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‘You forget your place, guardmaster,’ Norris barked, puffing out his chest. He, clearly, didnotrealise. ‘If the consulate orders you to make a change, you—’

‘Well, yes,’ Delwin interrupted, as mild as ever. ‘I agree that would be the case if I were still your guardmaster. Unfortunately, I’m resigning. Please send the remainder of my salary to my sister’s account, and I’d recommend appointing Armaud as my interim successor – I think that’s all we need to arrange before I leave?’

Disconcerted whispers were rising among the guards around us; some were openly casting glances of doubt at the two sputtering consuls. Delwin, on the other hand, did not grant his former employers so much as a last goodbye as he efficiently took off a brooch I had not noticed before on his uniform, brushed his shirt back in place, and turned to Rosalind and me.

‘I’d come and take a look outside, if I were you,’ he said.

Outside.

Two thousand people, waiting for us to lure them to their death.

But a couple of guards muttered half-baked apologies to Norris and Halbert and began making their way towards the gate, clearly expecting us to follow. Rosalind was already moving, too. And weneededthat army –a force from the White City is joining us, we could tell dozens of other islands around the archipelago, and gods, that would make an impression on human villages as I knew them …

I started walking.

Delwin smoothly took his place beside me, with that trained guard’s skill to somehow look threatening and invisible at the same time. Another handful of his people followed in his wake. We stepped into the morning sunlight like that, a circle of armed men with me as the precious symbol at the heart of it – the sort of protectiveness that almost made me forget I could best all of them together with a few well-aimed blows of magic.

Then again, perhaps it was better if the people on that square forgot about it, too. Perhaps it was better they did not yet realise what they were up against.

A deafening cheer rose from the crowd the moment we emerged – acheer, for the gods’ sakes, as if we were the heroes in some triumphant story of human perseverance rather than two generations of fae whores bringing death and destruction. Next to me, Rosalind was all graceful amiability, waving at familiar faces amongst the throng. I smiled until my jaws ached, unable to look any of them in the eyes – the desolate white hills of the Last Battle seemed to have taken root in my mind, a vision that hurt next to these optimistic-looking men and women saluting me with their spotless swords.

They didn’t yet know.

And far, far too soon, they would.

The uproar died away, finally. Silence rippled out from the steps of the White Hall as more and more of our recruits lowered their swords and fists and stared at me expectantly, waiting for me to tell them … what? That we were going to win? That it was going to be glorious? That they would return home unscathed in two months with heroic stories to tell and continue to live their lives as if nothing had changed?

Take a good look at the place on your way out, I wanted to say.Etch it into your memory. You’ll long for the days when nothing much happened soon.

Then again …

They were humans, not children. Mortal, not weak. It was their world that was suffering, too, and as I’d told Agenor myself mere days ago, why shouldn’t they be given the chance to fix it with everyone else?

So I straightened my back in the eager silence. I smiled, and this time it felt real, with a first fizzle of the excitement I read on so many of the faces around me.

‘Let’s go kill the bitch, then,’ I said.

And another wave of ecstatic clamour sent the windows trembling in their panes around us.

Chapter 25

Some seven people offeredme their horse before I reached the other side of the square with Delwin and Rosalind by my side. I politely declined every single time, told them I was more than happy to walk with everyone else, and received several startled faces and nods of surprised approval in return.

‘Clever,’ Rosalind murmured next to me once we’d finally moved out of general earshot.

I hadn’t even tried to be clever. It just felt obscene to be robbing people of their horses if I might already be robbing them of their lives, too.

Enough of Delwin’s guards were joining us that we immediately had a command structure of sorts in place; he directed a few men to this part of the crowd and a few othersto that part, until he seemed satisfied that nothing catastrophic would happen without us being aware. Then we walked, us at the head of the procession and the two-thousand-and-something members of our brand new army in a long stream after us, through the broad avenues of the city that had indeed been cleared of onlookers.

I couldn’t help but wonder, glancing at the tidy houses we passed, how much Valter and Editta had heard of yesterday’s events. If they were regretting all they had told Rosalind. If they were relieved I was leaving, or if there was a small, minuscule part of them that regretted they hadn’t seen me – if it weighed on them like I couldn’t help but let it weigh on me, the simple fact that I was now leaving their city behind for good.

That I would really never see them again.

In all likelihood, I had to admit with a last twang in my heart, they were just relieved.

It was infuriating that it still hurt, even with Rosalind beside me. How deep had they dug that hole in my heart, that even my mother’s radiant smiles couldn’t fill it yet?

But people were laughing and singing behind me, Delwin was more talkative than I’d ever known him to be, and soon we reached the outer rampart of the city proper; I shook off the wallowing thoughts and made myself pay attention to the conversation beside me. Rosalind was listing the human isles we should visit next to recruit. Delwin countered that some of those would take a week of travelling to reach, and since we were pressed for time already—