Stormcaster by Cinda Williams Chima

Author:Cinda Williams Chima
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

25

POINT AND COUNTERPOINT

Corporal Talbot’s timely arrival was both a blessing and a curse, as far as Evan was concerned. The news about the attack on Chalk Cliffs supported parts of the story that Evan was telling, but it also meant that his warning had come too late. The fact that Celestine already had a foothold in the east made him feel crowded. It made him want to keep traveling west until he reached the edge of the world. And maybe jump off.

It also meant that his movements were limited now. It didn’t help that he and his crew were locked up together in a suite of rooms. It was like being penned in with a pack of nervous cats. Not even the ritual of tay would settle their nerves.

He wondered if Destin knew about the attack on Chalk Cliffs. If he didn’t, he would hear about it before long. Would that make Evan’s job easier or harder?

Evan was almost grateful when the wetlanders called him into the queen’s small hall for questioning. His crew, not so much.

“What if you never come back?” Brody said, shifting from foot to foot in his agitation. “What will become of us?”

“We should fight our way out,” Jorani said, producing a dagger from some hidden place. Evan half-expected her to come up with a bow and a quiver of arrows and a trebuchet as well.

“If we try to fight our way out, I will be killed, and you won’t,” Evan said. He brushed at his fine breeches, which by now were looking less fine. “How is that helpful?”

She seemed stumped by that question. After a moment’s pause, she stowed the blade away.

The bloodsworn turned Stormborn were the fiercest, most loyal crew he’d ever known, but they were like children in some ways. They could be led, but they weren’t skilled at making decisions on their own.

Celestine probably likes it that way, he thought, but I don’t. I could use a little help.

When Evan arrived at the small hall, his interrogators were waiting for him. All the faces were at least marginally familiar. The wolf queen. Captain Byrne. The queen’s niece, Lady Barrett. The queen’s sister, the princess Mellony. Lord Bayar, the High Wizard. Hadley DeVilliers. The upland mage, Shadow Dancer. Corporal Talbot, who’d brought the news of the fall of Chalk Cliffs. And, of course, the healer—Prince Adrian sul’Han, who sat in the corner nearest the hearth, his face in and out of shadow.

In Ardenscourt, sul’Han had always worn drab healer’s colors, so it was a bit of a shock to see him dressed in velvets and satin. The prince had his mother’s eyes, with a bit more blue in them, and a hint of her coppery complexion below his coppery hair.

Evan was beginning to realize that there was no way to win over the queen if he didn’t win over the healer. Sul’Han was the son of the queen, after all, and blood trumps everything else. Even if she believed what Evan had to say, when it came to a choice, she would choose her own blood.

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