"If she knew about the Blade, I'm sure she would tell us," I said meaningfully. When her only response was to take another bite of food, I added, "Kestra and I searched Risha's cell together. It wasn't there."
"Then you looked in the wrong place!" Tenger turned to Kestra. "You must go back to Woodcourt and search until it's found."
Now she dropped her fork. "You can't be serious. After all I've done, all you forced me to do, you know very well I can never return there!"
"You're a Dallisor. They'll take you in before admitting that one of their own blood could betray them."
"That's the whole point--" I began.
She quickly interrupted. "The point is that even if they do accept me, I was supposed to marry tonight. If I go home, those plans will immediately resume. I won't be at Woodcourt long enough to find the Blade."
"What are your choices?" Tenger asked. "You have no means to survive on your own, and no Antoran will accept you. I'm your only protection, and to get it, you'll do as I say."
She arched her neck in defiance. "Or I'll leave Antora."
Trina snorted. "What country would take you in, risking Endrick's wrath?"
No one would. Not for any price. Kestra knew this better than anyone.
But she didn't show it. Her brow was knit in concentration, as if trying to control her temper. "Wherever I go, it won't be in service to the Coracks."
"Then you failed to deliver on your agreement!" Tenger stood so quickly his chair fell to the floor behind him. His right hand widened, a quick test of the grip glove. "You know what that means!"
I knew. It would start with the grip glove and an absence of mercy. It would end with her death, or Darrow's. That explained Gabe's lever blade.
Beneath the table, my hand quietly shifted to my sword. Even if I had the strength to swing it, I still couldn't use it against my captain and friends. Nor could I let them harm Kestra. My heart pounded against what was left of my ribs, leaving my chest throbbing with pain.
"Kill me, and you'll lose your last chance to find the Olden Blade." Kestra raised her voice. "Heed my demands, and you might yet see it."
Tenger's tone darkened and he made a gesture toward Gabe, silently ordering him to pull out his weapon. "Heed your demands? No, my lady--"
"If you want the dagger, you will not threaten me."
"This is no idle threat, Kestra. This is real." Tenger flicked his eyes and Gabe stepped forward, the sharp tip of the lever blade facing her.
Tenger would say it was a shame, that he had given her the chance to save herself, that he'd had no other choice. He would say she was a necessary sacrifice. He would give the order.
I had to stop it.
"She didn't fail." I refused to look over at Kestra as I spoke. "She's hidden the Olden Blade out of reach of the Dallisors, and out of our reach if we harm her. Kestra knows where it is--only she knows."
Everyone turned to Kestra for a response. Except me. From the corner of my eye, I saw her hand on the table, clenching and unclenching.
"Is this true?" The fact that Tenger wasn't screaming was proof of miracles.
Kestra wasn't answering, and even if she tried, it'd likely be laced with curses at me. Let her be angry. I'd just saved her life.
Tenger quickly lost patience with her silence. With a snap of his fingers, Gabe disappeared through a different door in the room and returned a moment later half-carrying Darrow, who could not have stood otherwise. I gasped when I saw him. His cheeks were sunken in and his eyes, which bore evidence of laugh lines, had hollowed out. The wound had torn free from its cauterization and was covered in a bandage that had bled through. Why had they let him get this bad? Any respect Kestra might have had for the Coracks would be lost now.
"Kestra?" Darrow tried to say something more, but no sound escaped his lips. I doubted he had enough strength for it.
Her face tense with worry, Kestra started to get up, but I pulled her back into her chair, whispering, "Don't make this worse."
"You'd know all about making things worse," she snapped. Yet she remained in her seat, her eyes seeing nothing through her anger but Darrow.
A third person came through the door, our physician. Loelle had been with the Coracks since long before my time, and I knew almost nothing about her except that if you could get to her alive, no matter what condition you were in, she could probably heal you. Trina once told me that Loelle had some Endrean medicines, miraculous treatments that made cauterization powder seem like roadside dust. Now I wondered why she had these treatments. What if Kestra was not the only Endrean to have survived Endrick's wrath?
"This is Loelle," Tenger said to Kestra. "She's kept your servant alive until now, but what I order her to do next is entirely up to you. In Loelle's hand is the medicine Darrow needs to survive. If he gets it, by morning he will be healed and returned to your service, as promised. In Gabe's hand is a lever blade, capable of stopping Darrow's pain in an entirely different way. Who would you have me give orders to?"