Chapter 523: 523: Secret meeting?
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Kai stepped back under the stone, into the dim cool of his mountain, already planning how far he could walk before his ribs decided they were done cooperating.
He did not get far before his body reminded him that planning and doing were different hobbies.
By the time he reached the inner bend, the adrenaline that had held him up on the ramp had worn thin. Each breath felt like it had to negotiate with three different fractures. The bandages Luna had wrapped him in tugged when he moved, reminding him how much of him had very recently tried to retire.
Miryam was waiting just off the main passage, leaning against the wall with her arms folded, coat still crooked on her shoulders. Her golden eyes searched his face in one long, unblinking sweep.
"You are going out again," she said. It was not quite a question.
"Just to the trees," Kai said. "Not to fight another general. I promise I am limiting myself to one per day."
Her gaze flicked toward his ribs, then to the faint shimmer of the Soul Road thread still trailing from him.
"Did she call you," Miryam said, lip curling slightly. "The one... The one who smells like flowers and arrogance?"
Kai raised an eyebrow.
"You can smell arrogance now," he said. "Impressive."
"It is strong," Miryam said. "Like old sugar left in the sun. Are you sure you should go? You are still cracked on the inside."
"Yes," Kai said. "And yes, I am sure. This is a conversation better had on our feet than through the Road. I should talk to her face to face. She helped a lot. I will not be long."
Miryam pushed off the wall.
"If she bites you, I bite her," she said.
"I will keep that in mind," Kai said. "For now, stay inside. The mountain still needs someone with enough spine not to fall over when everyone else does. You are currently the least breakable person I know and the strongest whom I trust."
Her mouth twitched at that, she stepped aside for the compliment.
"Do not let her talk you into anything stupid," she said.
Kai almost said too late and decided his ribs did not need to deal with the laughter that would follow.
He made his way out by a side tunnel gate rather than the main tunnel. The drones there straightened as he approached, antennae flicking.
"Lord," one of them said. "Do you require an escort?"
"No," Kai said. "Keep the gate tight. If I am not back by morning, you may assume I have either been kidnapped or distracted. In either case, do not come looking. The mountain needs you here more than the trees need you there."
Reluctance flickered across the gate captain’s face, but he saluted and stepped back.
Kai slipped out.
The world outside the mountain felt quieter without the rumble of Vorak’s army parked at the doorstep. The flats still bore scars – churned earth, dark streaks where blood had dried, abandoned spearheads half buried in sand – but the oppressive press of hostile aura was gone. Only heat and dust and a wind that finally dared to move freely again.
The forest that ringed the farther edge of the desert waited, its line of scrub and twisted trees like a dark smudge against the pale.
Kai walked toward it at a pace his ribs approved of.
The air under the first trees was cooler, shaded. Dry leaves crackled under his boots. The smell changed from dust and metal to sap and old bark and the faint sweetness of some distant flowering vine.
He did not have to search.
She let him find her.
Ikea sat on a low branch of an old, bent tree like it was a throne she had picked up at a flea market. One leg swung idly. Her hair fell around her shoulders in a dark, slightly tangled curtain, catching leaves in places that ignored all rules about gravity.
Today she wore something simple – a light, sleeveless tunic belted at the waist, bare feet, no crown of thorns or skulls or any of the other theatrical things old beings sometimes favored when they wanted mortals properly impressed. The only ornaments were the faint, subtle lines of red that traced her arms like old, half-faded markings.
Her eyes watched him as he stepped into the little clearing.
"You look marginally less dead than I expected," she said by way of greeting. "Either your healers are better than they pretend, or you are too stubborn to bleed properly."
"Option three," Kai said. "Your timing was inconvenient and I did not want my obituary to mention we lost because I was talking to a woman in a tree."
She laughed, a low, pleased sound.
"Ah," she said. "You still have humor. Good. Sit."
He glanced around, then chose a flat stone across from her tree and lowered himself onto it with more care than he would have liked to show. The stone was cool through his clothes.
He exhaled slowly.
"Thank you," he said.
Ikea tilted her head.
"For what," she asked, though she knew.
"For explaining balances," Kai said. "For talking Vorak out of taking the simple route. For making sure this war ended in a circle and not under my walls. Pick any."
She shrugged, a small roll of shoulders.
"It cost me less than it would have cost you," she said. "The general is not entirely foolish. He can count. I just... helped him move a few digits to the other side of the equation."
"It was still a risk," Kai said. "If he had decided pride mattered more than ledgers, your name might have ended up on his report under ’meddling influences.’ The court does not always like those."
Her mouth curved.
"The court rarely likes anything that remembers pre-court days," she said. "They prefer their elders to be domesticated. Polished. I have never been good at polishing."
"I noticed," Kai said dryly.
She smiled properly at that, teeth bright.
"As for risks," she added, "you were the one who jumped off a ramp into four thousand armed men and an eighth star. Do not try to make me feel like I was braver. I was just talking."
