Page 112 of The Cradle of Ice

Graylin pulled his sword free, flashing the bright steel.

The show of strength succeeded where Daal’s diplomacy had failed. The one called Bakna stepped away, holding his gaff wide, plainly relinquishing the field.

Nyx let out a breath, one she hadn’t known she was holding.

But it was not over.

Graylin sprang forward. In a blur of cloak and steel, he slashed Bakna’s throat and continued past the man. He stopped between the other two and stabbed his sword into a chest. As he yanked it free, he flipped the sword’s hilt in his palm and drove the blade under his own arm to impale the other man.

Before either could more than mewl or gasp, Graylin spun on a toe, with his steel held wide. Both throats were cut deep, silencing any cry.

In that stunned moment, bone crunched behind Nyx. She ducked and turned. Shiya tossed her strangled man aside and closed on the other, who tried to flee. But no one could outrun such a being. Shiya reached him in a breath and snapped the man’s neck.

Graylin dropped to a knee before Nyx and Daal. His eyes flashed with the same cold steel of his blade. “We need to make these bodies vanish.”

“Wh … Why did you…” Daal stammered. “Bakna was giving up.”

Even Nyx was stunned by the cold-blooded slaughter.

Graylin gripped both their shoulders. “Daal, did you not say it was death to be caught trespassing upon the Dreamers? If so, there can be no witnesses to our departure.”

Daal unlocked his neck enough to nod.

Graylin turned to Nyx. “And what we attempt now? Is it worth that price?” He pointed to the bodies.

Nyx swallowed and nodded, too.

Graylin stood, addressing them all. “We can’t let word of us leaving Kefta reach the wrong ears.” He faced Shiya, who joined them with her two bodies in tow. “Can you ensure no one else saw what happened?”

She searched around. “Some had fled.”

Nyx pictured the drunken lot.

“Did any of them linger?” Graylin asked. “Stay to witness what transpired?”

Shiya’s lids lowered slightly. A hum built in her throat, warming her neck. She stoked it brighter—then cast out a glowing wave of bridle-song. It swept the plaza and traveled up streets and alleyways and through open windows. Then, in the next breath, it rebounded back to its source.

As it did, Daal ducked from it.

Nyx remembered performing something similar in the hold of the Sparrowhawk, using an echo of her bridle-song to strip the shadows and reveal all that was hidden, including life in all its myriad forms.

“No one else is nearby,” Shiya confirmed.

Graylin nodded and grabbed the arms of two of the men, but that was all he could manage. “Daal and Nyx, you must take the other.”

“Take them where?” Nyx asked with a shudder, still stunned by the sudden brutality, still struggling with the cold necessity of this act.

Yet, she also knew she must eventually grow this callous. From here, the path forward would only grow harder. And beyond any doubt …

More deaths will follow.

Daal had collected himself enough to point toward the stone pier. “My skiff. Large enough for all. The seas will take the dead, whether inked or not.”

Nyx bent down and grabbed a slack arm.

Let’s pray that does not include us.

45