Page 80 of A Kiss of Hammer and Flame

This time, striding into the caves, Cahra went first. Piet, Siarl and Queran tried not to gawk as the amber glow of Cahra’s eyes faded to the dimness of a faraway star.

‘What happened to you?’ The question popped from Queran’s mouth, seemingly before the archer could stop it.

Cahra tossed over her shoulder, ‘Depends, how much do you know?’ She could feel Piet eyeballing the hammer Thelaema had gifted her.

‘You’re Kolyath’s heir,’ Piet murmured. ‘Kin of the hammer.’

Siarl admitted, ‘And, well, the rest.’ She bowed, adding, ‘Empress.’

Cahra nodded, unsure if they could see the gesture in the dark. She cleared her throat.

‘A few things have changed,’ she said, Queran chuckling behind her. She supposed her eyeswereglowing. Luminaux’s fighters followed as Cahra set a brisk pace.

Queran asked, ‘So, you’re our torch now?’

Cahra almost laughed herself. ‘Apparently,’ she said, as they stole furtively through the extensive tunnels. ‘And our guide. It turns out I can see in the dark.’

One of the unexpected perks of being bound to Hael’stromia’s weapon.

She could see every nook and chink in the striated walls of the cave system, the limestone of its floor smooth as marble, barring the occasional chunks of rock.

But she couldn’t think about what gems she might find in these ancient caves. Her focus was finding Raiden and his guards. Alive, she prayed.

They’d been plunging through the darkness for what felt like over an hour when Cahra’s ears twigged to something up ahead.

‘We’re close,’ she whispered.

Queran raised his bow, arrow nocked. ‘You can hear them?’

Cahra nodded, guessing he couldn’t. ‘It’s muffled. Wait, that was metal. Weapons. They’re fighting.’ She exhaled. ‘That’s a good sign, right? Fighting, not silence?’

Piet’s voice intoned from behind, ‘Let us hope so.’ Dual flashes of silver told Cahra that Siarl and her daggers were ready.

They charged.

Within a minute, Cahra, Piet, Siarl and Queran were upon the scene of the battle.

Before the second omen’s rite, it would have been impossible for Cahra to make out much. Hastily tossed torches cast flickers across the grappling soldiers, the glints and clangs of swords disorienting in the dark, echoing caves. But now with Hael’s enhanced senses…

Cahra watched as Piet struck first, swinging his hammer into a Kolyath soldier’s ribs with a devastating crack, the enemy flying sideways into the wall. Siarl hurled one of her throwing daggers past Piet and into the eye of a soldier ahead, swooping to thrust then yank the bloody knife from the man’s skull before springing into action, every inch the warrior silently doling out death. Between them, Piet and Siarl cleared a path forward as Queran’s arrowheads sailed to impale his targets one by one, Kolyath and Ozumbre’s forces falling to the Prince of Luminaux’s elite Royal Guards.

Cahra spotted Raiden at the same time as Piet, who started battling his way towards his Captain, the sound of metal meeting metal everywhere around them as weapons clashed. Eyes darting between the fighting men, Cahra turned the great-hammer in her hands, until her gaze chanced upon a uniform she didn’t recognise.

But she knew that pin.

Ozumbre.

Something snapped inside her at the thought, into place or out of it, she couldn’t tell. The forces of Ozumbre, standing right before her…

She’d fantasised about destroying Atriposte’s stranglehold over Kolyath for years. But Ozumbre was the kingdom that had caused it all.

They murdered my parents. My village. THEY’RE the ones who did this.

Everything she’d suffered – not just this night, but every miserable day of her life – every wrong, every hurt she’d limped through. It wasOzumbre’sfault. Now, here they were. Cahra glanced down to see the great-hammer glinting in her hands.

Justice was finally within her grasp.

She didn’t have time to dwell on the emotions that drowned her in that moment: pain, the blistering rage that overrode her fear. She raised her hammer, eyes narrowed, snarling as she remembered Thelaema’s words.