And he didn’t hesitate when he said, “Yes.”
“Then I need you to believe me about—”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“And I trust her. I’m not asking you to. But I am telling you to trust me about her.”
“That was… devious. Well played, Knight Delicious Face. But what the hell does this have to do with everyone staring at me weird?”
“They think you’re angry with them,” he said. He waved his hand at the camp. “These are the people who thought you left them because of what they did to you. They turned their backs on you, and they thought you’d done the same to them. They’re scare
d, Sam. They have been for a long time. And then you come back and it’s….” He shook his head tiredly. “They want to have hope. The whole… destiny thing is well-known now. It’s grown. They speak of it like a legend.”
“Katya and Brant.”
“What about them?”
“When they were trapped on the cliff’s edge by Caleb and the Darks, Katya said… she said that she believed in me, that I would come and save them. That I’d return one day.”
“And then you happened to pop out and do just that.”
“Right? So badass.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it did wonders for your fragile ego.”
“Sarcasm. Nice. I approve. I couldn’t disappoint my fans.”
Ryan rolled his eyes, and I wanted to watch his face for the rest of my days, taking in everything I’d missed. “They’re in awe of you, Sam. They know of the dragons. What the gods have put upon your shoulders. What you’re tasked with. They need you. And they worry you won’t care.”
“How do you know all this?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been living with it for months now. Look, Sam. When we’re children, we hear stories of heroes and villains, of knights and wizards fighting against rogues and scoundrels. Good always triumphs over evil. Then we grow up and we pass them on to the next generation, even if we don’t quite believe in them anymore. But that’s changed now. Because they want to believe. They need you, Sam. They need you to be their hero. And they’re scared you won’t want to be.”
I looked at the people around us, the way they hunched their shoulders as they passed us by, looking at the ground as they shuffled their feet in the grass and dirt. A few of them would look up at me, eyes widening when they saw me looking back, and then move quickly away. Children openly gawked as their parents struggled to pull them down the dirt road. Only the knights standing at their posts throughout the camp seemed to meet my gaze for any length of time, but they’d always had my back.
“I’m not some kind of savior,” I said quietly, beginning to feel the weight of expectation pressing down upon my shoulders.
“Aren’t you?” Ryan asked, arching an eyebrow. “Because that’s what they need you to do. Save them. That’s what they’ve been waiting for.”
“They scoffed at me. They turned their backs on me. They hated me. They did everything in their power to have me removed as Morgan’s apprentice.”
“They did.”
“And now that they don’t have any other choice, they need me.”
“They do.”
“You think it’s that simple.”
He shrugged. “Probably.”
“Huh. I’ll be honest. I’m probably going to lord this over them so much that even Kevin will be impressed. I’m going to be so insufferable, you are going to regret this whole guilt trip pep talk whatever. Okay. I’ll do it.”
Ryan blinked. “That’s it?”
I squinted at him. “Should I have said no?”