Page 73 of Quicksilver

“Because Madra...Madra swore she was going to find him and kill him. She said she was going to destroy the ward.”

He frowned. “And why in all four winds would she dothat?”

“You know why! Because I took that cursed gauntlet!”

“Ah, yes, that's right.” He pushed away from the wall, blue eyes dancing with amusement. “The gauntlet. The one I advised you to take out of the Third, before our people started getting hurt?Thatgauntlet?”

I was going to hurthim. Badly. “Enough, Carrion. I know I fucked up, all right. I feel terrible enough as it is. Just tell me what happened. Is Hayden really still alive?”

“Yes, yes, he's still alive. Gods, you never were one for patience.” He rolled his eyes. “Hayden’s in The Seventh. I got him papers and shifted him that first night when you were taken up to the palace. He's now gainfully employed as a store clerk. It isn't glamorous work, but it's better than having no job at all. He has triple water rations and a room above the shop. I haven't visited for a couple of days. I didn't want to draw too much attention, him being a new face and all, but he's comfortable. I can't say that he's happy. He's brainstorming all sorts of ways to break you out of the palace, but—”

“Stop! Stop, stop, stop. Just...wait.” I covered my face with my hands.

“Shit. Are youcrying?I figured you'd be happy.”

Hayden was alive.

Hayden wasalive.

He was safe.

He was in The Seventh. He had a job, and a roof over his head, and food and water, too? My whole body trembled with relief. I dropped my hands to my sides, pulling myself together, trying to think pragmatically. “Madra just hasn't found him yet.” I sniffed, clearing my throat.

“Madra isn't looking for him.”

“But the guardians...”

“Are all prepared for the Evenlight. It's in a month. The whole city's been buzzing with talk of what gift she'll bestow on us this year. She has the guardians building a stage in the center of the market square.”

“You're sure it's not new gallows?” I asked suspiciously.

“Definitely not gallows. There are flowers all over it.”

“Flowers?”

“Yes, flowers.”

“Tell me everything that happened after the guardians took me up to the palace,” I demanded. There had to be something. Some kind of awful act of violence that shook the foundations of our ward. Madra was a lot of things and benevolent wasn’t one of them. But Carrion just let out a dry laugh.

“Everything’s fine. Elroy's been a real pain in the ass, of course. He goes up to the gates every day and demands to see you, but they keep turning him away. He comes back down to the forge and gets to work, grumbling about the mess you've left him in. Hayden is dealing with a guilty conscience about as best as he can. He blames himself for you being taken. Other than that, the Third continues as it always has without you. Imaginethat.The world, audacious enough to carry on without Saeris Fane.”

“I'm serious, Carrion. You didn't hear her. She swore that everyone in the Third woulddie.”

“And yet no one has,” he said, shrugging. “Now, I think I've been pretty patient while we've rehashed all of this gauntlet bullshit. I think it's my turn to have a few things explained to me. Principally, where the fuck are we, why are we here, were the people who came in here about half an hour and laid their hands all over you reallyFae,or did I hallucinate that part, and lastly...” He pointed at his foot. “Where the fuck is my other boot?”

“Someone came in here andtouchedme?”

Carrion threw his head back, groaning. “All of those questions and you respond by asking one of your own. Gods.Yes, they came and touched your hands a bunch. They said they were healing you.”

Sure enough, when I looked down at my hands, the bite Onyx gave me when he was scared was gone, as was the little welt from the faerie. The burn mark from Nimerelle was still there, but only just. The skin on my palm was tender to the touch, but it was pink again and didn't look like it was going to burst open and start weeping pus anymore.

Kingfisher. He’d sent healers. He was really serious about making sure I didn't develop a fever. But he would be, wouldn't he? I was nothing more than a tool to him, and how would he use me if I was dead?

For the first time since waking, I took stock of the situation. Hayden was alive and doing okay. So was Elroy. For the time being, at least. But now, I was stuck in the Yvelian borderlands, in the middle of a war between battling factions of immortals, and Carrion Swift was prodding me for an explanation as to why.

I explained everything I knew, moving around the room and inspecting our surroundings. The room was windowless, which was my first disappointment. No way to assess the landscape around us, and no way to climb to freedom, either. The bedroom—because it was a bedroom—was twice the size of my room back at the Winter Palace. There were four large double beds, two on either side of the space, made up with thick, beautiful covers in bright blues and greens, each of them adorned with mounds of pillows and cushions. A plush rug covered the majority of the stone floor. Woven tapestries hung from the walls. A large fireplace roared at the far end of the room, next to which a wide table was loaded with bowls of fruits, bread, smoked meats, and cheeses, not to mention four copper ewers of water and two separate wash basins.

None of it had been touched.