Page 29 of Quicksilver

Gods, he looked so young. Way younger than he'd looked back in the Hall of Mirrors, when he had seemed made of shadow and smoke.

His haunted expression promised pain, and blood, and death.

And he was looking right at the king. Or perhaps it was the dead dragon’s skull that elicited his hate. I couldn’t tell.

“Come on. We need to get out of here.” Everlayne grabbed me by the wrist and tugged me up from the bench. A second later, we were standing in front of the dais, and she was dragging me down into a low bow next to her. “We beg your leave, Highness,” Everlayne said loudly. “Saeris is keen to get to work.”

The only thing I was keen to do was escape, but I kept my mouth shut. The sooner we got out of this hall, the better.

“You may go,” Belikon said. When we were halfway to the doors, the king called after her again. “Keep an eye on her, Everlayne. She's your responsibility now.”

Everlayne's pace didn't falter. She hurried out of the throne room, dragging me along behind her. We found Renfis in the hallway beyond the doors, his face grey as ash. Six feet away, Kingfisher stood with his hands braced against the wall, bending forward as he spat on the floor. There was a pool of vomit at his feet.

Everlayne locked eyes with Renfis. “You’re fucking insane!”

“What was I supposed to do? He was going to string him up, for fuck's sake.”

“You were supposed to get the pendant back to him and get him the hell out of here hours ago!”

The bruise beneath Renfis's right eye was darkening right in front of us. The split in his lip had started bleeding. He gestured pointedly to his injuries. “Eight of the bastards jumped me right before I entered his room. They must have followed me. They knocked me out, Layne. By the time I regained consciousness—”

“Yes, all right. All right. It's done now. The dye is cast. We'll just have to deal with the consequences—”

“Stop bickering.”

A thrill of energy rocketed up my spine at these two words. Kingfisher's voice was rough and pained, but it was also electricity. It made every hair on my body stand to attention.

Renfis and Everlayne faced him, the first hanging his head, the second on the verge of tears. “You went through the pool? Of all the reckless, idiotic, stupid things you could have done...” Everlayne's voice cracked as she spoke. Kingfisher scrubbed a hand over his face, then swept his hair back out of his eyes. It had been dark in the Hall of Mirrors, not to mention the fact that I'd been bleeding out. He'd thrashed so much that I hadn't been able to make out much of him back in the throne room behind us. Now, I saw him properly for the first time, and a wave of shock rippled through me, down to the roots of my soul.

His jaw was defined, marked with dark stubble, his cheekbones high, his nose arrow straight and proud. There was a dark freckle just below his right eye. And...those eyes. Gods. Eyes were not that color. I'd never seen that shade of green before—a jade so bright and vibrant that it didn't look real. I'd noticed the filaments of silver threaded through his right iris back in Madra's Hall of Mirrors, but I'd assumed I'd imagined them, being so close to death and all. The silver shone there, though, definitely real, forming a reflective, metallic corona around the black well of his pupil. The sight of it made me feel strange and off-balance.

Kingfisher spared me the briefest of glances and then addressed the female. “Hello, Layne.”

Everlayne let out a strangled sob, tears chasing down her cheeks, but she scowled at the warrior dressed in black. “Don’t ‘hello, Layne’ me after a hundred and ten years. Answer the question. Why the hell did you go into that pool?”

He sighed wearily. “I had two seconds to decide. The pathway was already closing. What was I supposed to do?”

“You should have just let it close!” Her voice was hard as stone.

Kingfisher groaned, then craned his head forward and spat again. “Chastise me tomorrow, please. Right now, I need two things. Whiskey and a bed.”

Everlayne didn't seem inclined to allow him these things. She huffed, folding her arms across her chest. Renfis stepped in between them, shaking his head. “How about we all get some rest? We'll figure this out in the morning.”

“You can sleep in my room. Both of you,” Everlayne commanded. “You'll be safest there. Go now before he dismisses the whole court. I'll be along shortly.”

I was invisible. Inconsequential. Neither Renfis nor Kingfisher said a word to me as they turned and left. Kingfisher stumbled a little as he went, batting away Renfis's hand when he tried to help.

“Come on. We need to get you back to your room, too.” Everlayne tried to grab my wrist again, but I jerked back before she could get a hold of me. “If you want me to walk anywhere, then just ask me to go with you,” I snapped. “I'm sick to death of being dragged around like an animal on a leash.”

“You're not safe here, Saeris.”

“You’re right. It doesn’t sound like I am. Don't you think you should have told me that your people are at war?”

She frowned. “I didn't mention that?”

“No!”

“Oh, well. We've been at war with Sanasroth for longer than I've been alive. It must have slipped my mind,” she said impatiently. “Will you please come back to your rooms with me, Saeris? I'll answer all of your questions in due time, but not here and not now.”