Sky Breaker (Night Spinner Duology), Addie Thorley [100 books to read in a lifetime txt] 📗

to reclaim Verdenet. My group will perish in the caves or be forced to enter Lutaar City, where we’ll be subject to the imperial governor. And without treatment, your father will die of these wounds, no matter how hard you’ve worked to protect him. We need each other.”

“We don’t need help.” Ziva stubbornly shakes her head.

Burning skies! I’m tempted to mold the darkness into a giant hand and smack her across the face with it. Instead I huff out a breath and look to the Lady of the Sky. “You’ve set me with so many impossible tasks—and it’s my honor to perform them—but I beg you to have mercy on me this once and soften the heart of this belligerent child.”

Ziva gazes at me, head cocked to the side. I’m certain she’s going to give me a tongue-lashing for calling her a child, but she says, “You worship the Lady and Father?”

“Of course I do. I don’t know how many ways I must tell you: I am like you. I am with you.”

She narrows her eyes even further. “Swear on your immortal rest in the realm of the Eternal Blue that everything you’ve said is true.”

I laugh at the irony of her request. At how I thought I had already reached the Eternal Blue.

“I don’t see how any of this is funny,” she snaps.

I bite my tongue and look down. “I’m not laughing at you. I’ve just been used and lied to so often, it’s strange to have someone believe I am doing the double-crossing.”

“Are you?”

“If I wanted to kill the king, I could easily do so now.” I gesture to King Minoak’s limp form. “But everything I’ve said is true. I know how it feels to think you can’t trust anyone, to feel like the entire world is against you, but I swear on the memory of my parents, who perished ten years ago during the Zemyan raid of Sangatha, I’ll do everything in my power to see your father reinstated.”

Ziva glances down and trails a finger across her father’s bearded, weatherworn face. “Fine. We’ll return with you. But I won’t hesitate to call the night at the first sign of trouble.” She raises her hand, fingers outstretched, and I quirk my lips with amusement. She drops her hand and looks sheepishly at her feet. “I forgot that my threats mean nothing to you. You’re much stronger.”

She waits, as if she expects me to encourage her, but I nod and say, “I am.”

While Ziva gathers her things, I unfasten my cloak and lay it on the cool stones beside King Minoak. He’s still unconscious, and he weighs twice as much as a sand cat, but I manage to roll him onto the cloth. Then I remove the fur from his shoulders, press it to his wound, and bind it with strips of cloth I tear from the hem of his robe. It’s crude and far from sanitary, but it should control the bleeding while we hike back to the caves.

When Ziva returns, she surveys my handiwork and gives a small nod.

“Did you get everything you need?” I gesture to the satchel slung over her arm, and she hastily pushes it behind her back. Out of my sight. As if I’m a skies-forsaken caravan raider. “Honestly? I was just trying to make conversation.”

Ziva lifts a corner of the cloak and throws her weight forward. “Less talking, more pulling.”

CHAPTER FIVE

ENEBISH

AT THE MOUTH OF THE CAVE, ZIVA HESITATES AND GLANCES back at her gray-faced father splayed across my cloak. “Are you certain—”

“We’ve been searching for him since we left Sagaan. They’ll be overjoyed.” I charge into the tunnel, forcing Ziva to follow, eager to present King Minoak to the shepherds. Here’s proof I was right: the king of Verdenet lives. And I found him, just as I said I would, despite their impatience and skepticism and sabotage.

If this doesn’t earn their respect and their trust, nothing will.

“We’re saved!” I holler as we trudge through the tunnels. We’re a long way from our cavern, but I can’t help myself. I need to scream the good news. I’d rearrange the stars and write it across the sky if I could. This changes everything. This fixes everything. We can finally leave these caves without compromising our freedom.

The closer we get, the faster I walk. By the time we skid into the vastness of the cavern, I’m practically running, Ziva panting beside me. Her father is as still as ever on the cloak, but he’s here. Living, breathing hope.

“King Minoak lives!” I shout, my booming voice rebounding off the limestone walls. I release the cloak and step aside so the group can see Minoak for themselves. “Now we can enter Lutaar City and proceed with our plans to liberate Verdenet.”

The bustle of the cavern abruptly ceases. Women look up from their cook pots, spoons still in hand, and the youth hauling buckets of water and scraps of food to the animals pause mid-step. Even the most difficult, loudmouthed men, like Iree and Azamat, quit squabbling and turn.

I’m not sure if it’s the early hour causing them to blink and gape—dragging King Minoak back across the dunes took the better part of the night. But they’re staring like they can’t see the massive Verdenese man lying at my feet. Or maybe they’re unable to grasp the magnitude of what it means?

“How is he going to save us?” someone shouts.

Ziva shifts from foot to foot, her sandals creaking. “You said they’d be overjoyed.” Her hands clutch the sides of her tattered dress, making her look far younger than she did in the colonnades of Sawtooth Mesa. Smaller too.

“Is he even alive?” the same voice yells. I’d wager it’s Emani—Bultum’s cantankerous wife always has something to say.

“Of course he’s alive!” Ziva lunges in front of her father and clenches her fists. The darkness thickens. I reach out to steady the threads, but they squirm and twist with confusion, unaccustomed to heeding two masters.

Stepping protectively between Ziva and the shepherds,