Page 24 of Reign of the Talon
All this time, I have…hated him. Yet here he stands, in my cell, every word ringing honestly in my heart. Even should I try, I would not be able to deny the deep, soul-bearing truth he places at my feet now. My eyes have been squeezed shut from the truth, yet with it here before me, there is no choice but to confront it.
His…innocence.
Does it change anything? I do not know. I cannot feel the bitter resentment as deeply as I once did. I feel only—confused. Adrift, in a sea of truth that I do not understand how to navigate.
Rui did not know that it would happen, that—
C R A C K.
C R A C K.
C R A C K.
Red ribbons falling through the air.
My soul shattering in one blow.
And then I am clutching my hands to my chest, unable to breathe as I relive it over and over and over again. Outside the cell, the Aglyeong chuckles.
“Do you want to know how it felt? The falling? The crumpling? Thefearand the terror in her soul as she was struck down?”
“SILENCE!” Rui roars, whipping his head toward the Aglyeong, his eyes brimming with fire. His wrath seems to shake the cell as the Aglyeong is momentarily stunned into submission.
And then its maw appears, twisting into a terrible smile behind its grimy black hair.
“Brave words, Dokkaebi,” it rasps wetly, “for one who knows what I herald…”
Its words blur into wisps of sound as Rui turns back to me, his face still so pale.
“Lina,” he whispers. He moves as if he will reach for me, but he knows me well enough to stay where he is.
I do not know how long it is before I can begin to breathe again. Before I can suck in any air, as cold and stale as it is. I only know that it might be hours, yet Rui remains the entire time, silently sitting on his side of the cell. I feel, through the red thread, that through all his pain he ishoping.
Hoping that if he sits quietly enough, for long enough, I will become used to his presence. That I will become accustomed to him, like some wild animal caught trapped in a thicket becomes accustomed to a human.
I raise tired, swollen eyes to him. He didn’t know.
Rui didn’t know.
Was any of it real?I ask with hands wracked by tremors.The marriage, the kisses, the love. Did you ever mean any of it?For I did, although he told me, underneath the willow tree in my dreams, that our marriage was a strategy. I still meant…everything. Did he?
“I,” Rui rasps and then swallows hard. “I—I meant it more than you could ever know,” he whispers. “I still do, little thief.”
My chest fills and fills with jagged grief. Rui hesitates in the long silence that follows before finally speaking again.
“I found a door,” he whispers. “In the Prophecy’s mind. I followed it here to you. Yet it was unbreachable, and I thought it only some cruel trick in my dreams, until the Prophecy seemed frightened that I’d found this door. It made me…begin thinking that perhaps you truly were within, that she feared you might…escape. That means there must be a way out. I have since ordered my soldiers to concentrate on taking her alive. We can buy ourselves some time to help you escape.”
The Aglyeong snorts derisively from behind the bars.
Rui shoots it a glare. “There must be some way out. Some way you haven’t found.”
I do not look at him, lest he see the truth of it: that I’ve not even tried to escape, and even if I did, it would surely be hopeless. Instead, I stare fixedly at a point past his shoulder. The cold stone wall. The Aglyeong waiting to eat me.Prophecies always come to fruition. There is no point. Why fight a losing battle?
“Because, little thief,” he says, still softly but with an undercurrent of steel, “wemustat least try to end this war. It is a question of honor.”
When have you or I ever been honorable?I wipe an errant tear from my cheek.Think reasonably, Rui. The only way I can leave this place is through death.Even knowing what I know now…that Rui never intended for everything to go so horribly wrong…it changes nothing. There is no way out.That is a sure way to end this war.My body. Do not worry about taking it alive. You must kill it—
He inhales sharply, and when I look at him next, his jaw is tight and a vein pulses in his forehead. His eyes dart to the Aglyeong before darting back to me. Agony burns in his gaze, and his fists open and close.
