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‘Is this place at all linked to the tunnels beneath the midrealms you mentioned?’

‘It is,’ he allowed, glancing at her as though he were surprised it had taken her this long to break the silence with one of her questions. ‘As far as I’m aware, the network is modelled off a similar design in another realm beyond the Veil. But for our tunnels, it started with connections between five key points.’

‘The five ruling kingdoms,’ Thea guessed.

‘A little more lowbrow than that… Remember I told you of the connected sister taverns?’

Thea pushed a loose strand of hair from her eyes. ‘The Laughing Fox in Harenth, the Dancing Badger in Naarva, the… Stag in Delmira…’ She trailed off, the rest of the names escaping her.

‘The Flying Stag, yes. And the Blushing Bear in Tver, and the —’

‘Singing Hare in Aveum. I should have remembered that one. Kipp has been harassing me for months to go there.’

Wilder huffed a gruff laugh at that. ‘Why am I not surprised?’

Thea shrugged tentatively. ‘Kipp is Kipp.’

Wilder continued down the path. ‘In any case, those taverns were the starting point for the whole network. Originally it was to counter a particular prohibition law, then it was to avoid the kingdoms’ various importation taxes. It’s far more extensive than that now, but few know of these tunnels. And those who do, well… They were the people likely to frequent the original taverns in the first place. Riff-raff, so to speak.’

The Warsword grew quiet again after that, but as they moved deeper into the caverns, Thea could hear other sounds.

People. Crackling fires. Children.

At last, the tunnel opened up into a much larger cavern, which was filled with golden light from small campfires, torches and candles. Domed tents were set up all around the space in little circular hubs, just like a village or town might be structured. Judging from the parents chasing after their youngsters with laughter on their lips, this place was safe… It was a community, a family. That was obvious, even to an outsider. Somewhere in the distance, a fiddle played, and Thea sucked in a breath.

‘This isn’t like…’

But she didn’t finish her sentence. She’d never explicitly told Wilder about the visions of Anya she’d had. Of the Daughter of Darkness cutting her hair and stalking through the torture camps, screams echoing in her wake. There was no screaming here, no torture. In fact, it was the warmest place Thea had been to in a long while.

‘Not like what?’ Wilder asked, frowning at her.

Thea opened her mouth to tell him what she’d seen of her supposed sister —

As the name formed on her lips, the Daughter of Darkness in question came storming towards her through the small crowds mingling around the fires.

And that was what she was – a living storm. Embodying the very magic Thea herself had once had and lost. That hollow yawned wide inside her, searching for the kernel of power that was no longer there. The absence of it hurt, an ache deep within.

‘Storm magic runs deep through the Delmirian line… It is just as powerful in each of us,’Anya had said to her. Now, Anya’s eyes were bright with an unbroken tempest as she stopped abruptly right in front of Thea. She looked every bit the fearsome leader of an enemy force, with her shaved head, the lines of her face razor-sharp, and that savage scar that sliced from above her brow through her right eye and halfway down her cheek. It looked even more pronounced than Thea recalled.

‘A shame we’re not meeting under different circumstances,’ Anya said stiffly, surveying Thea from head to toe.

‘We’ve met,’ Thea reminded her. ‘When you took my sister hostage in Notos.’

‘Our sister,’ Anya replied, her voice rough with emotion, her great wings flaring behind her. She looked even more fierce, even more vengeful.

Thea could only stare. The words Malik had once spoken to her came rushing to the forefront of her mind:‘Beware the fury of a patient Delmirian…’

Anya was fury personified, alright, and it took all of Thea’s backbone not to yield a step back.

‘Our sister,’ Anya repeated. ‘I’m your family, whether you like it or not.’

‘You didn’t leave a great first impression.’

‘At least you remembered me this time.’

The two women stared at one another. It wasn’t just eye colour they shared, but their dark, strong brows as well, both currently fixed into scowls.

Sister. The word vibrated through Thea like a bell as she took in the proof of it before her eyes. ‘Why did you not come forward and tell Wren and me who you were, rather than hiding in the shadows?’