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CHAPTER TWO

I REFUSED TO LOOK AT THE GROUND where Maerhal had died. Everyone else was focused on readying their blades as we waited for the second sun to fully set. We had spent the day patrolling the King’s Road, keeping our ears to the ground for any useful tidbits that would let us know what to expect in Silstra.

The city still smelled of smoke from the fires Damien had set. My body turned to stone, too heavy for my legs to carry, but I stood anyway. Gerarda knew that Maerhal had died in Silstra, and I was certain she told Elaran, but I never told anyone the details.

I never told her that the woman I swore to protect died within the portal’s boundary. That only a few weeks earlier, I had come to this city with hope that we could still best Damien and instead left an empty shell. Part of me wished that I had died that day when I opened the seal, that Riven had never helped me, and that I didn’t still carry the weight of the war on my shoulders.

“I can’t believe that used to be a dam,” Gwyn whispered in awe as she stared up at the towering cliff’s edge and the thrashing waterfall that now fed the mouth of the Three Sisters below.

Silstra.

Fyrel turned to me. “A few explosions took down a structure that high?”

“Dozens.” I swallowed the memory of Nikolai stitching the detonators in a frenzy as we shared a carriage. “And I nearly died doing it.”

Fyrel gasped as if she hadn’t heard the story half a dozen times on our passage from the Order to the Faelinth .

“Tie the horses,” I ordered. “It’s time.”

We walked along the bank of the river with me at the front and Gerarda and Elaran at the back. No one spoke as the first stars dotted the skies and then exploded into a moonless, shimmering tapestry.

The lack of moonlight served us well. We didn’t meet a single soul on the steep path up the cliff to the eastern side of Silstra. It was as if the entire city was on edge, checking the skies for another Fae attack.

Of course, they blamed the fires on me and not the man who set them.

Their king.

Bile coated my tongue as the putrid scents of burnt stone and wood filled my lungs. I gazed across the river and saw the ruin of the building I had pulled Collin from. The image of his corpse with the words Halfling Scum carved into his chest was imprinted in my mind. It welcomed me every time I closed my eyes and tried to escape into a dreamless sleep where, if only for a few short hours, I could forget all that Damien had done.

What did they do with his body? Had they strung it up along the city center somewhere for residents to gawk at? Or had they thrown it back onto the ruin to rot?

Did Damien stop playing with his toys once they died?

Whatever Damien had done to Collin, I knew what he was doing to Nikolai would be so much worse. How much time did Nikolai have left? I didn’t know if I should be counting in hours or days.

Nothing could be done for Nikolai in that moment. I had to trust that Riven would find him or that some other path to his rescue would appear. Guilt tore at my throat, but I needed to push all thoughts of my dear friend from my mind.

We had Halflings to rescue.

We nestled behind one of the large piles of blasted stone at the edge of the city. It was the perfect lookout for Fyrel and Gwyn. I checked their necks for the matching glamours hanging on Elvish chain that Feron had made them. As long as they kept to the shadows and didn’t make any obvious movements, they would be hidden from view.

Gerarda let go of Elaran’s hand and pulled something from the side pocket of her leathers. She handed thin, silver tubes to Gwyn and Fyrel. Spyglasses. “Watch for movement along the city streets. Signal us with the faebeads I gave you if you spot trouble.”

Gwyn’s hand wrapped around the spyglass and her lips thinned. “Surely we can be of more help going with you.”

She gave Gerarda the sweetest smile.

Fyrel elbowed Gwyn’s side, but the girl didn’t drop her stare. Despite her years of servitude in the palace, Gwyn had not learned to respect the word no . Not that I could blame her—I had done far worse in the dawn of seventeen.

Gerarda leaned three inches to the side to look at me. She always set me up to be the disciplinarian with Gwyn.

“You will do as ordered,” I said bluntly.

Gwyn scowled. “I don’t need to be coddled.”

I raised a brow. “If I was interested in coddling you, you would be in Myrelinth with Vrail. Don’t make me regret my decision.”

Gwyn turned to Gerarda. She was like a toddler pleading with one parent after the other said no.

Gerarda threw a knife into the air and caught it in the thin holster along her forearm. “Don’t turn to me for solace.” Her expression was unyielding. “I would have sent you home for arguing against orders the first time.”

Gwyn’s mouth snapped shut.

Elaran chuckled and stroked Gwyn’s cheek and then Fyrel’s. “If you’re quick enough, you can take a few soldiers during the escape before I get to them.”

Fyrel’s eyes went wide with anticipation. For someone whose legs had been burned to the bone only a few weeks before, she seemed eager to draw her sword again.

I gritted my teeth. I would not make these girls killers unless absolutely necessary. “The point of the mission is to avoid soldiers, Elaran.” The scars along my body tightened, pulling at my skin, a thousand tiny reminders of the true cost of a kill.

Elaran gave a coy shrug. “I like my missions a little wild.” Her green eyes trailed over me in a way that made me shiver.

Gerarda cleared her throat and handed Elaran a fully stocked quiver. “Dynara’s message said that they would expect us at nightfall. The time for quips has ended.” There was a slight edge to Gerarda’s voice that only seemed to encourage Elaran.

I held a hand to Gwyn’s cheek. It was soft and unmarred, unlike her belly. I didn’t want her skin marked any more than it already was. “Hold your post.” I turned to Fyrel. “No matter what. You’re our eyes. Our lives are fully in your hands.”

Fyrel straightened and placed her hand over her face and then her chest. “Yes, Mistress.”

I raised a brow.

“I mean, Keera.”

Gwyn pulled me into a quick embrace. “Don’t spare any of them,” she whispered. There was a wicked undercurrent to her words, dangerous like the sea on the brink of a storm. It unsettled me how easily the young girl who shook in anticipation of the presents I might bring her now spoke of death. The war had changed her so much. Who would she be at the end of this? If she even survived.

I squeezed her back and nodded.

We slipped under the cover of darkness and stalked along the eastern alleys of the city. Elaran and Gerarda crept behind me, knees bent, darting from shadow to shadow along the empty alleyways.

I held out my hand as we came to a wide street. It was deserted apart from three stragglers who had yet to return to their homes from the pubs and pleasure houses.

Gerarda reached for her sleeping darts, but I stayed her hand. Unconscious bodies would be too easy to spot; we needed a better distraction.

I let my chest fill with the whirlwind magic that came from my lungs and took control of the air around us just enough to create an inconspicuous breeze. With a wave of my hand, the hat flew off the middle man’s head and rolled down the street in the opposite direction of our path.

They all chased after it, drunk with ale and laughter, as the three of us crossed the street unseen. Silstra was unusually quiet. It was not one of the larger cities in the kingdom, but there were always people meandering through the streets late into the night.

A sound echoed in the alley, and we all went still.

Elaran pulled the smooth gold pin from her hair. It was sharper than a knife on either end and perfectly balanced. Her fingers tightened around its middle as she pointed to a barrel at the end of the way. She crept along the wall, hidden in shadow, making no sound. I understood why Hildegard had chosen her to spy on Curringham and the other lords for years. She was perfect.

Elaran lifted her tiny spear to strike but froze.

Gerarda nocked an arrow, assuming Elaran had been hit.

But she just stuck the gold rod back into her bountiful curls. She turned, and a small rodent-like creature scurried down the alley behind her. Its tail glowed bright red before it disappeared between a crack in the wooden building.

“Orchard mouse.” Gerarda sighed, her shoulders relaxing. They had reappeared across Elverath, continuously searching for their favorite snack— winvra —but the magical berries had not replenished as quickly as the mice had returned.

I signaled to keep moving forward. Elaran and Gerarda fell in step behind me as we came to the house that Victoria had been using to hide and feed Halflings. What had once been a house in shambles, with its decrepit roof and rot in the walls, was now a total ruin. Burnt wood covered the ground.

The building had abutted the same house that Damien had thrown Maerhal into. Whether the purple flames had ignited the refuge or Victoria had done it with intent, I didn’t know. Dynara’s message had been short.

Get there soon was all it had said apart from the instructions on where to find them.

Thankfully Victoria’s hideaway had been moved. Tarvelle had seen to it that all the safe houses in Silstra were changed after the last was burned in purple fire. He had done it out of suspicion of me, and ultimately that suspicion had cost him his life. Damien had used his obvious distaste for my past as the perfect scapegoat to hide his true mole among our ranks.

Collin.

He had injected Collin with the same kind of elixir he had put into me. But where Damien had only forged a connection between our minds through dreams, he had given himself full control over Collin’s dreamscape. Wearing the face of Killian in Collin’s dreams, Damien had gathered all the information he needed to keep watch over his brother’s rebellion in the west and use it to his advantage.

Like the locations of our safe houses. I gripped my blade. Even though Damien’s soldiers had been scattered in the chaos of recent weeks, I had to be prepared for the possibility that Damien was using these Halflings as a trap.

We were all still stuck in his game.

“It should be around the next bend,” Gerarda whispered, pointing to the decrepit temple at the end of the alley.

I ran to the end of the lane and froze. The glamour hiding the safehouse blew away on the evening breeze.

Where a long wooden beam had fallen through the rafters and onto the ground now sat a hole.

Not a hole, but an entrance. Five steps were crudely carved into the dirt leading to a thick stone door. It stood upright, the top of it at ground level, hiding the dugout underneath. Elaran and I walked down the steep steps, both of us stretching our legs and using our hands to climb down. I grazed the divots in the stone door; the hammer that had forged it was quick and imprecise.

My magic stirred, raising the hairs on my neck.

Elaran knocked three times before the door cracked open. A harsh squeal echoed out from the room, and I peered over Elaran’s shoulder. Dozens of eyes blinked back at me in the pale starlight. Some held their hands to their faces as though even the night was too bright. From the smell of it, they had locked themselves inside for days.

I held my breath and searched for the only pair of eyes I knew. Deep lines framed her dark brown gaze. Her back had a curve to it now, and her hair was even more gray, but Victoria had nothing but a proud smile across her face as she looked at me.

She hobbled up the steps inside the room. I grabbed her leathered hand. “It has been too long, old friend.”

Victoria’s round shape had deflated in the months of rations. Knowing her, she had taken less than her share and split it among the children. I scanned the room quickly. There were at least two dozen kids intermixed with the adults.

“Keera.” Victoria’s voice was shaking as she stepped out of the ground for the first time in what must have been days. Her knee buckled, and I stooped to catch her. “I’m fine—” She stopped, the hand she had raised to shake me off hung in the air, forgotten. Her pupils widened as she noticed my eyes.

No longer silver, but gold.

“Is it truly you?” There was a tone of fear in her voice as she stepped back to put herself between me and the door.

I pulled the medallion from my shirt and tossed it to her. The rose she had helped design was embossed into the metal. I lifted my hand, letting my flames cover my fingers to the delight and shock of the Halflings now climbing out of the safe house. “There is much to be discussed.” I let the flames die out. “But there are better places to discuss them.”

The bead tied under my braid burned hot, and I froze. Gerarda took hers from under her chest plate, the colorless glass shining bright red. “We need to go now,” Gerarda barked, pulling the stragglers from the hole two at a time.

“Keera.” Elaran pointed at the upper hill of the city where a troop of soldiers was marching down the alley.

Marching, not running.

“They’re only enforcing curfew,” Victoria said. “We haven’t been spotted.”

“Curfew?” I balked. There had been no mention of it in the reports from our scouts or Dynara’s message.

Victoria nodded. “The soldiers put it in place the night of the fires. No one is to leave their homes at night. Violators are whipped or hung, depending on the guard who catches you.” She curled her tongue as if tasting something bitter.

She didn’t need to say the truth. The punishment enforced depended on the color of one’s blood.

“We can’t ferry out dozens of Halflings without being spotted.” Gerarda pointed south to where we needed to take a parade of sixty Halflings without drawing the attention of any of the soldiers or their sentries.

I turned to Victoria. “I take it the Dagger needs no introduction.”

Victoria’s discerning eyes trailed over Gerarda’s short frame. “No, though I reckon the Dagger disliked her title as much as the Blade.”

“You can call her Gerarda,” Elaran mused, picking up one of the younger Halflings and letting the blond child play with her hair. “And you may call me whatever you like, though I am cordial to Your Majesty .”

I scoffed and shook my head. “Elaran is the funny one.” Gerarda grumbled but didn’t correct me.

Elaran smiled smugly.

“Both are excellent warriors in their own right, and they will protect you.”

Victoria’s smile fell to a deep frown. “Aren’t you here to protect us too?”

I shook my head and spread my arms wide. “I’m the bait.”