Chapter 20: Cold hearts

They sat next to each other and stared straight ahead. The sparse vegetation and distant rock formation back dropped by beautiful waves of sand drenched in light would have made for a scenic view, but the two corpses behind them demanded the attention of their thoughts at all times. Sylph had not uttered a single word since they sat up, and neither had Brandon. Both of them just sat quietly, pondering what had happened and not daring to disturb the other.

A silent, frigid sensation spread from her exhausted dragonheart deep into the last corners of her body and made her shiver despite the sun burning down on her. While it had not gone out of control as it had in Linz, she usually waited out the cold afterglow in the arena's backroom with a blanket above her back. She loved to duel; she loved to smack and wrangle her opponents into the ground, and the rush of happiness when the announcer declared her the victor. None of that happened today.

She wished Veria was here. Veria would know what to say to get them back on track. Death had once followed every slash of her tail. How did she deal with this dread and guilt? Sylph could guess what Veria would say. “You are an idiot for not noticing the knives and he paid the price for failing to use it.” It was not all that hard to imagine what Veria would say if you knew her. To her, it was you or me. A solution she had to far too many things in life. Veria would not spare a second thought on these slavers dying by her claws. You pulled a blade on her and she pulled her blade through your chest.

It all happened so fast and that weighed on her mind the most. One minute they were negotiating, and the next a knife struck her thigh. Tim’s horrific gurgles would haunt her mind for weeks. “He tried to kill you,” Sylph reminded herself. The artery in the hind legs was one of the biggest in a dragon’s body. Had the cut been a little more precise, she would have bled out in minutes. He only missed because of her muscles and the awkward position, but he knew exactly how to strike down a dragon. And then there was Elliot, whom her ability had killed when her attention slip in her rage. “Do you think he was right about my parents?” She spoke the first words in what felt like hours.

“No parent would sell their child,” Brandon pressed the words through clenched teeth and went quiet immediately after.

“You say that, but as far as I know Aer were traditionally raised in schools. What if they are traditional and not like the kingdom at all?” She had barely given thought to any history and old traditions. Those were from different times. Nobody in the kingdom lived like that.

“There will be clues to find in Prina,” Brandon said. “Every merchant keeps track. Elliot was furious. He lied.” His voice was strained and shaky.

“I can understand if you want to part ways.” Sylph turned to face him.

“What?” His makeshift turban went flying as he frantically shook his head. “No, no, no, don’t even say that,” his voice raised in surprise. “You keep blaming yourself for everything that happens. I am not just gonna leave you and you should know that.”

Her gaze peeled away from his face and was dragged back to the corpses like a piece of iron to a magnet.

“I saw what happened. It was self defense. He literally stabbed you.”

“What about Elliot? He died because I subconsciously wanted it,” she sneered. “He said those things that might be true and I wanted him to shut up. You know my ability works subconsciously. It always does what I want and apparently I wanted his death. If that doesn’t make me a monster, I don’t know what does.”

Brandon’s finger brushed against the small hole in his tunic, skirted along the edges and tried to fix the loose threads with no success. “The kingdom has the death penalty for slavery.”

Sylph huffed. “I am not a judge, nor an executioner.” Not that this place would play by the kingdom’s rules. But to hear Brandon say it like that, she did not expect that. On the other pfod, he had a point. She exhaled sharply. “Nothing is gonna change what happened, is it? Veria would tell me the same, that everyone involved screwed up, and I came out on top. Most importantly, we should not stay here.”