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Outside, Terrence the hawk was circling, another scroll dangling from his leg.

‘Fuck,’ Wilder muttered, opening the window for him. It was unusual to hear back from Dratos so soon.

‘What is this about?’ Audra’s voice was icy.

As soon as Terrence was inside, Wilder opened the scroll, not bothering to shield it from the librarian.

‘Another tear in the Veil,’ he told her and Malik quietly, his chest tight. ‘More monsters getting through.’

‘How many does that make now?’ Audra asked, her expression hard. ‘And don’t give me that shit about being a civilian, Hawthorne. I fought beside your brother before you could swing a training sword.’

In response, Malik looked at her fondly.

Wilder passed her the letter. ‘Three,’ he told her. ‘Three tears that we know of.’

‘And no doubt there will be more to come.’

‘Yes,’ Wilder said. ‘There will be more.’

The warrior brothers and the librarian peered to the north of Thezmarr, where unnatural darkness gathered beyond the jagged mountains.

Wilder’s scalp prickled and a chill washed over him, his hand shifting to the hilt of the dagger at his belt.

His first thought was of Thea. He wished he had said something more to her, something that did the roiling tempest within him justice. Fighting down the fear for her, he told himself that when he next saw her, when she undoubtedly made it through the initiation test, he’d take her in his arms and wouldn’t let go.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Thea’s last dawn as a shieldbearer bled into the sky quietly, marred by ominous clouds rolling in from the north. At last, armed with a sword of steel and a sturdy shield, she locked all thoughts of Wilder away and waited with her cohort by the Plains of Orax, as the Guild Master had instructed. There, she steeled herself against what was to come.

She didn’t like being out in the open like this, vulnerable and unprepared, but she gathered that was how they were meant to feel: on the precipice of panic before the trial even began. In the distance, she could see the dark seas roiling beyond the scattered islands, and she prayed that whatever chaos loomed there would hold at bay until their test had been completed.

Kipp and Cal shoved their way through the ranks to stand beside her, both trying to catch her eye, but Osiris, joined by King Artos, the masters and commanders, beat a spear on the face of his shield, demanding silence, demanding undivided attention.

‘The initiation test is simple,’ his voice called out across the freezing fields. ‘You are to retrieve a Guardian totem from the Chained Islands.’

Thea felt the tension grow taut around her, felt her own body seize up at the thought. No one had ventured onto the Chained Islands in decades.

Until now, she thought as she turned her focus to the lands just off the coast of Thezmarr. Whoever had named the islands had been literal, for the Chained Islands were exactly that: a small archipelago that had been physically linked by thick chains. There were at least seven that Thea could see, towering high above the crashing waves below, their white cliff faces cold and taunting —

‘There are fifty of you in this initiation test and only thirty totems. Those who fail to retrieve a totem and those who fail to return in the allotted time will be dismissed from our fighting ranks. Should those poor bastards wish to remain at Thezmarr, they will be no more than staff: cooks, stablehands, launderers and the like. When it comes to this guild, I will make it plain: there is no room here for anything less than a warrior. If you have not learnt our ways by now, you never will. You have until sundown.’

That was it.

Within seconds, two shieldbearers threw their weapons down on the grass and turned on their heels back to the fortress, apparently deciding then and there that nothing was worth the dangers ahead.

For a moment, the rest of them stood in a daze, letting the reality of the Guild Master’s words sink in, until Esyllt barked, ‘What are you waiting for?’

Thea lurched into action, starting down the hill, following the Bloodwoods towards the sharp drop of the bluffs, two familiar figures falling in step beside her.

‘Thea, please, look at us,’ Kipp said.

‘This is not the time or place,’ she muttered, gripping her sword as the edge of the cliffs came into view, the dark swell of the water surging below.

‘It’s the only time and place,’ Cal countered, resting a hand on her shoulder. ‘I know you heard me. I said things I didn’t mean, some stupid things in the aftermath of what happened.’

‘I’m aware,’ Thea replied, still charging forward, the rest of the shieldbearers jostling alongside them.

‘But I didn’t mean them!’ Cal argued.