Prophecy of Thieves [chapter 20.2]

Kai pushed himself to his feet and gathered the skein of water and a few strips of dried meat. He hurried back to Rieka’s side and helped right her so her back was against the cave wall.

She blinked blearily, her face twisting with pain and confusion. Kai held out the water for her.

“Drink,” he ordered.

Her hand poked from the bundle of blankets and she fumbled for the skein, sipping cautiously. After she finished, Kai took the water from her, instantly replacing it with the food.

Rieka furrowed her brows, glaring at Kai. “Stop looking at me like I’m going to keel over any minute,” she barked, her voice a weak rasp.

Kai’s lip pulled up in a half grin, though it fell only a moment later. “Eat the food. You need it.”

“Stars,” she muttered, though shoved a piece in her mouth. She chomped carelessly. “How long was I out?”

“About a day.” Kai handed her the water again when she eyed it.

“Shit.” After another gulp, she handed it back and looked down into her lap. “Is everyone else…” she murmured, peering up at him worriedly.

“They’re fine. Soon after you fell, the beast just… froze. I killed it before it hurt anyone else.”

Rieka nodded. She shoved the last strip of meat in her mouth. While she chewed, she slowly pushed the blankets off her shoulders and peered at her bandaged wound. As she did so, she winced, her hand drawing up to the back of her head.

“It’s not too deep. You lost a lot of blood, but we got the bleeding to stop. No stitches, so you will have to be careful not to disrupt the wound,” Kai said.

Rieka’s jaw was tight, her nostrils flared. “It shouldn’t have hit me,” she hissed.

“The wings were broad. There was no way you could’ve gotten out of the way in time—”

“I shouldn’t have been in the way in the first place,” she retorted, her eyes meeting Kai’s. The grey irises were filled with burning fury.

“We weren’t prepared for the fight. We had no idea how big or fast the beast was going to be.” It could’ve just as easily been Kai with the wound. The thought had not once been lost on him. It would’ve been much better if it had been the other way around.

“We should always be prepared,” Rieka spat. “I should always be prepared. I should always be on my guard. I should always be ready for the worst. I should always watch all my angles, and I should never be caught unaware.”

Kai blinked, watching her. Her chest heaved with anger—anger directed towards herself. “It’s not even possible—” Kai started.

“It is possible,” Rieka snapped. “It’s possible, and I’ve seen it. I, apparently, just can’t handle doing what I should. What I was trained to do.”

“Honestly, Rieka, fighting a dragon is hard enough, let alone with just two people and a stack of liabilities.”

“Honestly, Kai, life is fucking hard. But I’m not falling on my ass every second of the day because I watch my step. I stopped watching my step and here I am.”

“You’re alive,” Kai said, his voice hard. “That’s where you are. You’re here, and you’re alive.”

“Who cares? My life doesn’t matter right now. It mattered a day ago, and I wasn’t there.”

“You were there. We would’ve all died days ago—weeks ago—if not for you.”

Rieka scoffed. “Sure, I helped, but the minute death is imminent is the minute I check out.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about my useless life, that’s what I’m talking about,” she hissed, her voice a quiet screech. “I’m talking about how I can’t do one fucking thing right, even after being told time and time again.”

Kai’s brows furrowed as he watched her. Her eyes were manic, darting around the cave restlessly. She tried to cross her arms, then winced as the wound on her side stretched. At the sign of pain, her rage only seemed to multiply.

“Fine,” Kai huffed. “It’s your fault. It’s your fault you’re here right now, wounded and tired. It’s your fault Ren’s feet are bloodied and Amani’s hands are mauled. It’s your fault we have little to no food or water left and are short two horses.

“It’s your fault that you are alive and with this in possession.” He yanked the sword and held it up to show her. “It’s your fault we got out of the Aryotsk fortress more or less unscathed. It’s your fault we aren’t all dead from starvation and hypothermia somewhere in the mountains.”

Kai grabbed Rieka’s palm and pressed the hilt of the sword into it. Her fingers closed around it reflexively. “Just because you do one thing wrong doesn’t mean you can never do anything right. And just because someone tells you you’re useless doesn’t mean you believe them,” he said.

Rieka blinked, her brows raised. Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. Finally, she said, “Since when did you get so melodramatic?”

Kai huffed out a breath that might’ve been a chuckle. “The same moment you seemed to lose your ego, I guess.”

“I don’t have an ego,” she retorted. Kai gave her a look. Rieka sighed. “I don’t. It’s just that I’m perfect most of the time.”

Kai rolled his eyes and turned back to the fire, but when he was sure Rieka wasn’t watching, he grinned. Those words… Those words were Rieka’s words.

After several beats of peaceful silence, Kai glanced at Rieka from the corner of his eye. Her face was once again pinched with anger and hatred towards herself, despite Kai’s words.

Kai’s gaze swept over the other sleeping forms briefly before he stood and turned to Rieka. She glared up at him.

He knelt beside her and gathered the blankets she had slipped out of. He began tucking them around her shoulders, but she shoved his hands away.

“What are you doing?” she barked.

“It’s cold outside.”

“We’re not outside, dimwit.”

Kai sighed. “Just wrap the blankets around you.”

“I’m not cold.”

Kai rolled his eyes and finished tucking the blankets around her shoulders despite her protests. He slipped the sword between his bicep and side before stooping to gather Rieka in his arms.

“I swear on the stars, Kai. If you do not put me down right now, I will kill you slowly and painfully,” Rieka said, her voice more frigid than the Styrkish air.

Kai ignored her and stepped around the fire and out of the cave. The cold air hit him like a blast, freezing his skin in an instant. He clenched his teeth to keep from chattering.

He didn’t go far, stopping only a few steps from beside the entrance. There, he set Rieka down so she was propped against the slope of the mountain, then sat beside her. He placed the sword between them.

Under the open sky, the sword began to emanate a blue-silver glow. Rieka reached out her ungloved hand to touch it, her lips parted in awe.

Realizing her actions, she snapped her hand back and glared at Kai. “What are we doing out here?”

Honestly, Kai was already regretting it. The snow was seeping into his pants and back, chilling him, and the wind bit at every exposed inch of skin.

Instead of saying that, he held his arms close to his chest to conserve any heat and said, “Looking at the stars.”

The light ribbons had returned to the sky like he had seen only a few nights ago. He watched them in wonder, the cold almost forgotten under their light.

“I had always believed the stars were divine,” Rieka murmured, her head tipped back. Her cheeks had flushed red from the cold, contrasting with her pale skin. “But it was when I had seen these lights that I had first truly felt it.”

Kai turned back to the sky. It was understandable why she felt that way. It was moving, seeing the sky lit up in green and purple, the colors dancing.

“Do you ever doubt them?” Rieka said, her harsh accent like ice shards among the delicate beauty of the stars. “Your gods?”

“All the time,” Kai said without thinking. He pursed his lips after the words escaped. He was devout. He always had been. It was not right for him to doubt—

“I doubt the stars,” Rieka agreed. “I doubt everything.”

Kai turned to her, but her eyes remained on the sky.

“I was banished,” she said. “I didn’t leave. I didn’t abandon my country. I was banished because I’m not good enough. I wanted to be a warrior, so I trained for the initiation. On the initiation, I lost my guard and therefore my chance. Lives were lost in the process, and I was left to deal with my failure.” Rieka sighed and finally met Kai’s eyes. “Styrka is harsh. Not just in the way of the land, but of the people. If you slip up and your country is in danger as a result, then Styrka has no place for you. I endangered people, and they lost their lives. To Styrka, I’m a murderer.”

Kai sat in silence, unsure what to say. Unsure of how to apologize for the disloyalty he had accused her of. Of the weakness he had accused her of.

Instead, he blurted, “Is it uncommon for people to lose their lives in this initiation?”

Rieka chuckled. “No. But when people die, it’s usually their own fault. No one to banish, then. If you want to be a warrior in Styrka, you succeed or you die. In the case that you do neither, you become me.”

Kai furrowed his brows. That was… unjust. How could a country demand complete loyalty when they accepted nothing short of perfection?

“Just because it is different from Arlan doesn’t mean it’s wrong,” Rieka said, her voice like a stab through the air.

“It’s unreasonable,” Kai said.

“Unreasonable? What’s unreasonable is how Arlan takes away the poor’s money for taxes then sends out clerics to convince them they’re happy with their state of poverty. What’s unreasonable is how Arlan takes and takes until there’s nothing left, then preaches of prosperity and joy.”

“Look, I don’t want to argue whose country is better—”

“You do, though,” Rieka retorted. “You think Styrka is corrupt because of their harsh ways. You’re wrong. Styrka has ten times the power, resources, and military than Arlan ever has. Styrka is the best country there is.”

Kai opened his mouth to counter, then stopped. “Do you truly believe that?” he asked slowly.

Rieka’s face pinched with annoyance. “Of course I believe that. Why would I say it otherwise?”

“To convince yourself it’s true.”

Rieka glared at him for a beat, before hissing, “Don’t begin to think you know what I’m thinking. You don’t get to decide why I say what I say and whether or not I believe it. So fuck off, will you?”

She tried to rise, attempting in several ways to push herself to her feet and wincing every time. Finally, she slumped back to the ground, anger buzzing along every sharp edge of her form. “Fuck,” she huffed.

Kai sighed and rose to his feet, grabbing the sword to set in Rieka’s lap. He scooped her into his arms and made his way back to the cave.

The warmth flooded him, instantly thawing the cold that had frozen his bones. Kai set Rieka back where she had been before and once again took his seat.

Rieka attempted to give Kai the cold shoulder, turning to lay on her unwounded side, her back to Kai. He rolled his eyes, turning to the fire. With Rieka, it could take all of one word to ruin a perfectly peaceful conversation. Talking to her was like walking on thin ice.

He wasn’t presuming what she believed, he was only saying what he understood. Because he understood saying things with fervor if only to convince himself they were true. He understood doubting what he had been taught and being frightened about doing so. He understood those things, and he was sure Rieka did, too.

She had asked if he doubted his gods, and he had said ‘yes’. Not once had he spoken the word aloud for fear that it would make his doubt increase. It was no wonder Rieka would refuse to accept the precariousness of her claims regarding Styrka.

Kai was suddenly flooded with an idea, and he pushed himself to his feet once more. Rieka had already fallen asleep, joining in the other steady breaths and snores. Stepping carefully over her, he grabbed the sword from beside her hand and hurried out of the cave. He moved quickly through the billowing snow, his path lit clearly by the stars and the sword. Soon, he was standing before the looming beast.

Kai moved carefully, the blood-stained snow crunching under his boots. He placed one foot before the other until the dragon’s long neck was only a breath away.

Kai lifted his hand and placed it upon the scaly hide. The silver scales were like metal beneath his hand, hard and unforgiving. Kai gritted his teeth and lifted one just enough to slip the sword beneath. With one swipe, the scale came free.

Backing away, Kai lifted it to the skies. Despite its resemblance to metal, the stars showed dark purple streaks through the triangular scale, much like veins. It was hauntingly beautiful.

Kai hurried back to the cave, sighing once more in the warm comfort of it. He twisted the tip of the sword against a high point on the scale and before long, there was a small hole there. Using a strip of rope they had packed, he looped it through until the scale could be worn around the neck. It was about the size of a large, gold coin, with a solid weight and cool to the touch.

He took one last look at it under the firelight before tucking the new necklace and sword beside Rieka. It wasn’t much, but it was the only apology he could think of.

Leaning back against the wall, a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over him. His eyes drooped on their own accord, and before he could completely fall asleep, he stood to shake Zain awake.

Zain jerked, his hand flying to his side. When he saw Kai, he nodded in understanding.

Relaxing once more, Kai let his eyelids drop completely. Within minutes, he was asleep, and he slept through the remainder of the night without a single dream.