CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Liam
It's dark. Cold. My head feels… glossy? Illusionary sensations of light dance across my face, a tingle runs through my palms and an ache through my mind. What is this?
"Ahh, there she is. Major? Your prisoner is awake!"
She? The tapping of rubber on stone retreats, replaced by a gentle chuckle.
A dragging pulls forward on the breadth of my shoulders, and another like the grasp of a hand around my soul - driven by an unadulterated rage - bids to restrain me.
"You drugged me." Violet's voice cracks like thunder from all directions. "I trusted you." Said like a slash across the throat. The tow on my shoulders intensifies to a strength beyond what I can cope with, straining my spine in almost intolerable ways until finally winning, beating out the desperate claw that wraps my heart, and dropping me to the stones.
Blood-stained walls and a solitary metal gate let not but a dim glow enter the space. A familiar cane thwacks ahead, holding up the dark ebony skin only recognisable as Nolon. "Three questions. How you did it, who you did it with, and most importantly," a dead silence holds before his hoarse voice asks, "Why?", in a last, dejected tone.
Relief floods the bond knotted around me, but not my own. Violet's.
"Let's start with how you breached a royal ward" Varrish suggests from further right, beside a tall red-headed Lieutenant. Somehow, I'd entirely missed their presence. Royal ward? King Tauri has nothing at Basgiath he'd need to ward… other than-
"It would be impossible for me to breach a royal ward, seeing as I'm not royal." Violet cuts my thought off, she stole from the king to learn about wards. The information seems readily available for me somehow, Xaden took her to Aretia. To Brennan. She must know.
"She's telling the truth," The Lieutenant confirms. "My signet detects lies. Tell one, and I'll know."
My heart jolts. Varrish brought in a truth-sayer to interrogate her. He does not intend to be nice here.
"Violet, please," Nolon begins to plead, how dare he? Acting like this after so much time at her bedside as a child. Disgusted, I almost miss what he's saying. "Help us. Tell us, and this will go much easier for you."
"You're jumping to the why part." Varrish rolls his eyes. "Honestly, Nolon, this is why you've never been suited to interrogation." Locking his gaze to Violet's like a dragon to sheep. "How."
"How can you assume that book isn't a reproduction if you haven't verified the original is even missing?" Violet directs to Nolon who glances to Varrish as if he himself doesn't have an answer.
"We have the fucking journal. Is it a reproduction?" He circles her chained frame, my strength builds enough to get my feet beneath me as my blood starts to burn.
"I wouldn't know, seeing as I haven't examined it." Her words slap Nolon in the face. There hadn't been time.
Brilliant fucking woman. Flowing pride creeps into the beginnings of a smile, weakening the restraints that had me slowed.
I mirror the Vice Commandant's step as he descends on a knee a few inches away from her. "Who stole that book for you?"
"I alone put that particular book into its bag. And I'm done answering your questions." Violet barks right in his face with a ferocity I remember from the lake like it was yesterday. "If you want to put me on trial, then call a quorum of wingleaders and do so according to the rules put forth in the Codex." She commands his gaze, her expression unwavering.
THWACK.
The back of his hand crosses Violet's face, throwing it hard to the side. Gluttonous rage builds deep within me, alongside a desire to slam Varrish into the stones below our feet and see just how high that pompous ass would bounce.
"Violence, remember it's only the body that's fragile. You are unbreakable."
I'm startled against the wall by Xaden's voice echoing in my ears. But he's not there. I'm held only in her mind.
"Don't worry. I'll start small." My eyes dart back forward. "You have all the power here, Cadet Sorrengail. This stops as soon as you talk."
Forced only to watch as her fingers snap and she lets out a cry that shakes my core, an old hero's tale comes to mind.
"They say great people are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light that flame." Xaden once told me Violet would be the best of us in time. Sliding my back down the sharp wall stones - as her eyes fade into unconsciousness - I tell myself I'll be the kindling that keeps her alight.
Fluttering back to life, Violet manages to creep open her eyes.
"Sleep, if you can." I urge, softly wishing to the gods she could hear me.
You're not really here. You're a hallucination from pain and dehydration. A mirage.
My jaw drops and my hands clam up. She heard me. She heard my desperation. But she's right. I cannot really be here?
The thought barely enters my mind but I answer before it's too late. "Maybe." Shifting along the floor towards her and resting my arm beside her own, as if proximity will help, I attempt to bring reason to what this is. I don't feel like a hallucination. "Or maybe Malek sent me as a kindness." It sounds completely unreasonable except that - well - I died.
Malek doesn't do Kindness.
She's right.
Nor does he allow souls to wander about.
That's what I must be. What the clawing grasp was. Malek had no intentions to let me be where I am. Whichever greater power called me here, it understood exactly what Violet needed. I will not walk away.
"I'm not wandering, Violet. I'm exactly where I need to be."
Everything hurts. Her pain transfers through me like a precursory strike.
"I know it does. But you're staying strong." Maybe I can offer a little refuge from the misery that consumes her mind "I am so proud of you."
Of course that's what my subconscious would say - exactly what I need to hear.
It makes no difference whether I'm a subconscious thought or actually me, her strength seats her on a throne of pride to me. The strongest person I've ever met. I'll ever meet. And I'll never get the chance to tell her.
"Bring in her squad," Nora suggests from the antechamber. "She'll break as soon as you start on them."
My body tightens at the threat.
"She didn't break during assessment," Varrish responds.
Violet is undeniably stronger than I'd understood, so far beyond loyal.
"Deverra and Emetterio are already asking where she is, as is the rest of her squad. She's missed class today."
Shit. Time hasn't even felt like a real passing to me, I guess it might not be? "That means you've been here for two days," I mutter mostly to myself, but knowing she can hear it.
It'll be another five before Xaden realizes I'm missing.
I scoff. Bonds dimmed or not she really thinks he doesn't know? That Xaden's not out there right now hunting the creatures that took Deigh down as if they are fish in a barrel. I'm not even sure how I know that, but pissing Xaden off is never a good idea. "You think he's not already losing his shit?" A drop of pride slides down my back.
"That dragon of yours may not be able to reach you this deep under Basgiath, but Xaden's going to rip this place apart brick by brick. You just have to survive." Letting every ounce of determination and sheer willpower flow from me down in the hope she can share it.
He can't risk the movement. He won't.
"He will."
Varrish knocks the door open and paces himself to stand only inches away from where I kneel, lowering his eyes to match hers. "We could have had an equal exchange of information, since we both know it wasn't gryphons that killed your friend's dragon."
Deigh.
For a moment the sensation of leather strapped tight under my shoulders floods me. Wind dragging my legs to the side as I hang from the muscular neck of Tairn, a combination of ruby red and vile gray flash over Violet's shoulder. For a moment I can almost feel the sharp talons pierce the scales of my beloved Deigh like it's my own skin. No.
I shut the memory from my mind before it controls me, focussing on the cold stone beneath me and violet, pushing the pain to my boots to pin them in place.
"Don't fall for it." Shaking my head desperately, pleading with myself that she understands his manipulation strategy; to pull on the pain and anguish experienced on that day. "You know he's trying to play you."
He knows that she didn't visit a healer after Resson. That they didn't take her to another outpost. "Where did you go, Cadet Sorrengail? Where are you trying to ward?"
This is so much bigger than stealing a book from the king.
"Do you know what my signet is, Cadet Sorrengail? Why it is I'm so good in this room? It's classified, but we're all friends here, aren't we?"
A lump forms in my throat.
"I don't see people." He tilts his head and grins. "I see their weaknesses."
Ringing floods back into my ears as I realize the substantiality of his words.
"Honestly, you surprised me when we first met. From everything I'd heard about the youngest Sorrengail, I expected to look at you and see pain. But at first I saw… nothing." He runs his finger along the break in her arm in a clear threat. "Your weaknesses are the people you love. Squad Leader Matthias and the rest of your squad, your sister, your dragons." he pauses. "Lieutenant Riorson."
Pure hate swallows me whole, only this doesn't belong to me. Violet needs to relax before she loses the hold she has on herself.
"Hold steady, Vi." It's all I can say as he presses the metaphorical knife to her throat, but she fights back all on her own.
"Does Solas enjoy hiding?" She bites.
Fuck yes. That's the girl I wrote about in my letters.
"You're hunting Xaden, but Tairn is hunting Solas. You're weaker on both counts." I mirror her smile as she splits her lip back open. "I might die in this chamber, but I promise you will." Ferocity drops with the last word, before her tone changes as she whispers to me.
Don't leave me.
I would never. I am her crutch in this moment. I am where I promised I would be. This is where I belong. "I won't. I swear."
The battle for the connection that seems to hold me in place falters for just a moment, and hours pass. Days, maybe.
"The book she stole gave us detailed instructions on how the wards were built and could be used as a map to unravel them." Varrish clasps Dain's shoulder and Violet's emotions knock me on my ass. Regret, grief, anger. "I don't think you're going to be able to stop this." Dropping my head low, my gaze remains on Violet.
"Riorson deserted days ago, according to the reports we received this morning."
Violet can't shield him out with that serum in her veins.
"He can search your memories Violet, But logic says he has to muddle through what you're thinking first." I need her to fill her mind. I push the thought of what she should never be forced to relive. The one thing I can give her that might be able to confuse Dains signet. The thing I vowed to keep her from. Pain…
"Remember. Show him what you want him to see. Show him… me."
Dain presses his hands to her head like claws.
They may have blocked me from my power, that stems from Tairn. The control I have over my mind? That's mine, and it's all I have left.
From the stone floor to several thousand feet in the air, I rush back to that position near Tairn's shoulder, Violet's grip around my forearm, and mine hers. Dear gods the pain is so much worse this time around. Shredding my body into two hundred pieces, unrelenting and leaving me completely helpless. Nothing to do but suffer through the torrent of emotion, undecipherable in origin. Mine, Violet's, Deigh's? It all combines into one mess of sorrow.
In a snap I hit the ground and the bond is gone. From where Deigh used to fill my mind comes the bitter flow of raw power destined to burn me from the inside out. The grip returns to my chest, dragging me back from whence I came. Malek. No fighting it this time.
Violet's eyes hold above mine reflecting the rich red scales of my beloved Deigh just a few feet away on one side, and the pale gold of the grass to the other. I lay here dying all over again.
"Thank you, Liam." Violet's sweet voice stammers above me. "Thank you for being my shadow."
Knowing the inevitable is coming, I let go of my emotions.
"Thank you for being my friend." She chokes.
A single tear runs down my cheek mirroring the flood she holds back. In this moment, the second time around, I understand. I am here because even Malek himself, god albeit, cannot kill me in a way that matters. I will face him down and walk backwards into his hellscape if it means I can give her the strength she needs. I let the words out one last time.
"It's been. My honor."