I winced as I turned to face Wyrga—the witch-queen Suless, although for obvious reasons, I couldn’t call her such. She stood at the doorway with her polar bear cub—with Cherthog—tucked under her arm. The flesh around her empty left socket looked puffy and red.

So Kaen hadn’t let her heal the injury. He at least hadn’t let her finish the job either, while I lay unconscious.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t think he’d do that.”

The old hag grinned her toothful smile and waddled over in my direction. “Don’t let it bother you any. I barely notice it myself. See?” She raised her hand and I saw she held her other eye. The orb rotated in her fingers, a brown cat’s eye pointing at me.

“Oh Eight.” I tasted bile and turned away, even as she started laughing.

“He told me to pluck my eyes out. He never said anything about not being able to still use them.”

“Of course. What was I thinking?” I swallowed down the awful taste in my mouth and wished for water. A sparkling white flash caught my eye as the ice dragon dove down below the cloud line. She twisted herself around to fill up the snow hollow she used as bedding. At least that’s a beautiful monster, I thought.

But Suless was a monster too. I hadn’t moved to her defense because I thought her a wonderful person, I’d done it because I didn’t think anyone deserved such treatment.

In a way, I was grateful. Suless had given me clarity. Because when Kaen had given her that terrible command, I’d known for certain I could never serve Azhen Kaen, no matter what rewards he offered. I’d been tempted, but a man who used his power as he had with Wyrga could never be trusted.

What you protect is what you rule. Kaen was thorra—a bully, someone who used his strength to dominate. Any vows I’d made to him melted in my heart and then turned to ash.

“You’re going to have to learn magic if you want to take Aeyan’arric down, you know. Sword skill alone can’t kill a dragon, no matter how good you are; you’ll never be good enough. Magic, on the other hand, might just keep you alive for long enough. Maybe. If you’re lucky.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” My heart hammered drumbeat fast. What questions had the Hon asked Senera? What did they know? How did Wyrga know about my mission? If the Hon realized my goal was to steal the spear Khoreval and use it to slay the dragon he loved sending into Jorat …

It wouldn’t go well for me.