Soraya.
A death that they all knew, then.
And for Arawn …
Definitely closest to him,Ezer thought.Perhaps his matched lover.
She couldn’t imagine anyone choosing him.
But then again, she certainly couldn’t imagine anyone choosingher.
Ezer busied herself with watching the flow of people moving about the Aviary as Arawn spoke with the riders.
A large spiral staircase stood at the end of the hall, to the left. The way to the Ravenminder’s tower. She imagined Ervos walking up those steps, his enormous footfalls echoing down the tunnel. Her heart ached.
Suddenly she didn’t want to go up there. To feel the same emptinessshe’d often felt, alone in her tower in Rendegard. Because everywhere she looked, she could feel his absence. It was a living, breathing thing, always just there at her side.
The golden doors caught her glance again, the runes shining as if they’d been freshly inscribed.
War Eagles.
She’d longed to see them her entire life.
Ezer’s feet itched to move towards those doors, to press her eye to the keyhole and take a single peek inside. To see the mighty birds up close, just once. A dream, if she’d ever had any to claim as her own.
‘Ezer.’
She flinched.
The voice of the wind was so loud, she swore it was right beside her. It had never been so close in her waking moments.
She looked at Arawn and the others, but no one had seemed to take any notice.
So she glanced to the left, where the whisper had come from. Sure enough, there was a small arched window in the stones, an old thing with cracked and ancient stained-glass flowers: blue ice lilies that could only survive in the north. She could feel the draft coming through the cracks at the edges.
For a moment, she thought it was only her exhaustion. She hadn’t slept in ages.
‘Ezer.’
The wind was louder this time.
She glanced around.
Arawn and the others were deep in conversation. He’d forgotten she was there at all, a circumstance she’d grown used to.
She was always a small, forgettable thing.
So perhaps she could use that to her advantage. No one took any notice when she walked deeper into the Aviary, her footsteps light as she followed the whispering wind down the hall.
‘Ezer. Go inside.’
It had never been quite so clear.
She stopped,releasing a breath.
It was coming frombeneaththe golden doors.
Off limits, certainly.
