Eona - Alison Goodman [112]
I looked away, fixing on the dark figures outside the cell. Already the few had become many. “We are six, counting you.”
He rubbed his hand down his face. “Six? Is that all?”
“Eona?” It was Ryko’s voice, rough and urgent.
“Here,” I called, pushing myself up on to my feet. “We are unhurt.”
I touched my arm again. Better than unhurt.
“You’ve healed yourself, too?” Ido’s eyes ran along my body. “You are not crippled anymore.”
“No,” I said, flushing under his scrutiny.
“A useful power to have,” he said.
More useful than he knew.
“Soldiers,” Ryko said as he picked his way through the haze of dust and the tumble of stones that lay across the doorway. “We’re surrounded.”
Behind him, Vida, Dela, and Yuso struggled over the sliding, clinking rubble. I saw Vida pause at the sight of Ido’s healed body.
“They must have found the two men we killed,” Yuso said. He wiped at a wide, bloody gash above his eye, smearing blood across his forehead. “More are coming.”
“It does not matter.” Slowly, Ido pushed himself upright. He stared down at his feet and flexed his toes, then glanced across at me and gave one short nod—probably the closest he could come to gratitude. “Now that I’m whole, I’ll clear the way.”
“With your power? It is against the Covenant.”
Even as I said it, I realized how foolish I sounded. Ido had killed all of the other Dragoneyes. He would not care about the sacred Covenant of the Dragoneye Council.
His teeth showed in a wolf’s smile. “Don’t lie to yourself, girl. You know the Covenant is dead.”
“It is not.” The denial was hollow even to my own ears.
From the debris, Dela hauled out the clothes she had dumped earlier and handed them to Ido, grit cascading from their folds. “Since Lord Ido has already broken the Covenant in the service of Sethon,” she said, her voice hard, “the least he can do is break it again in our service.”
Ido eyed her as he pulled on the dusty trousers and tied the drawstring around his waist. “You have become very pragmatic, Contraire.” He pulled the loose shirt over his head.
“Necessity.” She licked her lips. “Will your power get us out of the palace?”
He looked down at his wasted body. “I should have enough in me to get past these men.”
“Do you have enough to kill Sethon?” she asked.
What was she thinking? We were here to free Ido to train me, not assassinate Sethon.
Ido shook his head. “I am not part of your resistance, Contraire.”
“But he tortured you. Surely you want to kill him.”
Ido’s jaw shifted. “I will kill him in my own time. Not at the convenience of your cause.”
Yuso stepped forward. “We all want Sethon dead, Lady Dela. But this is not the time. It is not our mission. We are here to get Lord Ido out.”
“The captain is right,” I urged.
“They are forming battle lines outside,” Vida reported.
A clipped voice of command and the ominous thud of running feet spun us all around to face the gaping hole in the wall. Troops were gathering around the building.
“We have men and horses waiting for us beyond the imperial guards’ gate,” Yuso said. “You know the direction?”
Ido nodded. “Everyone stay close to me,” he ordered. “If any of you stray beyond my protection, I will not stop.”
We clustered behind him, Dela and Vida huddling at either side of me, Ryko and Yuso at the rear. Ido’s breathing changed, the slight lift and fall of his shoulders sinking into the deep, slow measure that would ease him into the energy world.
This was the moment to test my link with him: I had to be sure I could control him.
Tentatively, I reached out with my Hua, seeking the pulse of his life force, ready to pull back at the first sign of connection. With Ryko, my link was fast and brutal, but Ido’s energy was guarded, layered, mixed with the vanilla orange of his dragon. As his mind moved closer to the energy world, I felt a pathway open, the distant beat of