Page 119 of Brimstone

“The king also requires the return of that sword,” Orious added. “Your obsidian palace is full of rats, Saeris. They whisper in the dark. They tell tales of how the new queen of the Blood Court cannot wield her weapon. Of how Saeris Fane cannot contain her power. Runes unsealed and—”

I twisted the sword and showed the fucker the flat of the blade. Coincidentally, the movement also showed him the back of my hand. Which was still covered in a mass of runes, yes . . . but now, at the center of my shield, a single, bold, circular rune bisected with an arrow-like shape glowed brilliant blue.

The smug smile died on Orious’s lips. “Fuck,” he whispered.

“Yeah.Fuck.”

I’d planned to reforge Solace into something more manageable, but I hadn’t yet had the time. That no longer mattered. I didn’t need a forge anymore. Would never need one again. A door had unlocked within me. Behind it, a vast knowledge waited there for me. It belonged to me, as I now belonged to the quicksilver. I only had to think now, and the fabric of reality shifted.

Placing both hands around Solace’s hilt, I imagined the sword becoming two. When I drew my hands apart, I knew that the god sword would be reformed, brand new, brilliant and shining. And so it was.

The short swords were beautiful. Old Fae ran along the edges of both honed blades, engraved in winding script. I still couldn’t read the language. A message from the gods, maybe. I would decipher them later . . .ifI lived through the next twenty minutes.

“Come now, child. An affiliation with the Winter Palacecouldbe beneficial to you.” Orious’s eyes were twice the size they’d been moments ago. “My king is benevolent.”

“Tell me something, Orious. Didyouswear an oath before the Firinn Stone?”

The truth flickered the seneschal’s eyes before the lie could reach his lips. “Naturally,” he said. “You can trustmeto honor my word.”

I just laughed.

The earnest look on his face faltered. “All right, then. Have it your way.Kill her.”

The soldiers streamed past Orious toward me, bows raised. They loosed their arrows, but an Alchemist couldn’tonlymanipulate quicksilver. I was an element worker.Allmetals were at my command. The pointed iron came for me, and I pushed with my mind, gently, as if nudging a leaf floating on top of flowing water. The arrows weren’t even halfway across the room before they changed direction, all five snapping upward and embedding into the ceiling. Their shafts juddered from their impact, their fletching quivering.

The soldiers hesitated. They looked up at the ceiling, and then back down at me. All at once, they reached for new arrows.

“I wouldn’t bother,” I told them. “The next ones will be coming back at you.”

“For the love of the gods, use your knives!” Orious snarled. “Hold on to them tight.”

The archers discarded their bows, drawing steel from scabbards. Their knives were made from alloys, I sensed. Therewas a strangeness to them. I could close my will around them, but only just. They barely moved when I tried to shove them with my mind.

“The Winter Palace remembers,” Orious said, shaking his head. “That’s right. Your kind were dangerous. No power that vast should have ever been gifted to one group of people. My king discovered how to limit your magic a long time ago. Our traditions have lasted far longer than your kind did. Every soldier in the king’s army is equipped with a null blade on the day they complete their training. Good luck fending off five ofthose, Alchemist.”

Null blade. The term was unknown to me. Fisher hadn’t ever used that term. Nor had Renfis or Lorreth.

As Belikon’s men approached, each armed with a dagger, that sense of strangeness hit me again. Unnatural. Their weapons bore simple handles, their blades straight and unembellished. They were unremarkable in every way. And yet . . .

I saw them in a new manner. A second sight that seemed to overlap reality. The air shivered and distorted around the blades, as if it were being pulledintothem. The closer the guards came, the more my skin crawled.

The short swords blazed in my hands, humming with energy. Solace’s magic had returned to it back in Gillethrye. It had flared to life when Malcolm had attacked me, but it had lain dormant ever since. I hadn’t called on it. There had been no need. And in truth, I’d been too scared to try. The quicksilver had granted Avisiéth magic because it had judged Lorreth’s blood and found him worthy. I wasn’t the girl I had been back in the maze. I was different now. Changed. The idea that Solace would recoil from the person I was now had been enough to keep me from trying. But as I drew the newly formed short swords, Solace’smagic surged down the lengths of metal, buzzing up my arms like lightning.

Not Solace’s power, halved to accommodate the new split weapons. This wastwicethe power, and it was electrifying.

The first male came for me. He was light on his feet. Limber. He swung at me with his dagger, and I blocked upward, easily deflecting the blow. The shock of his weapon, clashing with my short sword, rocked me, though—a wave of nausea that made me suck in a sharp breath.

Unpleasant.

Veryfucking unpleasant. But not enough to distract me from the task at hand. He was already twisting, finding new footing, coming at me from a different approach. Two more of the males came, lunging for me, their metal gleaming. With a monumental force of will, I shoved the first male’s dagger away with my mind, managing only to avert it at the last second. The male stumbled forward, balance lost as his weapon suddenly jerked to the side—and I met his friends in a flurry of steel and gritted teeth.

The forms Lorreth had drilled with me flowed, making sense at last, second nature . . . but they weren’t enough. A fourth male joined in the fight, the fifth hot on his heels.

The sounds of scraping metal thundered in the air.

Fire lashed around the top of my right arm. One of them landed a hit on me, their blade slashing through my shirt. Heat spilled down my arm, the copper-bright smell of blood exploding in the back of my nose.

Footwork, Saeris. Footwork. Concentrate.Lorreth’s voice was stern in the back of my mind.