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Torj chuckled. ‘Should be about three days’ ride from the port to Tver.’

Thea groaned. ‘That long? How can there not be an easier way to travel around the midrealms?’

‘That’s where shadow magic would come in handy,’ Wilder muttered, resting against the rail and watching the shore.

‘What do you mean?’ Cal asked, looking up from where he was attaching fletching to the shafts of his arrows.

For a moment, Wilder looked as though he wished he hadn’t spoken, but after rubbing the back of his neck, he told them. ‘The wraiths can fly, as you know. The reapers too, by manipulating shadow. The half-wraiths transport themselves with the cloak of darkness. I’ve seen it.’

‘How?’ Cal pressed, eyes wide.

‘I don’t know exactly. But one minute they’re in one place, the next they’re in another, black swirling all around them.’

‘When did you see this?’ Torj frowned.

‘Years ago.’

Thea noticed his voice going distant, as though he wasn’t still standing there with them but was somewhere else, somewhere far darker.

‘Gods, I’d rather spend a week at the Scarlet Tower than get swept up in their shadow magic,’ Kipp declared.

‘No, you wouldn’t,’ Wilder and Torj said in unison.

Kipp baulked. ‘I was only —’

‘The Scarlet Tower is nothing to joke about,’ Torj warned him. ‘I don’teverwant to hear you say something so stupid again.’

Wilder made a noise of agreement. ‘That place is every imaginable horror incarnate. A sane man would wish for death before he set foot on that island.’ He and Torj exchanged a dark look.

‘I apologise,’ Kipp said, flushing. ‘Has anyone ever returned from there?’

‘No,’ Wilder answered with a note of dismissal.

The group was quiet for a moment, the unexpected tension almost palpable.

‘What was Thezmarr like before you left?’ Thea asked the others, changing tact, hoping to ease the strain between them.

Kipp shrugged, his embarrassment forgotten instantly. ‘The same as it always is.’

‘Any news about Seb or Vernich? They still there?’

Cal groaned, Wilder too.

‘Not this again, Thea,’ Kipp said.

‘I’ve got a bad feeling about them,’ she argued. And she did. Every time she thought of the two bastards, her skin crawled. She hated the thought of them in Thezmarr, particularly without Torj and Wilder to hold Vernich accountable. Who knew what punishments he might inflict upon young, innocent shieldbearers? But she also hated the idea of them being set loose on the midrealms…

‘Well?’ she pressed.

Cal pinched the bridge of his nose, as though the very thought of Seb caused him physical pain. ‘Seb hasn’t been coming to training. In fact, we’ve barely seen him at all. Makes a damn fine change, if you ask me.’

‘He’s skipped training?’ Thea’s eyes widened. ‘That’s unusual.’

‘It’s not for an apprentice, Thea,’ Torj said gently. ‘He has other duties now. Much like you and Cal. And Vernich’s no doubt on his way to Tver to join our fight. He might be scum, but he’s still a Warsword. When a kingdom of the midrealms calls for aid, he comes.’

Thea felt as though she’d heard that a hundred times before. But the others hadn’t seen Vernich and Seb conspiring, hadn’t heard their hushed whispers in the corridor. There was no point denying the grudge she held against them, but her suspicions went deeper than that. There was something inherentlywrongabout them. If her friends didn’t want to believe her, then fine. She’d be on guard for all of them.

She was so caught up in her thoughts of foul play and betrayal that she jumped when something huge landed on the rail beside her, a gust of wind whipping through her braid.