“Well, I did all the heavy lifting, of course.” Felix’s bushy tail curled around himself. “Speaking of, Zamara left behind a king’s horde of Phoera. I need you to take some as soon as you’re feeling up to it. If I keep much more in my stashes, they’ll be too easy to detect.”
Ryon’s mind spun. How could Kira have killed a god-queen? She wasn’t a Malo elementalist—did she even have any of her little throwing knives left? “How did she . . . ?”
“She basically made the broken elevator and a harpoon launcher into a trap. Weren’t you right there? You didn’t see it?” Felix’s long nose wrinkled. “Never mind, sorry.”
Of course Kira had trapped that monster, just like the trace cat and d’hakka and countless other beasts. Pride and desire mingled like honey and spice in Ryon’s tired heart.
I’d marry that stubborn girl if she’d have me. He carefully stretched his burned palms. Would she want me like this?
“Don’t worry about Zamara,” Felix said. “I’ve hidden her stone so she can never be resurrected.”
Ryon forgot to breathe. “She can be resurrected?”
“No, I just said I hid her stone. No one will ever find it, so long as my constellation burns in the night.” Felix hopped down from the bed. “I’ll get you some lenses.”
He probably buried it in the center of the earth. “I don’t need lenses. I’ll heal.”
“Maybe. Probably not,” Felix said. “You’re lucky to be able to see at all.”
Ryon squeezed his eyes shut. His hands burned as he clenched them into fists, but the pain didn’t rival the ache in his spirit. “I can’t lose my sight. I’m a scout. And a hunter. There’s no such thing as a near-sighted archer.”
Felix trotted toward the door. “Be happy, kid. You’re not dead and this is fixable. I know the best glass-bender in Quin’Zamar.”
Ryon pushed himself up from the bed and gritted his teeth through the pain-speckled nausea. “Lenses cost a fortune.”
“I said I’ll get them.” Felix looked back at him from the door. “Sit down, you idiot. Zamara pulled out your element so fast that you had internal bleeding.”
Ryon held his stomach and shuffled to the window, catching the sill for support. He couldn’t tell if the haze was due to his eyes or the inferior method of forging glass the Katrosi used, making all of their windows foggy. Or maybe it was due to the smoky haze that had settled over the city.
The view should have been green, filled with the oversized leaves of Jadenvive’s giant birch. But patches of the city were blackened or grayed with ash. Shapes moved about the platform below, carrying burdens he couldn’t make out—one looked like a supply cart, and that one like a stretcher.
Ryon rested his forehead against the cool glass and fought itching tears. Brooke already had pressure from many of Jadenvive’s residents to abandon the treetops and spread across the land like a “normal” city. The design was from a past age, they’d said. They were stronger now—no need to endanger their children and elderly with such heights when the azure masks could fight off any beast.
They’d get their way now. Even if the giant birch trees that held the city aloft could survive this damage, more people would speak out against the traditional Katrosi way of life, and Brooke would have no choice but to relocate.
Jadenvive, as Ryon knew and loved it, would be no more. The city that had taken in the children of their enemy was scarred as badly as his vision. His family would be ripped away from their second home, just like they had been from the first.
Zamara had won.
44
KIRALAU
The herbalist squinted at Kira, causing a crease to appear on her freckled forehead. “Excuse me?”
Kira shifted the bundle of aloe vera leaves to her hip, and singed grass crackled beneath her feet. She repeated herself, speaking more slowly this time. “An elemental sucked out his power—his Phoera element. I don’t know; I don’t really understand it. But he’s been asleep for a whole day. I think he has internal damage. Do you have anything for that?”
A light blossomed in the herbalist’s eyes. “Ah. We all deal with grief in our own ways.” She pointed to a woman beside her who also had a line of people at her table. “My partner here can set up a time to talk with you about it.”
“No, I don’t need to talk,” Kira said. Clearly this woman