Page 144 of Bloodwitch

It was the song from the pond filled with bodies, firmer here. A mother urging her child to bed.

Merik’s flight slowed. The refrain thrummed louder.Come, my son, and sleep. Come, come, the ice will hold you.

His gaze traced the bridge across the dark expanse to where it fed onto a ledge with a tall door, half choked by more ice.

Come, come, and face the end.

Before Merik could fly that way, before he could fully answer that call, Kullen’s voice shattered across his brain:AND WHO ARE THESE INTRUDERS?

Merik flinched, a twang of his muscles that drowned out the ice, drowned out the song. He looked down, fearing he’d find the Northman. And sure enough, there was movement surging within the storm—colors that were not lightning. Figures that were not the Fury.

But they were not the Northman.

Four people ran across the cavern, somehow sprinting above the galaxy despite no stones to cradle their feet.

Even with his eyes streaming and lightning flashing, even with the ice to chorus and call, Merik recognized one of those figures the instant he saw her. That golden hair, shorter now, and that loping stride.

But she died,he thought, heart tightening. Mind reeling.She died in an explosion two weeks ago.

Then a second thought hurled in:And so did you.

In an instant, Merik pulled in his winds.

And Merik flew to her.

FIFTY-SEVEN

Vivia led the way to the under-city. Cam leaned on Vivia, his bandaged hand clutched to his chest and words tumbling out, incomprehensible and disjointed. Vizer Sotar followed just behind, lantern in hand. He did not believe Cam, but he also had not refused Vivia when she had asked him to join.

“Ryber and me,” Cam explained, “found Captain Sotar in the mountain. Or maybe the captain foundus—I don’t know, sir. She was following Eridysi’s blade and glass. The ones that call out to people like her, see?”

Vivia did not see at all, and Sotar cleared his throat in frustration. The limestone tunnel descended steadily; the foxfire overhead shone green and bright.

“So Ryber took the captain with her into the tomb. It’s the fastest way back to the Convent.”

“Tomb?” Vivia asked. Then a second question hit her. “What about Merik? Where is he? You left the city with him two weeks ago.”

Cam grimaced, and behind them, Sotar’s pace stuttered—for of course, he didn’t know Merik still lived.No onein the kingdom knew that. They all believed he’d died in theJana’s explosion.

“Merik was with us,” Cam admitted, “but we… we got separated.He ain’t dead though,” the boy added hastily. “I just know it in my gut that he ain’t dead.”

In your gut?Vivia wanted to demand—just as she wanted to demand more information on where Merik and this boy had been or how they’d gotten separated. Now wasn’t the time, though. Not with Vizer Sotar right there and a city to defend.

So Vivia returned to the early trail of information. “You mentioned tombs, Cam. Where? Whose tombs?”

“At the Sightwitch Sister Convent.” He spoke as if this explained everything. “Ry said the ice tombs were the fastest way to the surface, so she and Captain Sotar followed them up. They’re going to destroy the standing stones, see? Then, once they break ’em, the mountain will collapse and the magic doors’ll stop working. After that, the Raider King won’t be able to reach Lovats. Or anywhere else.”

Vivia’s forehead wrinkled. A squishing frown between her brows because all of this wasabsurdity. Magic doorways and standing stones and the Convent from a long-lost order—it was madness. Something out of one of her mother’s dreams. Yet, as Cam kept speaking, kept explaining all these impossible pieces as if they were real, Vivia started to wonder if maybe… justmaybeit was true.

If the Void Well could live inside Lovats, maybe there were other hidden wonders out there too.

“But,” Cam finished tiredly, “just in case Ry’s plan doesn’t work, she and Captain Sotar sent me here. To warn you.”

“Just in case,” Vivia repeated, and this time, she glanced back to Vizer Sotar.

His nostrils were flared, his head shaking a warning.

They reached the end of the tunnel, where the doorway framed by Hagfishes waited. She shoved inside, and a young father with a babe in his arms bowed crookedly at Vivia’s entrance. Then other people along the narrow limestone street caught sight of her. Hesitant smiles flashed, curtsies and bows, and more fists over hearts than she deserved. Most, though, slept at this hour. Oblivious and thinking themselves safe.