Chapter 35

WHEN DAWN brOKE, KNOXstrode through the clearing to the front door of the lodge. His eyes were red-rimmed, and he avoided eye contact when he sat at the kitchen table. The dwarves spoke in hushed tones, avoiding him.

But Ashur sat directly across from him and cleared his throat. He ate a bite of porridge, but Knox looked up at him and then back down at his own bowl.

"Out with it," he told Ashur, his voice hoarse and scratchy.

Ashur paused, eyeing him warily, then said, "What"s your plan for Scarlet?"

Knox took a deep breath. "Rescue her."

Ashur nodded. "In that case, you should know that she"s in the dungeons, safe for now, but there are dozens of others down there with her, including a few Robins."

Knox lifted his chin and met Ashur"s wary gaze, for once his face serious. Knox sat up slowly, his spine stiffening as he waited for more details.

Knox frowned. "Dozens?"

Ashur nodded. "The king has gotten worse since the wedding. That next day, he set fire to one of his guard houses because they didn"t protect the reception and stop the robbery. Each day since we robbed the nobles, he"s done something new. First, it was increasing the watch on the town and surrounding areas."

Ashur took a drink before continuing. "Then he started arresting dozens of people, families even, burning down their houses and claiming they were in league with the Robins or the Glathens. Now the whole kingdom is under martial law, the returning soldiers now turned into guards and jailers for their own families."

Knox" eyes narrowed. "Why?"

Ashur rubbed his chin. "He"s interrogating them for information on the Robins, even kids and women. He–he might have found the magical runes that we used to get through the forest with relative safety."

"What?" Knox released a sharp curl of smoke from his nose.

"Some of the stronger men he"s using as forced slave labor to chop down the trees to make the new road. Will has stopped them for now with a stomach bug, but he can"t keep them all sick for much longer. With the runes, he"s going to launch an attack directly into the forest."

Knox wiped his mouth and sighed. Eirwyn would be gone in three days, but he couldn"t wait around here doing nothing. He had to protect the forest and rescue Scarlet. And Eirwyn"s people. She"d want him to protect and rescue them too.

Ashur waved a hand and casually said, "Also, the king had an interesting discussion with his general about raising a skeletal army on the battlefield. That"s why he recalled the troops to celebrate his wedding. He"s not going on a honeymoon. He"s invading Glathen with a skeletal army, raising both Glathen and Busparia forces that fell and were buried on the battlefield."

Krys sat down across from him and stirred his spoon in his bowl. "Just like how the king controlled the dragon skeleton in a last ditch effort to kill Eirwyn. He was practicing, which might be why he"s gathered all the battle mages at the entrance to the new road he"s trying to build. He"s probably going to send them back into Glathen."

Knox blinked and tilted his head to the side. "How do you know he met with his general?"

Krys sat down his own bowl of porridge and joined them at the table. "We"ve been analyzing more of Eirwyn"s memories and saw him using necromancy before, so we know he"s capable. There was a hushed overheard conversation a few months ago with the general. She might not have even realized she heard it."

Knox stared at the dwarf as his ruddy cheeks flushed redder. Knox rubbed his temples and sighed, his headache growing worse.

Krys looked at him over the rim of his glasses. "You have to stop him, Knox."

Ashur held up a hand. "Now, hear us out, Knox. I know you don"t want to kill the king–"

Knox" jaw clenched, and he slammed a fist on the table. "The hells I don"t. The king will die for what he"s done to Eirwyn."

Knox" chest tightened, and a snort of green gas escaped his nose and sank to the table.

Ashur seemed to relax in his seat at the outburst even as he leaned away from the table. "He"s not going to rest until she"s dead. She"s a threat to his power, as the only other drakin in the kingdom."

Silence descended around them, all eyes turning on him.

Knox sat back, the weight of responsibility heavy on his shoulders. He tried to ignore them, but he"d been doing that his entire life. He couldn"t just ignore who he was anymore. There was a job to do, people to save, a forest to protect.

He took a drink of his tankard of ale. It all tasted like ash in his mouth. Without Eirwyn, it had all lost its luster. Eirwyn was all but dead already, and there wasn"t a damn thing he could do to stop it.

But he could stop the king and save the people.

"She"s not the only drakin in the land. The Glathens might help with the rebellion if it means ending the war."

Ashur arched a brow and waved to Knox" head. "You can help too, if you"re a drakin. But the king will want you dead too."

Knox pursed his lips and nodded.

Ashur said. "The king might know you"re a drakin. He saw you both in the mirror when he was controlling the dragon, so he might know your weaknesses too. We can"t just go in blind."

Knox took a deep breath, some of his anger turning to cold resolve in his stomach. He"d known he couldn"t keep who he was hidden forever. Hell, at least he knew who he was now.

Krys cleared his throat, his cheeks reddening more. "Uh, I might"ve gone through your saddlebags and read your books. Are you a drakin?"

Ashur waved his hand and frowned. "Come on, Krys, what else could he be?"

Knox crossed his arms and leaned back. "I"m a dragon, not a drakin."

Silence settled on the crowd again, then Ashur scowled and reached into his pocket. He handed a few coins to Krys, who was grinning widely.

Knox" brows rose, and Ashur shrugged.

"They said you were, but dragons died out ages ago. Who would"ve thought you were a full dragon? Sorry, mate, but not I."

Knox snorted a laugh and shook his head, rubbing his temple. "It"s fine. It is rather hard to believe."

"What can you do? Can you turn into a big, hulking dragon like that skeleton in your memory?"

Knox winced and stood, picking up his bowl and tankard. "That dragon skeleton was my father, so maybe. I haven"t tried, although in the past few days, I seem to have grown more scales and can shift my hands into claws."

Knox took a deep breath as memories flitted through his mind. If Eirwyn were here, she"d be humming while she cooked and cleaned the kitchen. What he wouldn"t give to hear her voice again, see her smile, watch the way she danced with the birds in the grass outside Hartsgrove.

The pressure on his chest increased, and the emotions threatened to drown him once more.

Knox cleared his throat and turned away from the sink. "We need a plan. We"ll ride to Vidrland to rally the troops after you"re finished eating."

Krys stood, gathering his own bowl. "I can help with the plan. When going through Eirwyn"s memories, we saw how she could sneak out of the palace."

Ashur nodded, and Knox swallowed past the lump in his throat. He wanted to go through all of her memories, see everything she"d ever seen in her too short life.

He turned to face Krys, blinking rapidly as a thought made his heart race. "Do not bury her," he said. "I"m going to go take care of this drakin king and save her people, then I"ll be back. Leave her in there until I return?"

Krys nodded and frowned as he put his own bowl in the sink, but he didn"t argue. "We"ll keep her alive and in stasis, but whether she wakes up from the Beyond..."

Knox turned to walk to the stables, his legs shaking from emotion. He left Krys and Ashur talking in the kitchen.

He leaned on the workshop table, his thoughts racing and his heart aching. Somehow he had to find the strength to leave her here, even though his entire being was telling him to stay by her side.

He didn"t want to leave Eirwyn here, but he couldn"t just do nothing when the people suffered. They were counting on him. His saddle bags lay on the work table, and he dumped everything out.

His father"s necklace shone bright, cleaned of dirt. The emerald brought a sense of peace, and he slipped it over his neck. His mother"s ring began to heat on his finger, and he pulled it off and placed it on top of the book.

He"d barely read half of one book while at Hartsgrove, but there was no need to read anything else. A book wouldn"t bring Eirwyn back, and that was all that mattered. Did he really even need answers to who he was anymore?

He picked up the golden apple, a single bite marring its side. His heart skipped a beat, and he caught his breath. What if the answers to save Eirwyn were in the apple too? He threw all caution to the wind as a flare of hope drove him to desperation. He sniffed it, then took a bite too.

"What the hell are you doing?" Krys asked.

Knox chewed as the flavors burst on his tongue. It tasted nothing like a regular apple, but all the flavors in the world wouldn"t bring him a measure of joy in the delicious fruit.

He shrugged. "I"m doing the only thing I can do. I"m sticking to the original plan. Eat the golden apple and get fucking answers."

He took another bite, but nothing happened. The pressure in his chest burned, and he screamed and threw the apple at the wall. It broke into multiple pieces.

"Fucking thing isn"t working." He rubbed his temples, his breathing labored as he tried to calm down. His tail wavered behind him, shaking slightly at his heightened emotions.

Krys" stare bored into him from across the room, but Knox refused to meet his gaze. He didn"t want to face anyone but Eirwyn"s smiling face, and now she was going to die. He couldn"t do anything to stop it.

Well, he could do one thing.

He turned to Ryder and led him out the side door of the workshop stables. It was time to kill a king.