The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart

Author:Andrea Stewart [Stewart, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2023-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

24

Jovis

Riya Island

Ragan looked better than when I’d seen him last – sleeker, better-fed, more relaxed and more confident. Nisong wasn’t at his side and neither was Lozhi. In their place, however, was an entourage of men and women, all armed to the hilt. His white-bladed sword was strapped to his side, his fingers touching it every so often as though he were reminding himself it was still there.

They weren’t Ioph Carn. Mercenaries?

What in all the known islands was Ragan doing here? It felt like a cruel twist of fate, that I’d run into him again after he’d beaten me so soundly on Hualin Or. But both Kaphra and Ragan wanted power and it seemed I would keep colliding with Ragan until one of us died.

Philine’s hand touched my arm and I started. I’d almost forgotten she was there. “We have a task.” Her voice was firm, her face even more so.

I pulled my arm away. “I have to follow him. And you can’t send Mephi back. Not if Ragan’s here.”

Mephi gave a questioning rumble, deep in his chest. I lifted an arm, guiding him behind a merchant’s stall. If Ragan looked back, he’d spot Mephi, and he’d be a dead giveaway on my location.

Philine’s eyes narrowed. “Fine. Mephi stays, but you know what Kaphra commanded. You’re not here to chase errant Alanga. You’re here to kill the Alanga in the monastery. That’s all.”

I sighed. “Is this how you climbed the ranks of the Ioph Carn from tracker to Kaphra’s right hand? By following orders to the letter?”

“In a word, yes.”

I might not have been able to think my way around Kaphra’s commands yet, but I knew how to make my words slippery as a fish, to make them leap from the grasp of my listener, until I was the one who was making my audience dance rather than the other way around. My eyes darted between Ragan’s quickly vanishing back and Philine’s face. “Why did Kaphra send me here?”

“To kill the Alanga in the monastery.”

Dione’s balls, the woman was unflappable. “No. Those were just his orders, not his reasoning. He sent me here to prove myself after I’d failed to kill Ragan. I need to follow him, find out what he’s up to, figure out if I can catch him in a moment of weakness.” My feet were moving before I’d finished talking.

Philine hurried to catch up, her stride matching mine. “You’re talking nonsense. Kaphra was clear in his orders.”

If I were a cat my ears would have been flat against my head. “Was he?” Ragan and his fellows disappeared around a corner. I ducked a low-hanging palm frond and peered around the bend. “We’re close to where the path to the monastery begins. Just wait there with Mephi. You know I’ll come back for him. You know I won’t leave him with you.”

“No.” Philine stopped in her tracks. “Jovis, stop.”

My feet stopped moving, refusing to obey my commands. My heart was beating wildly, still unsure exactly how I felt

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