“Safa was just a ploy. Bait to pull the others into action,” Caelan replied dully. He felt like such a fucking fool. This idea of racing from one godstone to another to beat her had been utter nonsense from the start. Zyros had wanted him to draw all the pieces onto the gameboard.
He chuckled softly, shaking his head. “Did she know?”
“That she was another pawn? No.”
Caelan sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. He was tired of playing with the gods. “And you want to use me as another to finish the game.”
Zyros’s features sharpened as she smiled. “If I was using you, little godling, you’d be on the other side of me right now being helpful like my Lore.” As she spoke, she released his hair and dropped her hand so that it was in front of his chest. She curled her fingers into a fist and a gold chain appeared within it, running from his collar, across her palm and spilling down to the floor in front of the God of Wisdom. As she held the chain, a low, pained moan escaped Lore and he grew even paler before Caelan’s eyes.
Was she siphoning power from the God of Wisdom?
Caelan was still trying to wrap his brain around what he was seeing when she continued speaking.
“You and I have no quarrel, godling. If anything, we are alike in what we’ve suffered at their hands as well as what we’ve gained. Thia has no use for the old gods. If you help me kill Tula, I will consider us friends. I’ll leave your Erya untouched for all time. Your people will know no trouble from me and mine.”
Gods, it was a tempting offer, and she knew it. The fact that he hadn’t thrown it back in her face immediately proved that he was considering it. Rayne would be having a fucking fit if he were present.
“I can give you one more day to consider my offer,” Zyros declared.
“And after that?”
She shrugged. “I need you alive only long enough to summon the other gods here.”
Behind him, the heavy doors moaned and scraped as they were shoved open. A pair of heavy footsteps tromped into the room, drawing closer. Caelan shoved to his feet and even offered a small bow of his head, which made her smile.
“Before I go, I want you to know that I told Rayne that you were Gilea. He wanted me to send his most sincere apology if he caused you any harm or discomfort when he healed you. It was never his intention.”
What Rayne had actually felt was horror at discovering that Gilea was Zyros, but Caelan knew his advisor. When the young woman had been hurt, he’d only seen a wound to be healed. Caelan didn’t doubt that Rayne would have done the same thing even if he’d known that Gilea was the Goddess of the Hunt.
To Caelan’s surprise, Zyros’s dark gaze darted away from him. She could no longer hold his eyes as she brusquely waved for the guards to take him away. She wasn’t all cold-blooded hatred and vengeance. He just prayed he hadn’t put Rayne in danger to get that snippet of information.
TWENTY-ONE
Adrian Westergren
Adrian ducked his head as another barrage was fired at the ridge. The Empire’s return fire followed, but it felt almost leisurely, as if they weren’t putting much effort behind it.
They weren’t.
There was no point in wasting more ammunition than was needed. New Rosanthe had the high ground. They just needed to keep the combined Caspagir and Erya forces trapped where they were, effectively stopping them from lending support to Caelan and the others in Green Spring.
The first two days of the trek had been relatively smooth sailing, particularly with the addition of the dragons. Once they’d figured out that dragons could knock over trees and clear passable roads faster than the army’s engineers, Haru had set them to work in shifts, allowing them to cover more miles than anyone would have guessed they could.
And Adrian remained at the front of the line the entire time with at least two dragons and a dozen soldiers. His only job was to name the direction, and everyone else did the rest.
It wasn’t even hard or exhausting work on his part. Now that they were in the Ordas, the line between him and Caelan had become an almost relentless tug. The closer they got to Caelan, the harder it was to stop. Especially with the king no longer moving.
They were stuck.
They’d gone through a couple of small skirmishes against the Empire forces, but nothing that had caused them too much trouble. There were even a few attacks at night by the local wildlife, but after two dragons were added to the night guard duty, the animals decided that they had no opportunities to pick anyone off and went to search for food elsewhere.