“I don’t think it’s a fire. You still have that mace upstairs?”
“Yeah.”
“Get it. Stay awake. Lock the door again after I leave. Don’t let anybody in.”
Maylee narrowed her eyes. “If this is abouther, then I should come with you. I can still—”
“No. When was the last time you swung that thing? I just want you safe.”
“Well, I want the same.” Maylee jabbed Viv in the belly with a finger. “Where the hells are you off to anyway?”
“To get a book.”
Shouts grew more distinct as Viv sprinted toward the fortress entrance. Light bloomed above the walls in a haze of gold, but not from an uncontrolled blaze. Lanterns gleamed on the ramparts, and the bells continued their deafening peals.
At her side, the satchel jerked, and Viv did, too, as skeletal fingers reached from beneath the flap and clutched at her side.
She skidded to a stop and unslung the pack. The homunculus opened the flap himself, his skull and one arm emerging, eyes blazing blue.
“What the hells? The dust—”
“Plenty remained for this,” he said. “Quickly! You must let me out.”
“I’m heading inthere, after the book.” She stabbed a finger at the walls. “You want somebody to see you and bash you to bits? You haven’t met Iridia yet. I don’t have time to explain you, and she still doesn’t like me a whole lot. I don’t think you’re going to fare much better.”
“She will not harm me. She cannot. Nor can any mortal inside those walls.” His voice was coldly certain.
The image of a spineback riddled with shards of bone sprang to mind and quelled her flourishing doubts.
“Your Lady might already be in there,” warned Viv.
“If she is, I’d much prefer to meet her on my feet.”
She paused, then dropped to a knee, quickly dusting his bones again for good measure. As he clattered into being beside her, she snatched up the satchel once more. “Let’s go.”
The entrance to the city was unguarded, and Viv’s fears transmuted to certainty. Satchel kept up with her admirably as she sprinted along the scalloped sand, breath coming harsh but steady.
A short, sharp scream punctuated the shouts and calls.
When she rounded a massive pillar on the near side of the entryway, her footsteps thudding on stone at last, she turned, and a surreal sense of doubling overcame her.
Lanky figures with osseous grins, their eyes pinpricks of blue light, crowded the market street. Gatewardens battled them down the length, and she could have been in the woods again, while Rackam’s Ravens hacked at Varine’s necromantic minions. There were dozens of wights and only half as many Gatewardens on the long thoroughfare. Who knew how many choked the side streets?
“Shit,” she breathed.
“Where is the book?” asked Satchel.
Viv unslung Blackblood and bared her teeth, ready to leap into the fray once more, to batter the wights to dust, to—
“Thebook?” he insisted.
She growled and shook herself. “Iridia has it. The Gatewardens.”
“We must retrieve it. First.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “You’re right. Can you do that thing with the bones?”
“Not with these creatures,” he replied. “They are hers.”
