105 A New Hope (1/2)

”Then what happened?” Ty asked as he leaned over the counter, eagerly pressing me for more information about a world he could only hear about. ”Did the army have trouble with the Lover's Embrace after all or—”

—Ty's questions were interrupted by an elbow in the shoulder courtesy of Arah.

”Calm down, Tiberius,” she scolded. ”Give the guy some breathing room to tell his story.”

I sent her a grateful smile and then leaned back in my seat.

The smell of fresh-cooked meat wafted out of the plate in front of me, and I breathed in like I hadn't had bacon in years. Ah, bacon, nothing else quite like it in either world I'd been to.

I picked up a slice of bacon and tossed it into my mouth, enjoying that savory taste in my tongue before I chomped it into tiny bits.

Ty was frowning at me now. He probably thought I was stalling—which I was. These small moments of pleasure were now far and few between in my life. I at least wanted to enjoy breakfast before I recounted my last seven days in the Fayne.

Yeah, you heard right, it had been a full week since our escape from the clutches of the Scarlet Moon's betrayal of the Magesong clan, and what happened afterward seemed like a stream of images fast-forwarding across the surface of my brain. It hadn't sunk in yet; the fact that we'd escaped death and arguably won the war despite the cost of many lives.

I took one final sip of my Diet Coke before I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and continued the tale my friends were eager to hear.

”By the time I came back the next night, Darah's army had already arrived at the border of the Lover's Embrace's territory, about ten leagues away from Broken Sellsword Canyon,” I explained. ”And the first thing I saw after I landed next to my anchor was an army nearly three times the size of ours. Soaring above this display of force was a giant sapphire flag with two embracing skulls-and-crossbones coat-of-arms painted over it.”

”Seriously?” Ty asked, looking nervously back at me. ”You guys didn't fight them, right?”

Arah rolled her eyes at him. ”Of course, they didn't fight, Ty. Dean wouldn't be sitting opposite us otherwise.”

Then she looked back at me with a bit of uncertainty clouding her otherwise confident expression. ”You didn't, right?”

I shook my head. ”Nah… by the time I got there, negotiations had already wrapped up.”

After another sip of Diet Coke, I told my friends that Darah with Aura in tow had already made a deal with my favorite salamander auctioneer, Kallista, who apparently was higher up in the Lover's hierarchy than we were led to believe. Kallista had agreed to give our army safe passage through their territory under three conditions. First, Darah had to sign a non-aggression pact of one year with Broken Sellsword's Canyon. Second, The Rings of Fortune Auction House would get a three-year exclusive contract to trade with Fort Darah. Third, the Foolhardies were promised to complete a single task for her, no questions asked.

”How'd she bargain that last condition from Aura?” Arah asked.

I sighed. ”She promised aura a big discount the next time we shopped at her place…”

Arah laughed. ”Well, that would do it.”

I picked up another slice of bacon and bit into it. That savory taste was a welcome distraction to my recent troubles.

”Um, then what happened?” Ty asked, eager to continue the tale.

I looked at him then, wondering where all the energy was coming from.

He was paler than usual. Dark circles wrapped around his eyes which were redder than usual.

”You okay, Ty?” I asked.

Ty looked down. ”Y-yeah… haven't been sleeping well, that's all,” he said hurriedly.

”Why not?” Arah asked.

Seeing as they were always together when I wasn't around, I was surprised she hadn't noticed how tired he looked like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a while.

”J-just bad dreams,” he said, waving off our concern. ”Nothing as crazy as yours though, right, Dean?”

He gave me a wink that wasn't convincing at all. But I relented. Everyone had issues to work with, and whatever Ty was dealing with, it surely wasn't that bad. It wasn't like anyone was trying to kill him nearly every night. Besides, he'd tell us if it was something to worry about.

Arah didn't seem as eager to drop it as I did, but she let Ty stir the conversation back to my tales of the Fayne.

”Even with the Lover's Embrace protecting our backs, it still took us two nights to reunite with Vardoom's group, and with nearly fifty thousand soldiers, we returned to the safety of Fort Darah,” I told my friends. ”The Great General wasn't satisfied though. She had us all prepared for a siege in case the Scarlet Moon decided to test their luck.”

”Less than half of the soldiers you went to war with,” Arah noted.

I nodded. ”Yeah…”

I didn't feel the need to tell Ty and Arah about the hours before dawn, where, after realizing the enemy wasn't coming, Great General Darah had a huge pyre built in honor of our fallen dead.

There were no bodies to burn. Only wooden effigies the magicians claimed would ease the passing of both fairy and human souls.

I myself carved the name of Shaqs and Theren Everleaf on the two branches of redwood we'd taken from our barracks platform. But I didn't have the heart to throw them into the fire along with rest as I could still feel the sting of their loss in my chest. Luca did it for me.