Vela Heartwhisper's Arc

Chapter 10 of 25

The blade in the trees still burned in Vela's mind. She had shown Benbenek her real face, and someone had watched it happen. Now that watcher knew her, knew the king, and wanted his right hand. Vela could not sit beside Benbenek again until she learned who sent the spy. She left him at the rocket and went to find the one person who could track a hunter in the dark. Lysander waited at the edge of the Mystic Grove, under trees with glowing leaves. He tossed a stone from hand to hand, calm as a man skipping rocks. Vela had trusted him with her rocket once, and he had traded his own past for her secret. He was a spy before the king adopted him. He knew how watchers moved. "You look spooked," he said. "Someone saw the whole thing?" Vela nodded. Lysander stopped tossing the stone. "Then we find him before he reports." Her three-eyed dogcat pressed its nose to the ground and pulled them deep among the roots. It stopped where the moss lay crushed. Boot marks. Then a glowing moth drifted up from a broken vial in the dirt, its spores lighting the tracks like tiny lamps. Lysander crouched and lifted the vial. "I know this glass," he said. "Severin mixes his poisons in it." The name landed hard. Dr. Malakai Severin had attacked the king before and fled. Now his watcher had traced Vela to Benbenek's arms. Vela followed the moth's light past the grove to a small crystal fountain, shaped like a heart, tucked among the trees. Someone knelt beside it, washing a wound. He turned. It was one of Severin's hired eyes, sword drawn, face wild. "You saw my face," Vela said. "Who told you to watch me?" The man laughed and swung. Lysander stepped in and caught the blade on his bracer. Vela ducked low, grabbed a fallen vial, and smashed it at the man's feet. Green smoke burst up. The watcher choked and dropped his sword. Lysander pinned his arms behind him. "Severin," the man gasped. "He wants the king's right hand. He told me to find who guards the king. Now I know it's you." Vela's stomach dropped. She had wanted a name, and she got one. But the answer was worse than the silence. Severin already knew she loved Benbenek. He would use her to reach the king's most trusted warrior. Lysander met her eyes over the man's shoulder. His voice went quiet and flat. "He means me. I'm the right hand." Vela stared at him. The watcher had not just exposed her. He had marked Lysander as the target. Her closest ally was now the prize Severin hunted. Two nights remained, and the man she needed most stood at the center of the blade.