Page 47

Andor

“About time the sun came out,” I say as I exit the back of the castle and walk toward Solla, Vidar, and Steiner, who are sitting at the oak table situated among the vines and fruit trees, the last of the cherry blossoms scattered on the ground in mounds of white and pink.

My siblings are in deep discussion about something, but all talking abruptly stops when I sit down at the table and take a sip of the cold beer in my hand.

“Didn’t bring any for the rest of us?” Vidar asks, raising his empty mug and tipping it against the edge of the table in show.

“Another? When I asked the cook it seems the keg has nearly been drained dry,” I tell him. “Next time I go inside, I’ll get you a refill.”

“Nah,” Steiner says. “Next time you go inside we won’t see you again for a day or two.”

“How is she?” Solla asks me, meaning Brynla. She’s the reason I’ve been so preoccupied over the last few days. “I keep bringing her food but she barely touches it. She won’t say a word. Even her dog won’t bark.”

“Is this why you called this family meeting?” I ask. “Are you legitimately worried about her?”

“Yes.” Vidar nods. “I also think we all need to have a frank discussion about what happened out there in the Banished Land.”

I take a long sip of my beer, preparing to get the third degree from my older brother. “I told you what happened. We were ambushed.”

“But by whom?” he asks.

“Again, I don’t know.”

“Well, Brynla must have some idea. Have you asked her?”

I give him a steady look. “What do you think? Of course I’ve asked her. But she’s inconsolable. She’s lost the last person close to her. Her whole family is now gone. She wasn’t even paying attention while the attack was happening, she was trying to prevent her aunt from dying.”

Although that’s not completely true. Brynla was paying attention.

She helped kill two of the attackers. But she doesn’t know if they were sent by the Black Guard or House Dalgaard.

It could be either. The Black Guard might have been tipped off that Brynla was stealing eggs for us, perhaps by Dalgaard themselves.

Or maybe the assassins were hired by Dalgaard to take her—and me—out of the picture.

It doesn’t help that Brynla refuses to talk to me about it.

My siblings think I’ve been spending a lot of time with her, but the truth is more that I’ve been trying to spend time with her.

She’s giving me the cold shoulder, pissed off at me for drugging her the way I did and bringing her and Lemi back on the ship.

I don’t blame her; I know I violated her trust by doing that, but I didn’t have a choice. I wasn’t about to wait in the Dark City for the next ambush, one that we probably wouldn’t survive.

I had to make some quick decisions since I hadn’t planned on needing to drag her out unconscious. Luckily there was a cart parked a little way down the alley, filled with water.

Unluckily, the cart belonged to her neighbors, an elderly man and woman, who had gathered in their doorway having heard all the commotion with the assassins.

They didn’t do or say anything when I dumped out the water, but when I reemerged from Ellestra’s house with Brynla in the cart, buried underneath a mound of blankets, they grew suspicious.

Thankfully Lemi seemed to understand that I was trying to help Brynla, and he barked at the neighbors to stay back while I quickly wheeled Brynla away.

Getting out of the Dark City itself was another story.

I took lower passageways back, finding my way on instinct and assuming that goods had to be constantly carted in and out of the tunnels instead of the stairs.

There weren’t as many guards that way, but when I did run across them I had to dispatch them quickly or risk discovery.

Thankfully, I’d had enough forethought to prepare the syringe with more drugs.

It meant I didn’t have to kill more people than I already had that morning. Not that I would have hesitated.

“I assume whoever the assassins were, they knew the social system of the Dark City well enough to get through,” I tell Vidar, bringing my focus back to my brother’s intense gaze.

“Do you think they knew you were with her?” Steiner asks. “Strange coincidence for them to attack the moment you get there.”

“No question they knew Brynla was on her way back and waited for that moment.” Dalgaard has spies everywhere. “I can’t say if they were after me—perhaps they would have sent more men if they knew.”

Vidar snorts at that and I stare at him steadily until he seems to retract his derision. He clears his throat. “So then someone intercepted Moon—”

“Not possible. Moon would have told me,” Steiner says.

“ Or ,” Vidar continues, not wanting to get into an old debate of whether his raven really understands him or is capable of lying, “Brynla’s aunt got careless.”

I appreciate him not bringing up the accusation that Ellestra was behind all of it, which was what he’d been saying when we first arrived back.

“Careless or confided in the wrong person,” I point out.

“That’s the same thing,” Vidar says.

“So what does this mean?” Solla asks, tucking her hair behind her ears. “Are we in danger?”

“We’re always in danger,” I tell her. “It’s just that we’ve always had an enemy we knew—House Dalgaard. If they killed Ellestra, then that changes nothing for us. But it if was the Black Guard, and we’re now enemies of the state of Esland, well, that might change a few things.”

“Everyone is their enemy,” Steiner says. “They know how the syndikats deal and what they deal with. I wouldn’t worry about Esland coming to Norland and trying anything.”

“Even if they did, we would be ready. They wouldn’t get far,” Vidar says sternly.

“And Dalgaard is already our enemy anyway,” I say, finishing the rest of my beer.

I set it down and stare at my siblings with as much gravity as I can convey.

“What I mean is that this changes our plans a little. If we’re being looked at more closely by Esland’s Black Guard, we’ll need to make an adjustment. ”

Vidar straightens and eyes me sharply. I hadn’t mentioned anything of this nature yet, and I know he hates surprises. “An adjustment to what?”

“To the plan,” I tell him.

“What plan?” Solla asks.

“To steal the egg of immortality from the Daughters of Silence.”

Everyone goes silent. Solla looks puzzled, Steiner seems thoughtful, and Vidar’s eyes showcase puzzle pieces sliding into place.

I had told them what happened with Ellestra and the assassins in the Dark City.

I didn’t tell them about my conversations with Ellestra or what my plans have been for Brynla all along.

I still haven’t told Brynla either.

Suddenly all my siblings erupt at once.

“The egg of immortality? You know that’s just a myth,” Steiner scoffs.

“You couldn’t set foot on Esland proper without being killed,” Vidar says with a raise of his brow.

“What in the world is the egg of immortality?” Solla asks.

I suppose a better man wouldn’t revel in the fact that he knows something that his siblings don’t. But I am not a better man.

I grin at them, savoring their confusion and enjoying the secrecy for a drawn-out moment before I plunge into everything I know.

Though the egg is news to Solla, it had been of some interest to Steiner for a while before he declared it just a legend, and Vidar and my father were the first to bring it to my attention, also speculating on its existence.

But I took that one step further. If there were such a thing, it would change the fate of our family and syndikats forever. And if it were to get into the wrong hands, well…

“Brynla’s aunt doesn’t know of its existence for sure, though,” Steiner says when I’ve finished, his eyes excited yet cautious.

“Only what others have said,” I say. “So I’d wager no one knows much of anything. That’s why it’s a risk. But what isn’t a risk?”

I’d also wager that Dalgaard wanted to use Brynla for this exact thing.

He chose her because of where she came from, his plans no different than mine.

But I also know that there really is something special about Brynla, something I’m certain her aunt was about to confirm before that unfortunate turn of events.

I’m not about to voice that to my siblings, though. Not until I talk to Brynla about it.

“Well, obviously Brynla must want her revenge on the convent,” Solla says.

“She does,” I say cautiously.

Vidar stares at me for a moment before he shakes his head. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Andor. She doesn’t know, does she?”

“I’ve been a little preoccupied.”

Solla gasps.

“She’s been here for a month,” Vidar points out, jabbing his finger into the whorls on the table.

“I wanted to make sure that it was true before I roped her into it.”

“You’re going to have to tell her soon,” Steiner says. “Otherwise she’s going to feel even further betrayed.”

“Further betrayed?” I repeat, getting to my feet. “I haven’t betrayed her.”

“You drugged her,” he says. “You took her back to the ship against her will and left the body of her aunt behind. You should have at least taken her aunt’s body with you. You’re strong enough to have handled the both of them.”

Guilt stabs me through the ribs.

“I wasn’t thinking,” I admit quietly, sitting back down in my seat. “All I could do was get Brynla out of there. She was my priority, not her aunt.”

“That might be one reason why she’s not coming out of her room,” Solla mutters.

“Or it could be that she’s grieving,” I tell her sharply.

“You need to get her to see Sae Balek,” Vidar says. “Take some of the resin, have the visions. It’s the only way she’ll be able to channel her grief.”

“Maybe she doesn’t need to channel her grief,” I say, feeling annoyed at his suggestion, as if grief is something to use. “Maybe she needs to just deal with it as it comes, day by day.”

“We don’t have time to deal with it day by day,” Vidar says sternly.

“You said it yourself: if the Black Guard is behind Ellestra’s assassination, then they’re going to be on the lookout for you.

Perhaps they don’t know your plans to steal the egg, but they’re going to expect you stepping foot on their shores.

” He pauses. “Which is why I’m going to come with you. ”

I balk at that. The last thing I want—and need—is my brother’s help.

“You’re not,” I tell him, though my protest is feeble.

“Give me one reason,” he says with a patient look.

I glance at Solla and Steiner but they seem to be waiting for an answer, same as he is.

Because this is my thing , I want to say. I’m the only one who can do this and I can’t risk anything happening to you.

Instead I say, “You’re needed here. And this doesn’t involve you.”

“If it involves you, dear brother, it involves me,” he says, a small, slightly smug smile tugging at his lips. “And I’m sure Father will see things the same way. If you’re going to Esland to perform a robbery, you might as well turn it into a heist.”