Page 41 of Reign of the Talon
Where is he?
…
I pace back and forth in my cell, waiting for Rui as I have been for what seems like hours upon hours.
Yesterday before Yeomra, the Prophecy fell to her knees in pain. Rui must have felt that, through the bond, through that red thread that connects him to it, and him to me. Has it severely wounded him as well? This injury I’ve not felt from the Prophecy—it seems that only severe injuries can reach me in here. It is interesting, then, that I can feel Rui’s own minor scrapes and wounds regardless.
I will the thread into view now and, before I can lose my nerve, tug on it. Perhaps it will call him to me. Time is of haste. Until I was shoved away as I so often am, I peered through the Prophecy’s eyes and heard for the first time their plan to take the Beast Wall. Half the forces, the strongest forces, travelling by sea. The other half serving as a distraction, voyaging by land. And the Dokkaebi do not know.
But I can—I cantellhim. I can be a spy for Rui, in the very mind of his enemy. I tug on the thread again. And again. And againagainagainagainagain—
“Lina?”
Finally.Finally.
Rui, haggard, is stepping forth from that strange door. He looks even worse than usual. The typically dark shadows of sleeplessness underneath his eyes have taken on a purple tinge, and deep lines of stress bracket the sides of his mouth.
I want to ask what happened, but a part of me is too frightened to do so. To further acknowledge I have caused this suffering. But Rui is not hurt, at least physically—I would feel it if he was. He is, I fear, anticipating the Sanyeongto attack. At least now he will know of the Prophecy’s strategies and can adequately prepare for the opposing army’s siege.
One of his fingers is curled around our thread. “I had…the strangest feeling. Did you call for me?” His tone is nearly unreadable, yet I know him well enough to understand that the faint tinge underneath his words is hope—I would know this even without the emotion cresting through the tie between us. I swallow hard and scramble to my feet.
I must speak to you of something.
“What is it?” His silver eyes are wide, so wide, and I remember how they looked when he used to laugh, how they crinkled at the corners and sparkled like thousands of stars. His hope quickly turns to worry, anxious energy pricking me from the outside.
With quick movements, I explain to him the diversion the Prophecy has created with the goal of taking Sanyeongto. My fingers flash, fast and nimble, detailing every element of the plan I was able to overhear before I was shoved aside. Alarm flares through the thread, yet I do not stop there, detailing Yeomra’s visit.
The gods will ally with you, I tell him urgently, signing fast.Dalnim and Haemosu, perhaps others. Tell me—do gods have the power to stop a Prophecy from being fulfilled?
Rui’s face goes strangely pale. “They very well might. They’ve been absent for centuries. We’ve never seen what their effect on a Prophecy could be. I would…I would venture to say yes. Yes, they just might.” His voice is hoarse. I wonder why he is not celebrating, but then he adds: “And they will kill you—us—without remorse.”
Us. That one word, that one small, monosyllabic word, slices through my bones as I glance toward the Dalgyal Gwisin, lingering in the shadows outside my cell. My stomach twists. Knowing what is coming for us… Knowing that my body’s wounds, somehow, appear on Rui… Death, for the two of us, as inescapable as a storm rolling on the horizon. But how? How long until the storm showers down upon us? And how will we die?
Not dishonorably. Our deaths can still mean something.
I will not have Rui meet death alone, while I cower here. I want to die asmyself. I want to diefighting. To show the gods, idols of my childhood, that I am not the woman razing villages and capturing kingdoms, calling herself a goddess.
This prison… Thiscage… I cannot let it be my forever. Not while the gods above prepare for war, not while my sister below believes me to be a monster.
Gods, I am so fuckingfrightened. But when has that ever mattered? I have been scared all my life. Sick with it, shaking with it, pushed to do things I believed myself incapable of doing. This is no different. There exists something beyond fear.
And that is power.
I can’t do this, I sign, and I feel Rui’s disappointment like a dagger to my heart.
But I am not done. Far from it. I have been waiting to sign these next words for such a very long time.
I can’t do this without you.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The Prisoner
Right here, I sign, and gesture to the weak spot on the bars as Rui silently peers over my shoulder. His heat radiates through my back, invoking memories that traitorously stain my cheeks. Energy thrums off him in waves—a pulsing, determined aura.
Somehow, here, the rungs are weaker. Listen.I pull and demonstrate that noise, that signification of a weak spot. The one I found while waiting for him.I thought that you might be able to create an opening. By…bending them.As much as it grates to admit, my strength alone is not enough. I need to borrow his.
A soft, strangled sound escapes from Rui’s throat. I feel his shock, his disbelief, and something bright and burning travel down our bond. Hope. “Little thief,” he rasps. “You—you…”
