Mother shook her head slowly. “We’ve heard all this evidence already. Just last night, Prince Consort Heinrich led the raid, which uncovered the Onyx Gang’s lair. He found documents linking them to elven traders and exposed a spy in our midst: Ludwig.”
Her vision blurred, and she struggled to stay upright.
“That’s not true, he framed Ludwig. Heinrich is—”
The room spun around her, and Liane grasped onto the back of a nearby chair to stand upright. In a moment, Mother was around the table and embraced her to prevent her from tipping over.
“You’re burning up. It’s another fever. Someone call the Vice Premier!” Mother shouted.
She felt as if she were sinking, being dragged down into mud that covered her face starving her of oxygen. She wanted to argue and fight for Ludwig, but the sound of wings beat in her ear, and over her head, she thought she saw a raven peering down at her with golden eyes from the ceiling. The inky-black of its feathers seeped outward, leeching color from the fresco.
“On the longest day, the sun shall rise, and the end becomes the beginning.” The words echoed inside her brain, rattling around in her skull. She blinked and sunbursts burned behind her eyelids.
Searing pain radiated out from her back. It felt as if she were burning, set aflame by invisible fire, and the only thing keeping her from slipping into oblivion was Mother’s arms, her last link to reality, but even that started to slip through her fingers. She was falling, tumbling endlessly through black oblivion with no end in sight.
26
Waiting for the damned summer sun to set had nearly driven Erich out of his skin, or perhaps it was because the dragon was too close to the surface. As evening approached, it grew emboldened, making his emotions volatile and unpredictable. Normally when the moon was this full, he was alone in the woods, and he didn’t have to fear accidental discovery. That day, rather than risk exposure to Ivar and his household, he’d spent the entire day in the city dodging pilgrims, and now his nerves were raw, and his jaw ached from clenching it. As he approached the temple, a stream of pedestrians flowed down the temple steps; their long shadows stretched out behind them, creating monstrous silhouettes, and the air smelled like smoke. Great gray plumes rose behind the temple, muddying the orange and pinks of the twilight sky. Until the solstice, they’d burn non-stop in Sundland; the sky barely lightened in the summer months, and such practices weren’t necessary.
Then it struck him, he’d never see another solstice in his homeland, and his mood soured more. Best not to think of it. He must focus on the task at hand. He couldn’t afford another distraction. Someone tapped Erich on the shoulder, and he spun around to see Fritz grinning at him.
“Ready?” Fritz asked.
“Not traveling by shadows today?” Erich asked.
“Even I won’t risk gaining their attention.” He nodded toward a couple of Midnight Guards standing alert at the base of the temple steps, watching the flow of pedestrians going in and out.
Erich knew they weren’t there to oversee pilgrims, but instead, they’d doubled the normal guards from the last time he’d been there. He just hoped Fritz had some elven trick up his sleeve to get them inside, undetected.
“You’re not as fearless as I thought,” Erich said, tearing his gaze away from the temple.
“Little late for doubt, isn’t it?” Fritz said, as if reading his mind.
“Only if your plan is strolling in past those guards in broad daylight.”
“Like I said, I’m not that reckless. They’re not typical humans…” his gaze lingered on the guards but didn’t expand on the thought.
Erich was tempted to ask him more, but he feared the answer and held his tongue. Whatever they were didn’t change his need, and it was too late to turn back now.
“Then what are you thinking?” Erich asked.
“Follow me.” Fritz strolled past the temple steps, and down a nearby alleyway.
A large open space encompassed the temple and, at its perimeter, buildings. Shops, mostly selling souvenirs and relics, crowded in. A river that the city had been built up around ran along one side of the temple, and along its soft banks, there were no structures. Fritz led him to the river’s edge, and they walked along the sandy shore for a while, as luxury merchant townhouses overlooking the river loomed above them. They were nearly a block away from the temple, when Fritz stopped to kneel by the water’s edge.
“Did you get turned around? We’re nowhere near the temple,” Erich remarked
“Do you see it?” Fritz pointed at the side of a nearby retaining wall.
Squinting, he could make out iron bars against what appeared to be some sort of sewer grate. He was going to make them climb through sewage again. Erich started to shake his head, then stopped. If they got through this damned night alive, he’d be cured, and what was one last time climbing through sewage to be free at last?
Erich waded into the water, which was surprisingly shallow. It hardly came up to mid-thigh, but Fritz didn’t immediately follow him.
“What’s the holdup?” Erich asked him.
“You’re not going to argue?” Fritz asked, eyebrow cocked.
Erich shrugged. “You haven’t steered me wrong before.”
