eye. He’d already been looking at her as she rounded the corner, as if he’d known exactly where her head would appear.

  He wore a simple set of brown linen pants and a white tunic. A thin shower of gray dotted his otherwise black hair, and a thin beard lined his mouth.

  “The bloody hell do you want?” he asked.

  His British accent and beard reminded Kara of Shakespeare. Needless to say, Stone had lived far longer than the dead poet. His brusque tone, though, told her he wasn’t one for pleasantries or small talk.

  “I’m Kara, the Vagabond.”

  “Oh, you,” he said with a shrug. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  Kara waited, but Stone didn’t move. Was she supposed to say something? She turned to Braeden, but the prince shrugged. He hadn’t even been acknowledged yet.

  “Why are you traveling with that Heir?” Stone asked without looking up.

  Braeden crossed his arms. “How do you know who I am?”

  “Who doesn’t? Your little stunt back at that Unity Gala is legendary already.”

  The prince huffed, but didn’t say anything more.

  The isen shifted in his seat. “I take it you both know who I am, as well?”

  “Stone,” Kara answered.

  “Very good. And you know what I am?”

  “An isen,” Braeden said with a hint of disgust.

  Stone chuckled and mocked Braeden’s tone. “Yes. So have you made more vagabonds yet, child? This boy hasn’t asked, has he?”

  Kara balked. “How do you kno
w about that?”

  “Child, I made those Grimoires for your master. You’re asking all the wrong questions.”

  Kara shook her head. “Look, that’s why we’re here. Do you know of a way to get into the kingdoms without being seen? The first Vagabond said you might.”

  “You refer to him by his title?”

  Kara paused. “Well, yeah. He hasn’t told me his name.”

  “Have you asked?”

  “Did you teach him to love annoying questions?” she asked without a pause.

  “I suppose he wouldn’t tell you anyway. He rather hated his name,” Stone said with a sigh.

  “What is it?” Kara asked, interest piqued.

  “Why ask me? Ah, wait. I know. You two are not on the best of terms at the moment?”

  “No, not really.”

  Braeden raised his eyebrows, but Kara didn’t acknowledge it. There was no hiding anything from Stone. It sucked.

  “Cedric,” Stone said.

  “Oh.” She thought it would be harder to get that from him. So the first Vagabond was named Cedric? It made him sound so…normal.

  Stone glanced at Kara. “You smell strange. It’s not terrible, just the barest hint of something…off.”

  “So, entrances to the kingdoms,” Kara muttered, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. This guy was too much.

  “Right, right,” Stone muttered, lost in thought. He stared at her.

  “Do you know of any?” Kara asked.

  “Yes. It has been four hundred and seven years since I last used one of them, but they might still be open. Stay here.”

  Stone disappeared into the shadows of the cave, leaving Kara and Braeden standing in the sunlight.

  “Do I smell bad?” Kara asked without looking over at her friend.

  Braeden shrugged. “You smell fine. I mean, for sleeping in a cave, that is.”

  She laughed and punched his shoulder, reverting for a moment to their old ways. He grinned and batted her hand away. They caught each other’s eye, though, and their smiles faded. Braeden looked back into the cave, even though Kara couldn’t see through the shadows.

  “That is the strangest isen I have ever met,” he said.

  “Yeah, I believe that,” Kara answered.

  Stone reappeared a moment later with a few sheets of paper in his hand. Symbols and landmarks Kara didn’t recognize littered the maps.

  “Sew these into your Grimoire. Adding an entry to one of the books will automatically update the others. If you don’t do it yourself, your second should do it,” the isen said.

  Kara’s gut twisted in annoyance. There wasn’t hiding anything from this guy.

  “Your second?” Braeden asked.

  “Oh, you don’t tell the boy everything. No bother. Have you picked one?” Stone asked.

  Kara glared at him, but Stone arched his eyebrows as if he still waited for an answer.

  She grabbed the pages and turned to leave. “Thanks.”

  Braeden followed her down the path, but Kara looked over her other shoulder to glare at the isen standing at the top of the trail. He’d been helpful, yes, but annoying. It seemed as though he didn’t even have emotions.

  “So what’s a second?” Braeden asked when they got to the foot of the path.

  Flick ran out of Kara’s satchel and sat on her shoulder. She scratched the little guy’s ears as she debated whether or not she should answer Braeden’s question. It would just be another chance for him to be involved. She took a deep breath and nearly told him anyway, but Braeden didn’t give her the chance.

  He glared into the forest. “Never mind. I forgot how badly you want your space.”

  Kara’s stomach tightened. “Let’s just get going. I figure it would be easiest to use Flick.”

  Braeden nodded, but he wouldn’t look at her. She reached for his arm. He flinched.

  She sighed. “It means you have to touch me, remember?”

  He nodded and didn’t move as she reached out to him this time. She remembered the clearing in front of Ayavel, the one through which they’d entered when Braeden was a prisoner. He might want to see the cherry blossom trees, and—

  Stop it.

  She shook the thought from her head and touched Flick’s forehead. They had to go.

  She shot one last look back up to the cave. Stone leaned against the rock, watching them with the barest traces of a grin.

  A loud crack whisked Kara and Braeden out of the field.

  Chapter 14

  Truce

  The cracking noise of Flick teleporting left a ringing in Braeden’s ear long after the little creature scampered back into Kara’s satchel, apparently proud of its work. The pummeling roar of water joined in with the ringing.

  Braeden looked around. They stood beside a waterfall. Mist rolled over them. Braeden’s hair stuck to his face. Kara’s frizzed, but he couldn’t help thinking she still looked beautiful.

  Trees bordered a lake at the base of the waterfall, which broke away into a river on its left. The chorusing roar of rapids wove through the trees. A wide cobblestone trail led from the woods and ended at the lake, perfectly centered with the waterfall.

  For what he assumed was the secret entrance to Ayavel, it wasn’t very subtle. He didn’t remember this from his first trip to Ayavel, but he’d slipped in and out of consciousness and didn’t remember much of the journey in.

  Kara cleared her throat. “Rather than going right to the Ayavelian lichgate, I thought you might want to see the way in. It’s beautiful, and you weren’t exactly coherent last time.”

  He caught her eye and smiled. Words pooled on the tip of his tongue, hitting each other as they fought free. He wanted to say ridiculous things like I still want you and let’s just run away and why are we even here? They hate us. Each word stumbled, halting the others, until he almost—

  A twig snapped. He whirled around, eyes darting through the trees. He caught glimpses—a boot here, a tunic there. The trees teemed with soldiers, each waiting for…what, exactly? Were he and Kara even welcome?

  He turned back to Kara. She stared at the waterfall with a smile on her face, lost in thought.

  She clearly had no idea of the soldiers in the trees. Braeden wanted to sigh, to just grab her and teleport to the village. Maybe lock her somewhere she couldn’t get hurt. As much as she’d learned, she still wasn’t ready to face the Bloods. Yakona politics became more treacherous with each generation, and she just didn’t have a way to know that yet. She had a good heart. She trusted. All of them would use her. All of them would hurt her, and Gavin would probably show his hand first.

  Braeden had to face facts, though—even if Kara mastered magic and learned to tread through Ourean politics, he would still want to protect her. He needed to step back. She would have to find her way on her own. He could only hope that involved him.

  Kara gave him direction. A sense of purpose. He didn’t understand it, but he thought it might become something like love over time. It was the closest he’d ever come to it, at least. She cared at least a little—hell, after a kiss like that, she had to feel something. But she pushed him away, time and time again. She was hiding something from him, and he didn’t have the slightest idea what it could be.

  “Braeden, did you hear me?”

  He blinked his eyes back into focus before he realized he’d been staring off into space. Great protector he was.

  “What? No, sorry. What did you say?”

  “Are you ready? I don’t know how they’ll react to you coming back.”

  “They’d have attacked by now if they wanted to.”

  “Huh?”

  “There are dozens of soldiers hidden in these trees. You really didn’t see them?”

  She looked around with a jolt. Apparently, she hadn’t. He resisted the impulse to pull her close.

  “So, shall we get going?” he asked.

  “If you’re ready, sure.”

  She stepped onto the cobblestone path facing the water
fall and cleared her throat. After a deep breath, she whispered something he couldn’t make out—a password, perhaps. The ground shook.

  A flash of blue light caught his eye, and he turned in time to see an Ayavelian guard’s silver hand set a painfully bright orb into the trunk of a nearby tree. Clever bastards. They tricked visitors into thinking a password would open the Ayavelian lichgate when, in fact, they had simply hidden the keyhole along the bank.

  Braeden looked back to Kara. What else had the Bloods done to let her think her role in their world was an easy one?

  A low groan echoed through the trees. Water pulled away from Kara and made walls in the lake until a path appeared. Stone stairs covered in moss led to the lake’s bottom as the water became a fifty-foot wall on either side. A golden temple waited at the bottom of the lake, beneath the waterfall. Mist pooled over it and the now-accessible path through the lake water.

  Excellent. He rolled his eyes. If he and Kara took the path, the guards in the trees could close the lichgate and drown them at any time.

  “Are you coming?” Kara asked.

  She looked at him with those gray eyes that made his heart melt. Though every fiber of his being said it would be a mistake to go, he nodded and followed her. Should the path close on them, he might be able to change form into a Lossian or Kirelm and get them out of there in time.

  Maybe.

  Braeden set a hand on Kara’s back and followed her. He pushed ever so slightly on her back, urging her forward without a word through the makeshift tunnel at a faster pace than she would have taken on her own.

  He walked up the steps to the temple. He caught shimmering gold, but he couldn’t take in its splendor. Tension pulled at his shoulders.

  The crash of waves set his heart racing. The wall of water began to cave behind him. It splashed to the ground. His body hummed, ready to change and fly off with Kara in his arms.

  “Braeden.”

  He turned to Kara, who he had apparently pulled tight to his body. She watched him with a grin.

  “Everything okay?” she asked.