The Winds of Khalakovo - Bradley P. Beaulieu [75]
She returned his smile and poured him a drink of the vodka anyway. “Perhaps I no longer prefer it.”
He accepted the glass, firelight flickering off of the golden earrings in what remained of his left ear. “Then I would know you had finally turned.”
He sat within the mound of pillows, his face haggard, his eyes heavy, as if he hadn’t slept in weeks. As she sat across from him, she tried to hide the pain in her feet and ankles.
Soroush glanced down, then toward the fire, and finally he met her eye. “I would have guessed you would give that up long before the araq.”
She took a sip from her vodka, hoping he would take the hint and leave the subject alone. The fire crackled as the sting of the liquor crept down her throat to lie heavy, deep within her gut. She couldn’t bring herself to move closer to him, though she admitted there was still a part of her that wanted to. Despite his scars—or perhaps because of them—he was a deeply attractive man. But to think of Soroush she had no choice but to think of the pain that had been laid at their feet by the bloody hands of the Landed.
“Do you have a place in the city?”
“That isn’t something you should know.”
She knew the reasons for this, but it still hurt to be treated like a risk that he was forced to weigh. “Then why have you come?”
“It has been too long, Rehada. It is time for us to sit. To take drink with one another.”
She shook her head. “I am no girl just taking to the winds, Soroush. You have come for a reason.”
His dark eyes shone in the firelight. “Tell me first what you’ve heard.”
“Of the hezhan?”
He nodded.
“It crossed the wall of the palotza and murdered the Grand Duke. Dozens died with many more wounded. Bolgravya’s grand ship was lost.”
Soroush stared at his drink with a look of regret on his face. He took a healthy swallow and closed his eyes, perhaps wishing the dead a better life on their return to Erahm. “Your Prince?”
“Safe as far as I know.”
“That is good. We may have need of him before this is done.”
“In what way?”
“Who can tell?”
Rehada shook her head. “Fine, keep your secrets.”
“Bersuq has been having trouble with the third stone.”
She laughed. “I’ve given you your stone.”
“You have.” He shook his head, ignoring her jibe. “We thought we had mastered the way to sense the weakest points in the rift. You saw the effects yourself.”
“I did, but I may have had help.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t think I would have succeeded in summoning the hezhan were it not for a presence I felt at the end. I was lost utterly, and the presence cleared my mind, allowed me to focus against the pain. When I woke there was a form in the woods. It must have been Nasim.”
His head tilted incrementally. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“It was not until hours later that I was thinking clearly. Memories were streaming from my mind, and it was all I could do to sort them from reality. I thought on it for a long while afterward, and I think it was him. I think he was watching the whole time.”
He downed the last of his vodka in one gulp. His face soured as he stared at the glass, then he set it aside and gazed into the fire. He looked like the Soroush of old, then. Peaceful. Contemplative. He had been a man on a path toward greatness before Ahya had been killed.
“Did you know he is in the palotza, taken by your Prince?”
She was surprised at how strongly her heart beat at even this small bit of news of Nikandr, but the alcohol was already helping to mask her emotions.
When she remained silent, he continued. “Don’t worry. Nasim will keep well enough in the palotza. What’s important are the stones. Bersuq has tried several times to summon the vanahezhan. But the way has proven blocked.”
“We have time.”
“Neh. There is no time left.”
“You have always preached patience.”
“I have, but where has patience gotten us these last dozen years?”
“We have done much,” Rehada said, insulted.
“What have we done? Stolen a handful of ships, destroyed a few more, and all the while the Landed have pushed us from two more islands in the north and further cemented their hold on one of