Destiny (Heroes by Necessity Book 3) Page 15

  Athala returned to focusing on her book. She only had a few more chapters to take notes on, and then she’d be able to return the book to Sieghard as she promised.

  It wasn’t long before three plates of food were brought over to the table. It was a simple breakfast—cornbread muffins, a few strips of bacon, scrambled eggs, and a handful of roasted vegetables, paired with steaming mugs of chicory root coffee—but it smelled fantastic and they each dug in hungrily.

  After a few bites, Athala put aside her book and notebook. She wanted to still take notes on the last few chapters, especially the bit about dragonfire, but food was much more important. Apparently, in all of her excitement of studying for Sieghard’s test, she had forgotten to eat.

  With food and coffee in their bellies, her friends looked much better. The lines of worry around their eyes lifted, and they conversed about trivial things.

  Eventually silence returned though, and Athala took the opportunity to share the news of her quasi-apprenticeship.

  “Um, so, I just wanted to, er... share?” Athala looked at her companions. When she saw them eyeing her curiously, her nervousness faded away. “Yesterday was a really good day. Sieghard has agreed to help me with learning to harness the dragon spells! Sort of. I’ll only be working on them for half the day, but the rest of the day I’ll be helping him with another project as payment. It’s really fascinating. He has a theory about—”

  “Athala, please,” Elise said with a twinge of a playful smile as she held up a hand. “There is only so much magic talk I can take before this coffee has kicked in.” She rubbed at her temple, grimacing. “I really just need a few more moments.”

  “I’m sorry,” Athala said, twirling a black curl of hair around one finger. “I’m just excited.” She paused. “It’s been a while since I’ve done real research work. Finding Meodryt’s spell was research, sure, but not like this.” She twirled the hair tighter, stretching it out and letting it snap back into place. “He’s doing really important stuff. And I’m helping. What we find out could be historic. I could have a hand in some of the most revolutionary advancements in magic we’ve seen in a decade!”

  Elise was watching her, mouth agape. It was unnerving. The Conscript seemed offended somehow, as if Athala had said something incorrectly. She tried to parse her own words, but didn’t come up with what could have offended her.

  Ermolt ignored the Conscript. “I’m glad you found something useful, Athala,” he said in an even tone. “We could use your help though.”

  “Oh. Um. I... well, as I said, Sieghard has only agreed to help me with the spells if I help him with studying. I don’t have much time available to help with other stuff.” She grimaced as Ermolt frowned at her. “I’ll, um, do my best to be of assistance, though.”

  “No, no, it’s fine,” Elise said through clenched teeth. “You get to have fun doing what you love.” The Conscript stared down at her clenched hands. “I mean, your happiness is more important than your friends almost dying, right?”

  “Elise,” Ermolt said in a warning tone.

  “Wait, almost dying? What happened?”

  “Well, we ran into a bit of—”

  “Not important,” Elise snapped, talking over Ermolt. “What is important is that Athala is learning things, and we’re on our own.” She sunk into her seat as if sulking.

  “What do you want me to do?” Athala asked, raising her voice. She was shocked to find how quickly her cheerful mood had boiled away. “I’m useless right now. But I have an opportunity to utilize the tools I have access to and be powerful enough to take him down! Would you rather I follow you around so I can get you in even worse trouble when I can’t keep up and you have to protect me?”

  “You weren’t talking about learning stuff to become stronger, Athala. You were talking about how much of a difference your work was going to make to the academic world of magic.” Elise sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I want you to stop being so selfish.”

  Athala ducked her head. So that was what had concerned Elise previously. “You’re right. I’m excited about helping him with his studies. But he’s also helping me with mine. And this will make me stronger, so that I’m less of a liability.”

  “You aren’t a liability,” Elise said with a huff. “And you’re already strong.”

  “We’re outmaneuvered here, Athala.” Ermolt avoided looking at either Elise or Athala, but instead focused on his clenched hands he rested on the top of the table. “It’s making us a little testy. Ibeyar has the whole city terrified, and it makes our situation precarious. We can’t step out of line, and we don’t even know where the lines are.” He sighed heavily and looked up. Athala was surprised to see so much exhaustion and concern in his eyes. “We went to talk to someone last night who should have been against Ibeyar, but instead it turned out he was working for him and he lured us right into a trap.

  “That was our best lead. We don’t know what else to do. We need your help to figure out what we’re doing, and then maybe even enacting it. We can’t... we can’t waste time on frivolous things.”

  Athala sat quietly for a moment, her mind reeling. Frivolous. He called her quest for power frivolous. “Do... do you both think I’m goofing around? Doing nothing? Sitting in luxury and laughing while you are punished? I spent yesterday working the hardest I have in ages, poring over books, desperate to prove my skills to a man who will be able to turn these useless spells into powerful weapons! If I can learn to use these dragon spells, I can turn the tide of any fight we end up in! Until then, I’m just going to slow you down whenever you get into trouble.”

  “I don’t doubt you think that,” Elise said in a quiet voice. “But have you examined why you think that way? Is there perhaps a chance that you’re using this situation to get something else? That... that maybe you’re looking to get stronger, sure, but not in a way to deal with Ibeyar?” The Conscript turned towards her, fixing her with a tired smile. “It could be that you’re looking at the long game. These dragon spells could be very useful for many things—even taking down your brother.”

  “How dare you!” The words were out of her mouth before Athala could process the disgust she said them with. Elise flinched away. “How dare you insinuate that I’m abusing this for personal reasons! You think I care about Malger? He’s nothing! I don’t hate him more than I care about you!” The words felt hollow—fake, wrong, almost like a lie—but Athala was too angry to investigate that. “I want to be stronger so that I can keep us alive and safe, no matter what threat we’re up against!”

  Silence hung between them, punctuated by the creaking of the tavern. Ermolt looked down at his hands. Elise stared at the table.

  They didn’t believe her.

  “Hate?” Elise asked finally, her voice a whisper compared to Athala’s previous shouting. “No. I don’t think you hate him more than you care for us.” Elise paused. “I do think you fear him more, though.” She looked up slowly. When she spoke, her tone was louder, firmer. “You think I don’t see you cower in fear at every shadow? You see his hand behind every attack against us, even when the obvious culprit is there. Maybe you don’t hate him that much, but I’d believe you fear for your life enough to put our lives second.”

  Athala hissed, drawing back as if the Conscript had slapped her. She stuttered, stumbling over words. “I—you—how—how dare you!” she snapped again, her voice squeaking with the force of her anger. “What do you want me to do—throw my corpse at Ibeyar for you?! Run at him blindly and die for the sake of your precious mission? Because that’s all I can accomplish right now!”

  “What we’re doing is important, Athala. In case you’ve forgotten, you’re the Bringer of the Age of Mortals, not I. We do this for the sake of all humanity. You’re the one putting an opportunistic grab for power ahead of the Age of Mortals.”

  “Is that why you do it? For the ‘good of humanity’ and not just to earn the love of your God?” Athala sneered and pointed towards the door of the
tavern. “Sirur warned us. We’re Her tools, Elise. Do you think She cares about us? Do you think you’re getting into Her good graces? Once we’ve done what She’s asked, She won’t remember us as anything but an extension of Herself. To Her, and to history, She’ll be the one who did it, no matter what we sacrifice for it. And that’s if the Age of Mortals is even Her goal at all!”

  “You don’t think I know that?” Elise said, thundering with sudden anger. “I know we’re pawns. I know She has another goal in mind! But we need to know what Her plans are before we can stop Her!” Elise narrowed her eyes at Athala and slapped the tabletop. “But if you don’t want to help, if you’re ‘too busy,’ then go. We’ll do better without your doubt. Go and make your grab for power, if that’s what’s so important to you.”

  “Fine,” Athala said, snatching her book off the table. She hesitated for a moment as Elise’s words finally settled in. The Conscript knew she was being used. And she admitted it. And yet she didn’t stray off course. Didn’t try to do anything about it.

  Athala also realized she was tired of this conversation. Of being Ydia’s pawn. And of being the reason they failed or succeeded.

  She wanted to storm out of the tavern, to make a big show of her anger. But instead she stomped to her room and collected her possessions. She packed them roughly, shoving various things into her bag as if they were somehow to blame for her situation.

  Sieghard had offered her a place to stay. She would take him up on that. Her goal would be to study and get stronger, and eventually Elise and Ermolt would come to collect her so that she could be the weapon they threw at Ibeyar and Undyt.

  After packing though, Athala paused and stared at her things. Her anger drew away like waves in a storm, leaving the empty beach of sorrow.

  This was her last chance to reverse course without looking like a fool. She could stay and help her friends. Do the right thing for now, instead of the right thing for the future.

  But as soon as she thought of Elise bringing up Malger the anger returned, redoubled. It was a violent crash of anger that made her kick her bed.

  Athala was definitely not turning back now.

  She made a mental effort to avoid looking at Ermolt and Elise as she stomped back through the main room of the Lucky Turnip. She pushed through the front door and out into Jirda.

  The chilly morning air made her hesitate, cooling her rage for a moment.

  In her mind’s eye she saw Elise sneering as she mentioned Malger.

  That was all it took. She pressed on towards Sieghard’s home, unable to turn back now.

  Athala vowed to herself that she would only return when Elise apologized for bringing him up.

  As if that would ever happen.

  How could she be expected to apologize for something that was the truth?

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Elise’s temper flared as she watched Athala stomp off towards their shared room.

  In a hierarchy of needs, an immediate threat was more important than a future one. They needed to deal with Undyt now, as made perfectly clear by Meodryt. Dealing with Ibeyar was a future issue, but it was one they could take their time with.

  But not without Athala.

  Without the wizard, they were hobbled. There was no possible way for them to take on the dragon without the wizard’s spells.

  Elise hoped Athala was just blowing off steam. Perhaps she’d go and bathe, and then come out with a clear head and talk to Elise and Ermolt as if they were her friends and equals, instead of as if they were surrogate parents telling her to clean her room and dust the cupboards.

  But then she stomped past them.

  And out the door.

  Elise tried to get up and follow the wizard, but Ermolt laid a hand to her wrist and held her in place.

  It was painful, watching Athala leave the tavern without so much as looking at them.

  Worry boiled within Elise. She immediately feared the thousands of things that could happen to Athala without them nearby, and then the thousands of other things that could happen to them without the wizard to back them up.

  She reviewed every situation that could possibly happen now, and they were all bleak.

  There was no outcome where they didn’t fail.

  Where Ibeyar didn’t win.

  Elise collapsed back into her seat, guilt and shame washing over her. Athala could be hard-headed, and it often took extreme measures to break through and make her understand things she often didn’t want to hear or purposefully misheard. But Elise knew she went too far in the attempt to show her the error of her thought process. She brought up the one forbidden topic, Athala’s abusive and potentially parricidal brother.

  Now Athala was off to study anyway, and any hope they had of just breaking out ahead of Ibeyar was crushed under her stomping feet.

  When Athala returned, Elise would owe her an apology.

  She knew she wasn’t wrong in the exchange, as childish as it seemed now in her memory, but she would still apologize. Because being right but mean was no way to be.

  Elise looked to Ermolt. The barbarian had returned to eating his breakfast after he ensured Elise wouldn’t pursue Athala. He purposefully avoided looking at her.

  Did he think she was angry? Was his first thought that she would explode at him next in retaliation, or just rant about Athala’s behavior?

  Any other day, she may have played right into his expectations. But after last night, both the chase through the city and Meodryt’s anger in her dreams, she was too tired. She didn’t have the energy to keep her concern hidden behind anger all morning.

  Elise winced at the realization and looked down at her hands. She had to work on her temper. Had to work on getting herself under control. Her friends couldn’t suffer because she was unable to explain her care for them without yelling. Or grinding her teeth.

  She wanted to break the silence though. To make things better. But she didn’t know what to say. So she sat in silence a moment longer, mulling over a thousand starts to a thousand sentences. Each one felt flat or angry or bitter.

  Eventually she settled on one. She picked at a muffin that sat on her nearly untouched plate. “That went differently in my mind,” she said at last, working her hardest to keep the whine from her voice. “In case you were wondering.”

  “I should hope so,” Ermolt said around a mouthful of scrambled eggs. “Fairly certain if you had seen it going that way, you would have attempted to correct it.”

  Elise leaned forward, propping her chin up on her fist as she rested her elbow on the table. Her other hand still toyed with the muffin. “At least we know she is working in our best interest, even if it’s not the situation that is most important.” She sighed and picked a chunk out of the muffin, tossing it in her mouth. It tasted like bitter nothingness. She chewed and swallowed anyway. “Even if it does mean I had to confront her like that.”

  She knew she was right. Athala was acting selfishly, and she was thinking of bigger picture things, including her brother. But in her heart, Elise knew she had just called her out on it to try to make Athala comply with what she wanted.

  “It also means we need to do all the running around without her, regardless of if she could be put to use or not.” Ermolt abandoned scraping up the last of his eggs and moved on to his muffin. He picked it up, considering it carefully. “Not that we’ll be able to do much until she comes back, even if we come up with some way for her to help.”

  “I know where she is,” Elise said, watching him closely. “The message she left yesterday had an address. If an emergency arises, we just have to go and get her. If we have time.” She frowned as Ermolt continued considering the muffin. “Please don’t.”

  “What?” Ermolt asked, looking up at her.

  “Don’t pretend. You’re thinking of shoving that entire muffin in your mouth at once.” Ermolt grinned and Elise shook her head. “Please, just... don’t. I can’t watch you eat like that right now.”

  Ermolt clicked his
tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Fine,” he said with a dramatic sigh. He ripped the top off the muffin and made like he was going to shove it in his mouth, before taking a dainty little bite.

  Elise laughed in spite of herself.

  Trust Ermolt to turn the aftermath of the biggest fight to date between two friends into a moment of humor, all because of a muffin.

  Her laughter dried up quickly. A feeling of dread chased away the mirth. “We need to figure out what we’re doing,” Elise said before picking another hunk out of her muffin. “Ibeyar will win if we rest on our laurels, and we can’t hope to enact Meodryt’s plan now without Athala.”

  “Meodryt’s plan? Have you spoken to the dragon?”

  “Only in dreams,” Elise said bitterly. “They came to me last night after I prayed for Ydia’s guidance. Apparently we’re ‘spoiled children’—I’m paraphrasing, of course—for asking for help so soon, and our ‘obvious’ plan is to take out Undyt before Ibeyar can do... whatever it is he’s going to do.”

  “I hate working with omnipotent, all-powerful beings,” Ermolt said before popping the rest of his muffin in his mouth. He chewed on it for a moment before speaking up again. “Alright. So, we can’t rely on Meodryt or Ydia for help, I’m assuming. And we can’t take out Undyt without Athala. So we’re just going to continue trying to undermine Ibeyar?”

  “It’s the only thing I can think of.”

  “Well, so far, he’s been ahead of us at every turn. He has us up against a wall. How do we use that to our advantage?”

  “I’ve been thinking on that,” Elise said, picking up her fork and stabbing a clump of cooled eggs. “All of the authority in town is on his side, right? The Guards, the Conscripts... no one with power can be trusted. But Numara’s Temple is still lit. People still go there. The place hasn’t been defaced or destroyed.” She gestured to the empty tavern. “The three of us have sat here and openly talked about taking power away from him. No one has turned us in.” Elise scooped a forkful of eggs into her mouth. “Authority may be with him, but the people aren’t.”