Page 33 of Dance of Kings and Thieves

“I can’t explain it.” I threaded my fingers with his and pulled his arm tighter around my middle. “Returning here, something tells me everything is about to change, Kase. As if the sunrise will change our lives, and nothing we do will stop it.”

Kase said nothing. Perhaps there was nothing to say. He pulled me closer, until sleep took hold, and I could not fight the fatigue any longer. His embrace was unyielding, unbreakable, and utterly comforting.

But it could not shake the unease that everything would soon be different.

CHAPTERELEVEN

THE NIGHTRENDER

“You trust this man?”Valen eyed the crooked door of the steel shop with a narrow glare.

“I do,” I said with conviction. But it was not an easy statement for me to make for I gave bits of trust to few, and full trust to one. Malin would likely be the only one in my life I would ever fully trust with the hopes and fears I kept inside.

Malin leaned around me to speak to the king. “He was responsible for me finding Kase again.”

She hadn’t stopped grinning since I told her the plan to return to Mörplatts. A certain steelman was due a visit from the Guild of Kryv.

The rain hadn’t let up and it was well after midnight. But Sigurd’s steel shop still burned a candle, and a rough, toneless humming rose over the splatter of rain on the dirt roads from inside the shop. Only Valen, Sol, Halvar, and Tor joined us from the North. Then, Malin, Raum, and I came from the Kryv.

The others had gone onto Felstad with Isak and Tova as their guides. They’d be safe, but this visit couldn’t wait. Ivar had not made a move against us, yet the constant thrum of my pulse led me to believe we were dancing a fine line with the Lord Magnate.

To me, it was worse to hear nothing of an enemy than it was when they caused a ruckus.

I wrapped shadows over my shoulders, darkened my eyes, then rapped on the door with a heavy fist.

The humming ceased. Thick boots scuffed over the floor. With the poor structure of the rickety building, the closer Sigurd came to the door, the more the porch swayed and jolted from the movement.

The door opened with enough of a crack to reveal a single, suspicious eye glaring back at us. “What d’you wa–”

I tossed back my hood. Misty darkness coated my features. His eyes widened.

“Nightrender.” Sigurd swallowed. He was no small man. Thick, well-worked in the arms and shoulders, but in the moment he looked like he might bolt beneath the table. “Wh-What can I do for the Kryv?”

Malin stuck her head out from behind me, beaming. “Sigurd!”

She whispered his name, but her voice cracked with a bit of excitement at the sight of the man.

All at once his fear faded.

“Hells,dänniskStrom!” He wrapped her in his thick arms, then glanced around. “By the gods, girl, get inside. All of you. Skyds are everywhere.”

He ushered us into his shop, glancing back and forth before locking the door behind us.

Malin tossed back her woolen hood and took Sigurd’s hands in hers. “It is good to see you. How is your seedy affair?”

Sigurd laughed again. “Ah, the Lady Ashton gave me up, but no tears for me, I have taken another. You’re welcome to see it.” He tapped the side of his head. “We both know how much you enjoy snatching those thoughts.”

Malin rolled her eyes, and after a few moments, the mood sobered. “Sigurd, we have need of your connections to the gutter.”

His gaze flicked to me, and the tang of his nerves soaked my tongue once again. “The Nightrender has need of me? Forgive me, Malin, but I’m still a little stunned to see you.”

“Why? We have sent missives,” she said. “Delivered more cheeries for you to smuggle out.”

“Yes, but we haven’t spoken in some time. I must admit when I sent you off with the Kryv, I was certain he’d slit your throat when it was all over.”

Sigurd schooled his gaze on the grip Malin had on my arm.

“Ah, steelman, the things that have changed,” Raum said, clapping Sigurd on the shoulder and stealing a bit of salted jerky from a box. Raum used the jerky to gesture at me and Malin. “They’re vowed.”