Ben stepped back and tried to break the lock himself. It was thick, well made, and he kicked it three times before he fell to the floor with a cry.
The vial of permanent magic Lu had given him dug against his hip. He touched it, desperation blinding him tothe consequences for one full breath. Would it make him strong enough to break out? Would it make him powerful enough to stop the battle outside?
Argrid hated him. How would they react to a king imbued with permanent magic? Would their future aversion to him be worth stopping this one battle?
It wouldn’t stop just this battle, though. It would stop the whole of the war. Ben could march up to his father and defeat him with whatever powers this magic gave him.
Knowing that, knowing the possibility in this vial, Elazar wouldn’t hesitate to drink it.
Which made Ben rip his hand away from his pocket.
Arms on his knees, he looked at Gunnar, wanting to hurl the vial at him and scream,Look what you are making me consider!
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to forgive you for this,” Ben said.
“As long as you are alive to hate me,” Gunnar replied, and they fell silent.
Vex trailed Jakes and the defensors through the hall. He had to sidestep the Tuncian raider who’d been guarding them, slumped over the doorstep, blood rippling out of his unmoving body.
After a dry heave, Vex steeled himself. What was his plan? To fight? Lot of help he’d be, barely able to stand on his own—
He got outside. It didn’t look like they were under attack from here. The roads around this building were empty, no defensors, no raiders. Vex hobbled on, pulled by the shouting and crash of fighting, the pop of pistols sounding innocent from far away. It could’ve been a child bouncing a ball, or cooking pots banging, or—
Someone darted around a corner. Vex froze—but it was Edda, a pistol in each hand, her face streaked with sweat.
“Vex!” she shouted. “What the hell are you doing out of your cell? You were safe there!”
Vex winced. Safe and useless. “I want to help. What’s happening?”
She relented. “Defensors, everywhere,” she said, nodding at the buildings. “Coming in through the tenements. Someone told them how to get here.”
Vex’s body went cold. The look on Edda’s face said what he thought: Cansu.
“Can you fight?” Edda twisted a pistol toward him.
Vex swayed and took it. Hell yes, he would fight. Screw his body. Screw thispain.
Vex hobbled forward. Edda fell in beside him, keeping pace with Vex’s slow steps. They turned a corner that took them to the sanctuary’s outer perimeter—and found chaos.
Argridian defensors streamed into the sanctuary, doors thrown wide and bodies shoving through in the ivory-and-blue uniforms that made Vex’s heart sink. The people in thesanctuary ran and screamed, but there was no escape—incoming soldiers blocked every exit.
Vex’s first thought wasThey want something. Lu or Ben—Elazar had sent his soldiers here to reclaim his prisoners. But in the few seconds Vex stood against Edda, watching the defensors shoot and stab and take down innocents—not just raiders, but people who cowered in cottages and screamed as soldiers dragged them out—he realized what this was.
A massacre.
Edda spun around, barring her arm across Vex. “Get back! We need higher—”
Vex turned. Four buildings behind them, defensors ran onto the road. Edda cursed and yanked him to the side, behind an overturned cart. Vex dropped to the dusty road, clinging to his pistol, arms shaking.
Back up the street, toward the bulk of fighting where defensors poured into the sanctuary, refugees screamed. Alongside it came Fatemah’s voice: “You destroy my home—you monsters!”
Defensors forced her to her knees in the middle of the road.
“Commander Andreu,” one defensor said, “she is the leader of these raider vermin. What example should we make of her?”
A man approached Fatemah, the defensors. Tall, with the russet skin and sharp features of Argrid.
Vex’s stomach shriveled up. Commander Andreu. Lu’s father?
