“You wanted me to draw that much attention.”
Ero stepped closer and lowered his tone. “The Krey Empire views mankind as beasts. What you just did will be seen and replayed in every house, in every home. Humans here are not like on Lumineia. They have no hope, no spark of might. They labor and love, but without a semblance of joy. They are broken. In a few days we’re going to disappear back to Lumineia, but your legacy will remain. A slave, who demonstrated the might of his race.”
“You wanted to change how the Empire views slaves,” Mind said.
“It will change how slaves view themselves,” Tardoq corrected, his voice tinged with understanding. The dakorian looked to Ero with new eyes, and Mind wondered if that was part of Ero’s plan. He’d wanted to show Tardoq the purpose of the Eternals.
“This is why you agreed to bring me here,” Mind said. “So I could become a rallying cry.”
“It won’t galvanize change,” Ero said. “The Empire is too big for a single act to alter, and the generations of broken spirit cannot change so quickly. But this moment will be remembered.”
Mind spotted Ursun listening to the sphere at his side. The speaker was not shouting, and his voice was too low for Mind to hear. But the dark greed in his eyes were easy to understand as he looked to Mind.
“The Empire will try to kill me,” Mind said.
“It’s true,” Tardoq said. “He’s ordering Ursun to have us followed.”
“I suspected as much,” Ero said. “But we’ll be gone soon, and Lumineia is the one place they cannot follow.”
Ero pressed his hand to the Gate and it glowed to life. He nodded reassuringly to Mind and then disappeared through the Gate. Tardoq stepped into the Gate but turned back, a faint smile on his features.
“Ero may have manipulated you, but he was right. The duel will be examined by many, but they will not see guile or intent. You defeated him merely because you could, not because you were under orders.”
“I don’t like being manipulated,” he said.
“That’s what the krey do,” Tardoq said. “Even Ero. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed seeing a human stand so tall.”
He inclined his head in respect and then stepped through the Gate. Mind looked back, his eyes sweeping the interior of the sphere. Most of those in the cages were dakorians, but some were krey and humans. One human caught his eye, the man staring at him as others shouted. He did not speak, his expression filled with a single thought.
Wonder.
Chapter 10: A New Direction
Light trudged down the road, yawning and wishing the sun would just come up. It seemed like they’d been walking for days and the sun had set hours ago. Surely it was nearly dawn. He nudged Willow, who walked at his side.
“How long until the sun rises?”
“The sun set thirty minutes ago,” she said. “Night has just begun.”
Light groaned, long and loud. Willow grinned, as did Rake and Senia. The quartet had departed the gathering and headed south and east, intent on reaching Xshaltheria within the week. Initially they’d flown on the back of the white dragon, until Senia had foreseen Serak aboard his own dragon. No one wanted that encounter. But did they have to walk so late?
“Can’t we fly again?”
Rake shot him a scathing look. “You almost fell last night because you decided the back of a dragon was a great place to take a nap.”
“I was tired,” Light mumbled.
“You can rest when we find a good place to camp,” Senia patted him on the arm.
Resigning himself to wait, Light tried to keep up with the others. How did they not get tired? None of them were guardians, so where did they draw their strength? He shifted closer to Willow and lowered his voice.
“Why are you three so strong?”
“Determination,” she said.
He chuckled at her answer. “That’s what Mind would say.”
“What’s it like, without the fragment of Power?”
The question surprised him, and he shrugged. “Strange. At first I just felt weak. Now? I don’t feel like myself.”
“How so?”
“I’m not sure.”
He didn’t know how to answer. Everything felt subdued. His magic, his curiosity, even his love for Willow, all of it had been muffled like a handful of cotton had been pressed over a squeaky hinge.
He stole a look at Willow and flushed when he found her watching. When he’d seen her in the past, a fire had ignited in his chest. He still felt the stirring, but it lacked the same power it had carried before. Did he still love Willow?
“I watched Draeken separate from you,” she murmured.
“You saw it?”
She looked away, into the dark trees. With her vision she would be able to see through the shadows, see the wind rustling the branches, and the deer attempting to escape around them to reach its herd. Light had seen it as well, but the usual impulsiveness that would have driven him to find the creature was noticeably absent.
