Scorched by Shauna E. Black

Author:Shauna E. Black [Black, Shauna E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781940855189
Publisher: Shauna E. Black
Published: 2017-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

Even though I’d been expecting it, the news was still a crushing blow. Especially when I found out Mother was not training troops in the Central Fortress.

“What do you mean, she’s at Volas Pass?” I could scarcely breathe around a knot growing tighter in my throat. “I thought she was training new recruits?”

My father buckled the sheath of his short sword around his waist. I had come barging in on him in his chambers the moment I heard the news.

“It was Prince Cynet’s idea,” he said. “King Talorc thought it was a sound tactic. A handful of scouts would go before the main troop to ensure the way was clear. Your mother led them. By the reports, they were the first to get caught in the ambush.”

I felt cold inside. Cynet had known all along my mother was going to Volas Pass. If I didn’t think he would destroy me first, I would kill him.

My father marched his army for nearly twenty-four hours straight. I managed to avoid Cynet by staying in the rearguard. I knew he would be furious with me for saving Bridei’s life, and I didn’t trust myself to keep a cool head around him when he’d sent my mother into a Quahtl ambush.

I didn’t speak a word to anyone the entire time. I was miserable and physically sick, knowing that I could have warned my father of the ambush. The only thing that kept me from collapsing in anguish was the hope that Mother would get through it. She was the greatest warrior in T’yatha. She would escape, wouldn’t she?

But our people wouldn’t. Had Cynet finished carving his golem? Who would the demon destroy before Cynet stepped in to “save” T’yatha and take over the throne? Should I tell my father?

Dera didn’t want a coward serving her, but I felt like the biggest coward of all time. Even now, I quailed at the thought of how Cynet would punish me for disobedience. It was bad enough that I had banished the d’taugh before it could kill Bridei or anyone else. What would he do to me if I openly betrayed his plans?

In the end, we couldn’t save our people. We drove off the Quahtl army, but not soon enough to prevent the slaughter of nearly everyone in the advance troop. Not soon enough to save my mother.

I wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear. If I had just warned Father soon enough, my mother would still be alive. I moved through the motions of the mourning ritual with Bridei as though someone else controlled my body. We put on the white robes and braided lavender into our hair. All I could think about were Cynet’s plans and the destruction of T’yatha. I could stop it, though it would mean losing my life. That was no less than I deserved, after abandoning my own people, my own mother, to their fate.

But when it came down to it, I couldn’t name Cynet after I confessed everything to Bridei.

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