Page 43 of Lies That Blemish
“Is it healed? Fully?” I asked.
She could only nod.
I pulled away from her, smiling, and then Victory dashed behind Tetra, smacking her back. “Tag, you’re it!” She raced past Valor’s creature and out the open back door.
Tetra looked frozen for a second, then a wild grin took over her face. She bolted after Victory, clumsily at first, like she’d never run before in her life.
Because she hadn’t. Not really. Not without a cane and a dragging limb behind her.
I peered at Valor, my throat clenching with emotion.
“Do you have any idea how special you are?” I asked as I approached her.
She shrugged. “I’m not a warrior. I’ll probably never be empress now. A healer is just… boring.”
“That’s not true,” Elaine scolded Valor as Virtue dashed out of the house to chase Tetra as well. It appeared that my bestie was very slow and not well-versed in tag. Even Ariyel had joined in on the fun, running around with Vespa as well.
Victory was winning, but Tetra was laughing in joy and running around the yard like a child. It brought tears to my eyes, and I turned back to face my sister.
“Of course, it’s not true! You’ll be the greatest empress this country has ever seen,” I told her. “Do you have any idea what kind of peace and joy you could bring to this nation if you could take away all disease and deformity and illness? The little babies born with bent limbs, tucked-in lips, the people suffering from incurable diseases. Valor, your power is incredible.” I had to clear my throat to keep from getting emotional.
Zara nuzzled Valor’s leg as if in agreement with me.
Valor looked a little more excited now that I’d said that, but then her face fell.
“What is it?” Elaine asked her, walking closer to be near her.
“In what world can I ever bring peace and healing and joy to our nation when we are constantly at war?”
It was like a knife to my chest. Because she was right. Amersea’s entire existence was fueled by war. Right now, I had over a thousand young Amerseans fighting for their lives just forthe chance to bond a creature and fight in the Fleet. To die for the Fleet. It’s how it had always been.
I peered out at Tetra, awkwardly running as Victory and Virtue chased her laughing, and I wondered if there was any possibility I could give my people a future without war. If there were some way to bring peace to our nation.
Chapter 16
Aisling
The girlsand Elaine were asleep, and Tetra and I were in the office going through papers. With only one box left, it was starting to feel really dismal. We both stared at it. The office looked like a tornado had ripped through it, papers and yellow file folders everywhere. Maps of Luksa and Imbria and different war strategies for hypothetical situations that had never happened were strewn all over the place. But nothing that proved my father paid anyone to try to kill me.
“I’m going in. This is it. Then we eat dessert and sleep,” Tetra announced, walking over to the box on her newly healed foot. I stopped her, forcing her to face me.
“How are you dealing with all that?” I pointed to her foot. She’d been acting so casually, almost like nothing happened.
She grinned. “How am I dealing with a lifelong, painful disability suddenly being gone? I’m doing amazing.”
I laughed at that. I didn’t know what I expected. More tears? Therapy?
Her face did betray some deeper emotion then. “I’ll never be able to fully thank Valor for what she did.”
I nodded. “I don’t think she quite understands how special she is.” She was too young to grasp something of this magnitude—only angry she wasn’t a warrior.
“I can’t believe that little booger who used to draw on our faces when we were asleep was the one to change my life so drastically.” She wiggled her foot again as if making sure the healing was real.
I smiled and found myself wondering if any of the cadets who came out of the Wilds would have a similar gift. What a world we could live in if we had a hundred more like my sister.
Tetra called me out for my procrastination: “You’re delaying opening the final box.”
I chuckled dryly. “On one hand, whatever is in that box means my own father tried to kill me. On the other, it means a man I loved so deeply lied to me from the very first kiss.”
