Silk & Steel by Ariana Nash & Pippa DaCosta

Author:Ariana Nash & Pippa DaCosta [Nash, Ariana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crazy Ace Publishing
Published: 2019-01-17T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

Eroan

Eroan had never imagined he’d return. None of the Order thought it. When they left the forest with blades clipped to their belts, wrists, and thighs, a righteous fire in their hearts, they left behind their lives and their futures.

He drifted down the winding village track, feeling detached and changed inside, as though he were a ghost and none of this was real. Children playing outside their village huts saw him first and stared, wide-eyed, at his blood-painted chest and face, at his torn trousers, at the stained blades crossed against his back. When they didn’t move to greet him, Eroan was sure he had died and this was a dream, one that would guide him to Alumn’s blessed garden.

He walked on, closer to the heart of the village. His people began to emerge from inside their homes. Emotion tried to choke him, trip him, rob him of all strength, so he fell, but he kept his eyes ahead, kept his thoughts in line. It wasn’t over, not yet. A few more steps.

The village fountain burbled ahead—a natural spring bubbling over granite rocks into a pool. Sunlight sparked across the water, making it appear as though diamonds trickled over the rocks. He knelt and plunged his hands into the basin. Blood flaked off and dissolved, clouding the cool water pink.

Cupping his hands, he splashed his face, gasping at the sudden cold. His heart, so strong a thing until now, fluttered, suddenly fragile and light like it might shatter. Dozens of gazes rode his back. It might even be all the village. They were silent, so all he heard was his own heart thudding. He knew their thoughts: Order assassins never returned.

He rose slowly and lifted his head. Hundreds stared back at him, eyes full of hope, wonder, and fear. Young and old. The Order was here, smudges of dark on the fringes of the crowd, glittering with weapons. Every single one watched and waited for the truth.

He swallowed, unsure if he could find his voice. The crowd shuffled apart, revealing Elder Xena in her fine white robes. Behind her, a female hunter with a bow at her back. Her eyes wide and shining with unshed tears. Janna. He felt himself break. She knew him beneath all the blood and wreckage. So this was real, it wasn’t some dream he’d buried himself in.

His chest tightened, and his flighty heart threatened to break free.

“You return to us, Eroan Ilanea?” Elder Xena spoke loud and true, lifting her voice so it carried over the sound of the fountain. The voice of reason, the voice of law. But even her gray eyes shone with fragile hope.

He nodded once and swallowed the great swell of emotion, so that when he spoke, it was clear and unbroken. “It is done.”

Xena blinked and drew in a sudden breath. Relief flashed across her face. Relief and pride. She turned. “It is done!”

Cries went up, hands reached for him, closed around him, kisses, touches, so much adoration he thought he might drown in it.

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