Page 64 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

Hallie was silent for a moment. Something in her jaw twitched ever so slightly. That was the only visible reaction she gave to the news. Niels wondered if she felt betrayed. It was her secret to tell, not anyone else’s.

The woman Fely spoke up next before Hallie could respond. “I believe you know who I am, though we have not spoken face to face, Stradat Lord Kapitan.”

Harlan’s face didn’t change as he finally looked up at her. “Yes, though I am uncertain as to why you’re here.”

Fely wet her lips. “After Glennar was killed by the General, I had no choice but to keep up appearances, and when the General and the King discovered Miss Walker attempting to use her power to create a Passage to the holy city, I went with her. The General believes me to be keeping tabs on her and is on his way to your capital in search of the second sword, Gate, and the final Essence.”

“And your betrothed? Where is the King?”

Fely looked down at her entwined fingers set atop the table. “Dead. Killed by Abram Loffler.”

Harlan stared at her hard, almost if he didn’t quite understand what she’d said, before he swore.

Kase glanced quickly at Hallie, who nodded. The cold started creeping up Niels’ other arm.

Harlan stood up from his chair and went over to his desk, scribbling something on a paper before handing it off to the guard outside the door. “Lord Stephenson. Now.”

He then returned to the table, but he didn’t sit, only leaned upon it.

“Word of his death does not leave this tent.” He glared each person in the eye.

“To do so could bring even more of those bombs down on our heads. The Cerls will take it as an outright act of war, which gives us very little bargaining power in any negotiations. Lady Fely, do I have your word?”

Fely didn’t seem to give any indication that she felt obliged to do anything at all. Her voice was steady. “As always, Stradat Lord Kapitan, my allegiance is to my people in the Isles. I will do nothing that betrays them, which means we are working toward the same goal.”

Something seemed to finally click in Kase’s brain, because he burst out, “You’re the one who killed Yarrow.”

Niels wasn’t sure who Yarrow was, but he was having more trouble concentrating on the conversation at hand.

“I did, but I did not relish it. Yarrow not only betrayed Miss Walker and King Filip, but also his brother, Glennar. If I had not gone along with appearances, he would have exposed me as a traitor. I was the one passing information through Glennar to Jayde.”

Kase’s thumb froze where he’d been stroking Hallie’s knee. Niels clenched his teeth. He should stop watching them, but his anger was all that kept the cold at bay.

“You were the one the Stradat Lord Kapitan was meeting in the middle of the night,” Kase rasped.

Hallie gave him an odd look. Fely shook her head. “My messengers. I am only the source of information.”

Niels didn’t understand anything at this point.

“And?” The Stradat Lord Kapitan folded his hands in front of him.

“It’s much worse than you feared, Stradat Lord Kapitan.” Fely leaned forward on the table, her long fingers splayed. “Stradat Loffler is not working with the General. He’s gone rogue. And he’s the reason Zalina, the end, is upon us. At least the General is trying to stop it.”

No one spoke as the words weighed heavy in the air. Niels itched to pull Hallie into his arms and tell her that it was okay, but he never would be able to do that.

She wouldn’t even look his way. Kase’s hand was still on her knee. Niels tried to let go of the grief and anger building up within him. Hallie had rejected him. Niels knew he should have saved Jack. He knew he should’ve followed her to the capital.

But he hadn’t, and she’d moved on.

He’d lost her and hadn’t bothered to find her.

The Stradat Lord Kapitan rose and went to the tent entrance. “Sergeant Fisher, please fetch the Yalven emissary immediately. Tell him it’s of the utmost urgency.”

With the renewed silence, Niels looked at anything besides Kase and Hallie.

He couldn’t get the image of their reunion out of his head.

It hurt. He also didn’t want to make idle chat with the Stradat Lord Kapitan or Fely.

He forced himself to inspect his bandage.

It was only just starting to show the blood along one of the edges, but it definitely wasn’t bleeding enough to cause this kind of chill.

So why did he feel so cold?

He was so focused on the chill creeping higher that he barely registered the man entering the tent a short time after.

The numbness had started to feel blissful, but he noticed the man was extraordinarily tall with long braided hair.

Someone gasped. He wasn’t sure who. The man who’d entered looked quite ragged in his rumpled clothing—a long toga tucked underneath a thin cloak. Bags drooped under his red-veined eyes.

“Miss Walker—you’re here.” The man rushed over and bowed over her hand, saying something in a different language.

“And may they not fall when morning breaks,” Hallie said back in Common with a tight smile. She went to say something else, but the man looked past her and froze.

“Lord Saldr,” Fely said quietly. “I was not aware that you were…here.”

Something happened, but Niels wasn’t sure exactly what. One second the other man was there, and the next he sort of…flickered. He rubbed his eyes. Surely he was seeing things. He needed to sleep. That was it.

“Lady Felyra,” the man, Saldr, breathed. “May the stars rise upon you.”

The ice was creeping into his chest. It wasn’t painful. Just cold. He was finally able to focus on something else besides Kase and Hallie, and with the encroaching chill, he barely minded that Kase had moved his hand from Hallie’s knee to the back of her chair.

Fely finished the greeting and said, “It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?”

“Indeed it has.” The man took the vacant seat beside the woman but refused to look in her direction. He bowed his head slightly to the Stradat Lord Kapitan. “I understand why you called me here.” He glanced over at Hallie. “It’s true, isn’t it?”

Who was this man, again? How did he know Hallie?

“I’m still unsure what it means. The only times I’ve used the power, I’ve lost control,” she answered.

“And pray tell us, what does your supposed Essence power do?” The Stradat Lord Kapitan asked without inflection.

“I’m not entirely sure. I created a Passage here, for one, and…a few other things.” Hallie played with the fingers in her lap.

Kase rubbed his thumb between her shoulder blades. Niels looked away.

“I don’t know what I do, truly.” Hallie wasn’t being completely truthful.

She chewed on the inside of her lip. There was something else, something she was scared to tell the Stradat Lord Kapitan.

She’d messed something up in their journey here, leaving them lost in a void for a week without them realizing it.

She hadn’t just lost control; something had gone very wrong. But to admit something like that to the most powerful man in Jayde would be ludicrous.

The other man in the room saved her from answering. “Your Essence manipulates time.”

No one spoke. The words seemed to drown out sound outside the tent as well. They were heavy and laden with implications Niels didn’t understand.

The Stradat Lord Kapitan looked thoughtful as if he’d expected the insanity.

“If that is the case, using your power to restore the electricity to the city would go a long way to surviving this war.” He pressed his fingers together and brought them to his lips in thought.

“Yes, that would work quite well. We could scrounge up a few hovers, surely. We have three pilots, though my son is the only fully trained one, but a few of my own men could work in a pinch.”

Silence permeated the air for a moment. Only the hawking of wares outside the tent interrupted it for a few loaded seconds.

“I don’t know if…that is, I’m unsure if I can do something on that scale,” Hallie said.

“You destroyed Achilles with your power,” Fely added. “You used it on the structure itself. It’s now a pile of rubble, almost as if it was thrust back to its beginning. I was lucky to escape the destruction, as were you.”

Hallie shook her head. “But I was only trying to save Kase.”

That hurt. Niels hadn’t been able to explain the collapse of the fort from the outside.

The flash bombs they’d levied at the gate were mere annoyances to the soldiers.

They’d been meant only as a distraction.

Then the fort began falling apart, even the stone catching fire, which Niels still couldn’t entirely wrap his mind around.

But it had been Hallie’s doing. All because she’d wanted to save Kase.

Not him. Kase.

Because Niels saved her instead of Jack. He’d saved himself instead of Jack.

And Hallie could never see him without seeing that day in her mind.

The conversation continued at a pace Niels had trouble keeping up with, the icy cold now affecting his toes. But he still heard the Stradat Lord Kapitan’s next question.

“Now, if you would explain the sword?” Harlan asked, nodding at the blade still strapped to Hallie’s pack. “Retrieve it for me, Kase.”

Kase looked at Hallie, who nodded; he hesitated another moment before getting up. He unhooked it from her pack and set it lightly on the table.

Niels felt ill just looking at it lying there. It was almost as if the sword was a shadow. It’d cut him. It’d killed the Cerl King.

“It is one half of a pair,” Fely said. “Like I mentioned earlier, the General seeks the second one, which they believe is here in Kyvena.” She paused for a moment. “This is the one that killed the King. It holds his Essence power, Lord Saldr.”

“If that is truly Kainadr, and it holds the Essence of Souls,” Saldr said, voice shaking as he stared hard at the sword on the table, “then it would indicate the legends are indeed true, that the second Gate holds Xera.”