The Blood Sigil (The Sigilord Chronicles Book 2) by Hoffman Kevin

Author:Hoffman, Kevin [Hoffman, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-01-18T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

"You're an idiot," Luse said as soon as Urus opened his eyes.

He lay on his back on a firm cot, gazing up at Luse's black hair and mesmerizing jade eyes. He hoped she might have been joking, but those eyes betrayed no humor or mirth. She was genuinely upset.

Urus attempted to speak but a dry soreness in his throat held his words in check. It wouldn't have mattered, as Luse stood up and began her diatribe.

"We were only there by chance," she said, pacing, but still making sure Urus could see her lips. Of all the lips he had been forced to stare at over the years, he enjoyed reading hers the most. "Out of our own goodness, we thought to check on them, to see if they needed aid. And they call us trespassers!"

Urus managed to sit upright and inspect the damage inflicted by Battlemaster Guren. Despite the bruising, his ribs seemed to have mended, as had his face and arms. As Luse paused to take a deep breath before continuing, like knocking another arrow into a crossbow, Urus noticed the sigils on the walls. Etched low on the walls, just above the cots, a few of them still pulsed with the green of Luse's power. He recognized the ancient stone that played host to the symbols.

A sigilord infirmary? Luse must have transported them to Vultura, he realized.

"Trespassers!" she shouted. "The nerve! The outright nerve of that backward, arrogant, pig-headed man!"

"It is their way," Urus managed to say, the words scratching at his throat as they made their way out.

"Their way is absurd!" Luse spun to face him with her hands planted on her hips. "Who lives like that? Who believes strength is the only measure of a person?"

"I did," Urus said, meeting her gaze. He winced in pain as he swung his legs off the cot to sit up.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry," Luse said, pulling another cot close and sitting before him. "I…I got…well, they just upset me so much!"

"Why am I an idiot?" Urus asked.

"I would've gotten to that, eventually. You let that man insult you. You let him beat you, in front of all your people. I saw the blue on your fingertips…you could have killed him. You could have overcome him, humiliated him in front of all the Kestians. They would have respected you for defeating him."

"But they respect me more now for not beating him," Urus said.

"Is that why you did it? To teach them a lesson?"

Urus thought about it for a moment. He could lie; he could tell her that his motives were altruistic and he was trying to show his people the error of their ways. But the truth was, dying at the hands of the man who had branded him culled seemed fitting.

Urus wished Goodwyn were there. Goodwyn would have known what to do. People who trust each other don't lie to each other, was what Goodwyn used to say.

"No," Urus said. He took a deep breath, grimacing as pain jabbed at him behind the ribs on his left side.

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