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A ALIA HELD DOWN Tazar’s shoulder, leaning all her weight atop him.

Still, he thrashed and bucked under her. Froth poured from his lips. His eyes had rolled so far back that they only showed white. She wanted to sob, to throw herself across him and weep, but she held him down harder, refusing to let him go.

Kanthe sat on Tazar’s legs, his face gaunt with distress, especially as his gaze swept over the dead Paladins. Aalia dared not look that way or despair would overwhelm her.

A sharp shout drew her attention up. Two women shoved through the crush of knights and guardsmen.

The taller of the two elbowed her way forward, scolding those around her. “Get back! All of you!”

Aalia searched her face. “Saekl, is there anything you can do?”

The long-legged woman was the leader of the Rhysians. She wore Klashean black leather, but her features were snowy, nearly silvery, with ice-blue eyes. Her braids reached midback, lined by silver bells, the length of which reflected the extent of her skill.

Saekl dropped to a knee next to Aalia. She quickly lifted Tazar’s eyelid and placed a hand over his heart. She called to the other woman without looking up.

“Cassta, any luck?”

Aalia turned. The younger Rhysian had descended upon the black-garbed bodies like a furious hawk. She ripped through their wrapped cloaks, tore their belts loose. She yanked out a black pipe and shook loose a feathered dart. She rubbed its sharp tip between her fingers and sniffed at it.

“Almendra,” Cassta assessed. “Threefold potency.”

Saekl grimaced.

Cassta cast the dart aside and continued her search of the bodies.

Kanthe watched her efforts. “What are you looking for?”

“The Asgians,” Saekl said, nearly spitting out the word, “they won’t carry a poison without a counter, a warding agent. In case a misstep requires intervention.”

By now, Tazar’s convulsions had quieted to tremors.

Aalia looked to Saekl, searching her face, trying to judge what this meant.

Saekl swung to Cassta, her voice sharper, scolding. “Anything?”

Cassta rolled and leaped from the body as if it were a foul daemon. As she joined them, she held forth a fistful of tiny crystal ampoules, tipped by needles. “I found four. How many—”

“All of them.” Saekl grabbed two for herself. “Hurry. Before his heart stops.” The Rhysian shifted to Tazar’s head, her gaze on Aalia. “Pull his chin back.”

Aalia did so, exposing Tazar’s neck.

Cassta crossed lower, shouldered Kanthe aside, and spread Tazar’s legs. Her fingers probed high along his inner thighs. “Ready?”

Saekl leaned closer. “Now!”

Both women stabbed their needles into Tazar. Saekl struck both sides of his neck; Cassta used two fists to jab the inner thighs. They held the impaled ampoules in place.

“With his heart beating,” Saekl explained, “his flow of blood should draw out the elixir.”

Everyone remained fixed, afraid to move.

After several tense breaths, Tazar’s tremoring body relaxed, going slack. A bubbling sigh escaped his lips, along with a flow of froth.

Again, Aalia studied Saekl’s face. The woman sat back, looking worried but resigned. She removed the impaled ampoules and tossed them away. Cassta did the same.

Kanthe looked between the two Rhysians. “Will he be all right?”

“We’ve done all we can,” Saekl said. “He’ll either survive or not. Best he be taken to the healer’s ward.”

Aalia finally stood, her legs shaking. Kanthe supported her with a hand on her arm. “Get him there,” she ordered those gathered.

Aalia stumbled out of the way as they obeyed. She wanted to follow them up, but she remained in the bloody hall.

As Tazar was hauled off, another replaced him. Rami came rushing in, wearing only a loose robe. As he joined them, his eyes grew huge at the blood, the bodies. He cast questioning looks at Kanthe and Aalia.

“We’re all right,” Kanthe said.

Aalia was not sure that was true. She could not keep her limbs from trembling. Still, she challenged those still here. “Who sent these bastards?”

Aalia knew the Brotherhood of Asgia were the dark mirror to the Rhysian sisterhood. Both assassin groups rose out of the Archipelago of Rhys, near the southernmost turn of the Crown. Both sold their talents, but the Rhysians tempered their choices with consideration and a sense of justice. The Brotherhood operated under no such restraint. They were purely mercenary, brutal and cruel.

“Someone had to hire them,” Aalia insisted.

Rami offered the most obvious culprit. “It had to be King Mikaen. He already has a history with the Brotherhood, using them to kidnap Kanthe last winter. And with Queen Myella poisoned, his revenge was inevitable.”

Kanthe shook his head. “As much as I’d like to cast this at his feet, I’m not convinced. It doesn’t fit my brother’s temperament.” He cradled his bronze forearm to his chest. “When it comes to revenge, he would want it delivered by his own hand, not from afar.”

“Then who?” Rami asked.

Kanthe looked between Rami and Aalia. “There is another brother who is as bitter as Mikaen and looking to empty a throne and take its seat. And one more likely to know a way to sneak assassins into the citadel.”

“Mareesh,” Aalia said.

She pictured her traitorous brother fleeing the throne room last winter, his body on fire.

Kanthe shrugged. “Though, in truth, it could be either of them.” He waved to the bodies in the hall, where Saekl and Cassta continued to strip them down. “And they’re certainly not going to tell us.”

Cassta rolled to face them. “The dead always have tales to tell.”

Aalia frowned. “What do you mean?”

Cassta lifted a torn scrap of parchment. It looked like it might have come from a skrycrow. “It’s incomplete, but easy enough to interpret.”

“What does it say?” Kanthe asked, shifting closer.

Aalia did the same.

Cassta read it solemnly: “‘—reesh, do what you must. You will be rewarded in kind.’” She looked up. “It’s signed Highking Mikaen ry Massif. ”

Kanthe stumbled away. “So, it wasn’t one brother… or the other.”

Aalia struggled to believe Mareesh would debase himself enough to work with the empire’s long-standing enemy. But she had to accept the harsh truth and admitted it aloud.

“It was both. ”