Page 116

With her sisters – it still felt strange to think it – working out their differences, Thea returned her attention to the bustling room. Cal and Kipp were in deep discussions with Marise and Everard. Several maps had been produced and spread across the end of the table, already covered in ringed wine stains, tono one’s surprise. Dratos and Adrienne were leaning down and talking to a sulking Gus, whose knitting had been confiscated. Thea wondered what he’d meant when he’d broached the topic of a Warsword trying to kill them as Wilder had killed those prisoners.

Wilder himself had sought out his brother. The two giant warriors looked out of place standing next to the average-sized hearth and mantle. Dax was sitting stoically at Malik’s feet as Wilder talked in a hushed voice to his brother, his expression strained. She could see the pain in his eyes, but Malik’s expression remained distant.

‘You seem well,’ came a familiar voice.

‘Audra,’ Thea said before she’d fully turned around.

The librarian of Thezmarr looked as she always did: stern and rigid, with the piercing eyes of someone who knew a million things she shouldn’t.

‘An interesting year you’ve had, Althea,’ Audra noted, looking around at the strange network that had gathered.

‘That’s one word for it.’

‘And yet here you stand… I trust my words weren’t wasted on you when we rode the Mourner’s Trail together?’

Thea blinked at her, recalling that surreal journey she’d taken with her once-warden. ‘If you seek power in a world of men and monsters, there is nothing more powerful than knowledge…’ Thea trailed off.

‘And the ability to wield it,’ Audra finished.

‘Do you have any knowledge for me to wield, then, Audra?’ Thea asked boldly.

‘More than my lifetime’s worth,’ the librarian told her cryptically. ‘But there is only one thing I want you to take from me today…’ She produced one of the daggers from her belt and handed it to Thea. ‘It’s a loan, of course,’ she cautioned.

The dagger was tiny compared to her Naarvian steel blade from Malik, but the significance wasn’t lost on her, not for a second. She tried to pass the weapon back. ‘Audra, I can’t take this —’

Audra refused it. ‘But you will. There will come a time when you will need it, and we will need you.’

‘I…’ Thea didn’t know why she was arguing; her whole life she’d been trying to argue with her warden to no avail.

She nearly staggered back at the sight of Audrasmiling.

‘Remember what I told you?’ Audra prompted. ‘That the smallest blade can make the biggest difference.’ Then the older woman slipped away, leaving Thea staring after her, still holding the jewelled dagger.

‘Is she still insisting they’re for show?’ Torj asked, nodding to the weapon gleaming in her grasp as he topped up her wine.

‘I think the days of her holding up that pretence are long gone,’ Thea murmured, still dazed.

Torj chuckled. ‘No one ever believed her anyway.’

‘Not that she cared.’ Thea couldn’t keep the note of admiration from her voice. ‘Do you think she’ll find out where the former women warriors of the guild are?’

‘Find out?’ The Bear Slayer laughed. ‘Thea… Audra’s known exactly where they went since the day they left.’

‘But…’

‘But what? Osiris interrogated her? Threatened her? For years and years? Surely you know Audra’s as tough as they come. She never broke. She never will, if you ask me —’

Torj tensed suddenly at her side, and Thea saw why.

Wren had reappeared in the doorway, her eyes red and puffy. Thea made an instant move towards her sister, but Torj’s gentle hand on her shoulder stopped her.

‘Allow me,’ he said softly. Without waiting for her answer, he went to Wren, his huge frame enveloping her, leading her away from the commotion and out of sight.

Thea smiled to herself.Funny, how things turn out.

As the evening wore on, in the rare moments where she was not engaged in any conversation, Thea took in the scene around her. She watched the Daughter of Darkness salute the wine merchant, and the general of the Naarvian guerilla forces clap Cal on the back. She saw Dratos the Dawnless project ribbons of shadow across the room, and she saw Malik smile as Dax tried to catch them. Thea realised what she was truly seeing – the possibility of a world that she had never dared to imagine… The start of something fair, equal and unmistakably good.

The wine and talk flowed, and at some point Kipp declared that the great drinkers and thinkers of the midrealms had come together. Were it not for his drunken lean and the slight slur to his words, Thea might have agreed with him.