Child of Legend - A Shadow and Bone Fanfic

Chapter 45

All my attempts to make conversation with Pytor were hopeless, so instead I settled for just having an unofficial staring contest with him that only I knew about.

After about 5 minutes he had enough, "Would you quit staring at me," he scolded.

"He talks!!" I exclaimed, faking astonishment.

He just got more annoyed, "Can't you take anything seriously?"

I took a deep breath, "I could, but that would make life far more boring and much more like a chore, better to keep it exciting, no?"

"You know I could knock you out," he sneered.

I mimicked his deep voice, "You know I could blind you."

"You shouldn't even be here, everyone knows having two shadow summoners in the same place is highly irresponsible and dangerous," Pytor thought aloud.

I furrowed my eyebrows, "Excuse me?"

"Must be different for daughters, not that we would know, there's never been a female shadow summoner."

"Not ever? That's highly improbable."

"Never been one on record," he confirmed, "Over the last few centuries the leader of the second army has always been a shadow summoner, all from the same line, but never a girl. No one ever really questioned it until you came along, but I suppose that's different aswell, all children of a shadow summoner are raised elsewhere in safety until they are ready to lead second army, but you, you were behind enemy lines, if your gift had been discovered whilst no other Grisha were around, well, it wouldn't have been pretty."

It dawned on me then, as Pytor explained the past to me, now I knew why my father seemed so educated, why he could understand ancient Ravkan with ease, why he had said that this was a plan centuries in the making, there were no son's, no heirs, there was only one, and had been for hundreds of years.

We were both silent for a moment then I had an idea, "I need to leave the tent," I told him.

He rolled his eyes, obviously fed up, "Why?" He humoured me.

I pretend to be embarrassed and said in a low voice, "Ladies problems."

His eyes widened and he went as pink as a peach, for a heartrender he seemed awfully reluctant to talk about the human body.

He didn't meet my eyes as he debated with himself, eventually he stepped out of the tent and came back in a moment later with a female heartrender.

I almost laughed, "Did I make you uncomfortable Pytor?" I asked him sarcastically, barley containing my scoff.

He scowled, "You have five minutes, don't try anything." The girl gestured for me to follow her to an outhouse a few tents away.

Everyone in the camp was busy with various tasks, something was going on, I only hoped that I could figure out what before I was once again confined to the tent.

My thoughts were short lived as the heartrender stopped and I nearly walked into her, I looked up and realised why she had stopped, my father stood before us, his face unreadable as per usual.

"What are you doing," he calmly demanded of the heartrender.

"She said she needed to relive herself, moi soverenyi, Pytor asked me to take her," she responded.

He looked me up and down then sighed, "When are you going to stop lying to my soldiers, Rena?" I didn't respond, only kept my eyes at the ground, "Leave us," he told the heartrender. "Where is your kefta?" He asked.