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Was Thea hearing correctly? Was Audradefendingher?

‘You tell me,’ Osiris countered. ‘That was exactly how it happened the last time.’

‘Furies save us, Osiris. Now is not the time for prophecies —’

‘Which is what you said time and time again, before a little girl brought the darkness down upon Thezmarr twenty years ago.’

‘And what was your brilliant solution? To strip half your warriors of their weapons and throw them out?’

‘I had no choice —’

‘There is always a choice. And Thezmarr is weaker for yours.’

‘Enough about the past,’ Vernich interjected. ‘This girl here broke our laws. She must face the consequences.’

Girl. Always girl. Like she was an unruly child to be disciplined, not a woman who hadsurvived. Anger crackled in Thea’s veins.

Audra stiffened, as though the insult landed upon her shoulders as well. She seemed to draw herself up. ‘Need I remind you,’ she said between clenched teeth, ‘that the original Warswords were women. The Three Furies were what our entire culture was based upon, what everything the guild stands for started with them.’

‘Don’t bring your books into this,’ Osiris snapped.

‘Don’t bring your prejudices from decades ago into this,’ Audra bit back. ‘Rather than punish Althea for what she is, ask herwhyshe breaks the rules.’

‘I don’t care why.’

‘Youshould. She has wanted nothing more than to train since she was old enough to walk. All the while we have less and less recruits. Our shieldbearers are failing the initiation test more than ever before, some of them not even reaching the pointwhere they can undertake it. Perhaps it's time to try somethingnew. Althea is no scholar, that's for sure.’

Thea suppressed a wince at that last comment.

Osiris’ eyes narrowed and adopted a dangerous glint. ‘This is your fault,’ he told Audra, his focus honing in on the small daggers at her waist. ‘You encourage this sort of behaviour with your blatant disregard for our ways. You allow your past to cloud your judgement, to interfere with your duties.’

‘You mean my past as a former Guardian of the midrealms? As a former warrior of this very guild?’

Air whistled between Thea’s teeth. The librarian had never uttered those words aloud before.

But Audra didn’t miss a beat, her voice icy. ‘I have nothing but respect for the Thezmarrian ways, Osiris, as you well know. My very purpose here is to uphold its spirit, its vision and its place in the midrealms. That’s why I stayed, even after your abhorrent law changing.’ She gestured to the miniature weapons at her belt. ‘And these are ceremonial, as I’ve told you before. A tribute to the Furies.’

‘How can you expect your charges to follow the laws when you yourself —’

‘They look like letter openers to me,’ Wilder Hawthorne cut in, as though Osiris hadn’t been speaking. ‘A fitting tool for a librarian, Guild Master. Surely, we would not rob Audra of their uses. And surely, Thezmarrian warriors would not be threatened by such insignificant blades.’

He posed seemingly polite questions, but Wilder Hawthorne had swiftly ended the debate regarding Audra’sletter openers.

‘However, regarding your… charge,’ Hawthorne said it with disdain.

Thea’s fists clenched in her lap, her pulse spiking.

‘She broke one of our most important laws, and now it seems you’re suggesting that not only she be granted leniency, but what? A place in the shieldbearers’ ranks?’

In that moment Thea didn’t care if Hawthorne was the most celebrated Warsword of all time, or that she’d briefly admired his figure in the hall. He was an unfeeling bastard through and through.

But Audra spoke calmly as she faced him. ‘In short, yes.’

Hawthorne laughed darkly. ‘Warriors of Thezmarr are forged with blood and steel, not plucked from the shadows of the Bloodwoods, or the alchemy workshop.’ His words were harsh, unforgiving, as was his gaze upon Thea.

Thea shifted in her seat. She had spoken no word in her own defence, but aware that her fate was hanging in the balance before her, she felt compelled to say something.

‘I’m good,’ she blurted. ‘Better than good. As Audra said, I’ve been training all my life. I’d be an asset to Thezmarr, to the midrealms —’