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The woman’s face darkens. Her defiance surprises Dawsyn. “I cannot allow you to kill me, Miss Sabar. Nor any of my soldiers.”

“Then perhaps you shouldn’t have come so far.” Dawsyn keeps her ax trained on her target, but Ruby holds her stance. “Go. Now,” she barks to her men. “Take Oslo. He is bleeding.”

“Captain–”

“That’s an order!” Ruby calls, her voice echoing off the mountain. “Fall back. All of you. Tell the Queen I have been taken hostage.”

There is a moment of hesitation before the guards respond, their swords lowering in confusion.

“GO!” Ruby yells once more, and finally, reluctantly, the guards move. Backing away slowly at first, and then turning and running when they stumble on the decline.

Dawsyn smirks without a sliver of true amusement. Foolish of them. They are easy game, scurrying animals free for the taking. Who would she be if she allowed them to leave unscathed? Just so they could return another time, stronger and better armed?

Dawsyn raises her dagger, preparing to lodge it into the base of a retreating skull.

“Wait!” the captain of the guard yells, hands desperately outstretched. “Spare them and take me. I wish to journey with you… to Glacia. To the Ledge.”

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Dawsyn laughs, the sound stilted. This time, her amusement is genuine, her eyebrows arched in surprise. Dawsyn will give the captain credit for this – she gives her pause, at the very least.

Shaking her head, Dawsyn prepares to throw her dagger once more, the retreating backs of the guards grow ever distant but they have not reached safety yet.

“I said,stop!Please! In the name of Valmanere Austrina Sabar!”

Dawsyn’s eyes snap back to the captain. She has not heard her grandmother’s name in its entirety for many years.

Well played,she thinks.

In the mist down the slope, the guards can no longer be seen.Damn it.

The captain pants, hands now shaking from cold rather than beseeching. “I meant what I said,” she implores. “I would journey with you.”

Dawsyn groans, suddenly exhausted, tired of playing games with a kingdom she does not understand. Just seconds ago, the captain had been stalking this mountain to hunt her down, only to throw her white flag between them so readily? For what purpose?

“I was rather under the impression you had brought your men here for my recapture,” Dawsyn says dryly. “Had I known you only meant to accompany me, I would have offered… a morepolitewelcome.”

“I believe what you said before… about the king of Glacia,” Ruby presses, her words urgent. “If there is a way for the people on the Ledge to be freed – if the people in Terrsaw are truly no longer in any danger…”

“A convenient change of heart,” Ryon rumbles, his stolen sword glinting in the weak light.

“A familiar concept for you, I would think, hybrid,” Dawsyn snaps. “Do me the great kindness of being silent. I do not need your help.”

Ryon sighs audibly, and she almost throws her ax at him again, but there is no time for sport. She is not one for negotiations. Baltisse lies in the snow somewhere above, growing weaker each second, and Dawsyn will not tarry a moment longer with a deceitful hybrid and the fucking captain of the Terrsaw guard. “Enough.”

Dawsyn takes several sure strides downhill. In the face of her advance, Ruby stumbles backward, fleeing, and Dawsyn marks each step. With a swift kick, she knocks the captain’s feet out from under her.

Ruby’s back slams into the snow, her eyes widening in fear as Dawsyn leans to press a knife to her throat.

“I’ll decline your offer now, Captain.”

“I was kind to you!” Ruby shouts into Dawsyn’s face, her breathing laboured and unsteady.

“You were,” Dawsyn cedes. “And then, as I’m sure you’ll recall, you led me to the gallows.”

Ruby growls, eyes wild. “Who do you think got word to your friends beforehand? Who ensured the inn owner saw no punishment for inciting that riot? Who pulled the guards from the gate to the city, so that you might run free?” The captain raises her head from the snow, pressing her own throat more firmly to the blade edge, spit bubbling at the corners of her mouth. “But perhaps you are not as worthy of saving as you seem,Dawsyn Sabar.Perhaps I have misplaced my loyalty.”

Dawsyn nods. “You most certainly have.”