Eona - Alison Goodman [51]
Was this what I felt through Kinra’s swords? Love? Yet it was violent and angry and full of death.
“And she had another lover,” Dela continued. “The unnamed man. It seems her downfall lies in the nexus of this triangle. As I decipher the text, I will bring it to you.”
“Thank you.”
But her attention was on the scrub wood ahead. Kygo had stopped walking, his hand on his sword hilt. Tiron was tugging on Ju-Long’s bridle, pulling the big horse back around.
Then we saw what they had already seen—Ryko, running toward us, someone small slung over his shoulder.
The islander lifted his fist.
The sign for Sethon’s army.
CHAPTER EIGHT
RYKO’S FIST PUNCHED three fast signals: twenty-four, on foot, northbound.
Crouching, I pulled Dela down into the grass and scanned the woodland behind the islander, every part of me focused on finding movement. My eyes caught on the quick flip of a pheasant tail, a branch bobbing in the hot wind, the shift of light between leaves.
“I can’t see any soldiers,” I whispered.
“What’s Ryko carrying?” Lady Dela said. “Is that a child?”
“Lady Eona!” We both spun around at Yuso’s low call. Beyond him, Vida and Solly were struggling to turn the horses.
“Make for those trees,” the captain said, pointing to a thick copse at the steeper edge of the slope.
I knew I should move, but something about Ryko’s small passenger held me still. His presence was almost like a taste in my mouth. Ryko had reached the emperor, and the two men were running side by side through the grass. The islander was losing momentum, his big chest heaving under the strain of his squirming burden. Whoever was slung over his shoulder did not come willingly. Behind them, Tiron had finally faced Ju-Long in the right direction. He dragged the horse into a reluctant trot.
“Lady Eona, you must go now!” Yuso ordered.
Ryko’s head jerked to one side—a nasty punch in the face from his passenger. He stumbled and lost his grip on the child. They both hit the ground and rolled in the long grass, legs and arms flailing. Kygo slowed and turned back. With easy strength, he pulled the child upright, but jumped back from the frenzied kicks and punches. Free of the emperor’s hold, the boy whipped around to face us, his hair half unraveled from a high-bound queue.
My heart tightened with sudden foreboding. I knew that tender curve of cheek and frail shoulder.
“That’s Dillon.” I stood up for a better view.
“Lord Ido’s apprentice?” Dela said, rising to peer at the boy, too. “What is he doing here?”
But I had a more pressing question on my mind.
“Can you see the black folio? Does he still have it?”
The last time I had seen Dillon, he had attacked Ryko and me and wrenched the black folio from my keeping. He had thought he could trade the book to Ido in return for his life. The poor fool did not realize it held more than the secret of the String of Pearls—it held the way for royal blood to enslave us and our dragon power.
No one but Ido and I knew it, and I could still hear the Dragoneye’s last, urgent words to me at the conquered palace. Anyone with the blood can bind us. Find the black folio, before Sethon does.
Merciful gods of heaven, I prayed, let Dillon still have the folio.
“I don’t see it,” Dela said, quick to understand. “It’s not there!”
A glimpse of dark leather sent dizzy relief through me. “No, he’s got it. Under his sleeve. See!”
My shrill triumph carried across to Dillon. His eyes fixed on me, his face widening into a scream. “Eona!” He ran a few steps, his hands beating the air. “See, see, I found her.” He struck himself in the head. “See!” His fist slammed into his skull again. “It’s Eona. See! It’s Eona!” Both fists pounded into his forehead, over and over. Although we stood at least fifty lengths from him, we could hear the dull thud of each blow.
Beside me, Yuso curled three fingers into a ward-evil. “Is he possessed?”
“No, Sun Drug,” I said, remembering the rage that had overtaken me with just a