Page 48 of Dance of Kings and Thieves

“I hate this guard,” Luca muttered, face pale. “He won’t bleeding shut up.”

“Hold on a little longer,” I said. Edvard was calling Kase’s bluff, but he didn’t realize the Nightrender always had more up his sleeve.

“Kill him? As you say.” Kase raised his blade. With a quick thrust, he rammed the knife deep into Valen’s side.

Valen roared in pain in the longhouse, doubling over, gasping.

On the rooftop, the true Valen let out a sharp breath. Elise wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close as he tried to stay silent through the pain of the illusion.

“Gods. Oh, gods.” Oskar kept praying through ragged gasps.

Edvard’s expression was one of stun.

“If he does not receive care from my Mediski, he will die,” Kase said. “And it will be slow. I keep my word.”

“Might as well give it up,” Raum said.

“Time is running short,” Kase said, dragging the point of his knife across Oskar’s cheek. “Seems the king is fading.”

True enough, below us, Valen rocked on his knees, a fountain of blood soaking his tunic.

Kase stood by the bloody king. “If you want him, you’ll hand over your fatigues, name us part of your unit, and take us to the stronghold.”

When the two brothers remained silent, one out of stun, the other in clear defiance, Kase aligned his knife against Valen’s throat. The illusion of the king glared at him. A true hero ready to die under his enemy’s blade.

In the next breath, Oskar shouted, “Wait, gods, wait!”

“Something you’d like to say?”

Kase was a vicious delight to watch as he snapped the will of those in his sights. A shudder danced down my spine; anticipation for moments when I’d get him alone.

Oskar let out a long breath. “I’ll take you. I’ll vouch for you, but after, you must leave us be.”

Kase reached into his boot and removed an elixir pouch. “This is called Liar’s Breath. The powder will bind your vow. Break it, and you will die. You vow to take us to the grove, conceal us, and lead us to the stronghold without signaling any skyds of our identity?”

Oskar nodded. “I swear it.”

“Good.” Without a word, Kase waited while Oskar used the elixir powder to bind the truth of his tongue. It was a curious powder. The words of Oskar’s vow were repeated under Kase’s direction. Should he turn against us, somehow, Niklas had designed the elixir to release a poison to the blood. Something about the body knowing if it was being deceptive. It was all rather complicated, and I didn’t care much how the powder worked, only that it did if Oskar betrayed us.

“Done,” Oskar said as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

Kase sneered and didn’t say a word when he went to the illusion of Valen and slid his blade over the king’s throat.

My stomach backflipped.

“Gods,” Ari breathed out.

Elise clenched her eyes tight and clung to Valen in a new way. Doubtless she’d witnessed her greatest nightmare. Luca was skilled enough that even knowing it was an illusion, the image of the Northern king choking on his own blood was horribly awful to witness.

Oskar cried to the gods again, stumbling back as Valen’s body fell. “What did you do? You said you wouldn’t kill him.”

“I did say that,” Kase deadpanned. “But see, I did not take an elixir forcing me to keep my word. Careful with the steps you take, skyd. Betray us, and your own blood will poison you.”

“That wasn’t our deal!” Oskar shouted.

“Seems you’ve mistakenly started to believe you had any say in how I managed my deals.”

Oskar hung his head, defeated as Kase and Raum pretended to scoot the illusion of Valen off to one side.