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Nodding in greeting, Wilder removed the swords from his back and took up his place opposite the Bear Slayer further down the table. Torj gave him a shit-eating grin that made Wilder want to throttle him. He’d asked his friend – though he used the term loosely now – to look out for Thea in his absence, which apparently had amused his fellow Warsword to no end. But to Wilder’s relief, there was no time for innuendo or ribbing as Osiris called the meeting to a start.

‘We have much to discuss this evening,’ he said, his face grave. ‘We are all familiar with the words that changed the course of Thezmarr’s history over twenty years ago…’ The Guild Master waited for a moment before he recited: ‘A daughter of darkness will wield a blade in one hand, and rule death with the other…’

He looked to them expectantly.

‘We know the damn prophecy,’ Wilder told him, cracking his knuckles on the table.

‘Tell me how it ends, then, Hawthorne,’ Osiris challenged.

Wilder had to leash his temper. ‘A dawn of fire and blood,’ he answered.

Osiris threw him a dirty look before addressing the room once more. ‘That dawn is here. It is official. As the prophecy foretold, the Daughter of Darkness has risen,’ he announced. ‘Our spies tell me that she seeks vengeance for what was done to her at Thezmarr, and that she is building an army.’

Wilder remained still in his seat. He had heard whispers along the Veil, but none so damning as the words spilling from the Guild Master’s mouth, none that took him back to the moments in his life he longed to forget: those on the brink of war, those in the heart of it. The battles that had nearly seen the end of the two Warswords he cared about the most.

‘And what was done to her, exactly, Osiris?’ Audra asked, her voice devoid of emotion.

The Guild Master’s eyes narrowed. ‘You know damn well what happened here, Audra.’

‘Yes, but not after…’ The librarian paused. ‘Not after you sent her away in a damn rowboat with an old Warsword.’

‘He was ordered to leave her on the Broken Isles.’

‘To die.’

‘She was the Daughter of Darkness, Audra. What else was I supposed to do?’

Audra simply shook her head in disgust.

The tension was becoming too much.

‘Where?’ Torj interjected, trying to keep the peace as always. ‘Where is she building this supposed army?’

‘Naarva,’ Osiris replied, tearing his eyes away from Audra. ‘Where else? It’s far enough away from the remaining kingdoms that she can do so in relative secrecy and without interference. The fallen kingdom is shrouded in shadow and mist.’

‘And the forces?’ Torj pressed. ‘Who fills her ranks?’

‘Men who sympathise with her cause, from all over the midrealms and beyond. Some cursed, some just stupid – or vulnerable and downtrodden,’ the Guild Master said, his disdain clear. ‘Those who would prefer to see the midrealms fall to chaos. And half-wraiths, or so my sources tell me.’

Wilder forced himself into the conversation. ‘Do we have numbers?’

‘None as yet. She keeps things well hidden,’ Osiris told them.

Wilder glanced at Audra, who stiffened when Osiris next spoke.

‘There are also tales of this supposed Daughter of Darkness rallying another force against the midrealms…’ he said slowly.

Audra made a noise at the back of her throat. ‘Now I see the true reason why the invitation to this meeting was extended to me.’

Wilder shifted in his seat as he looked between the stern-faced woman and the Guild Master, locked in a staring contest. ‘Can someone fill the rest of us in, then?’

Audra’s eyes narrowed before she turned to Wilder. ‘What Osiris is implying is that this alleged Daughter of Darkness has been rallying the former women warriors of Thezmarr to her cause.’

Torj barked a laugh. ‘What?’

‘Our dear Guild Master is also implying that I know something about it, which, of course, I do not. I cut ties with all those Thezmarr spat out twenty years ago. I was given no choice.’

‘Audra, please,’ Osiris snapped. ‘You’re honestly telling me that you have no idea where they went after that day?’