“Yes. He wanted to learn the royal shift—the way we pulled the Twilight Kingdom out of reality. He’d always been fascinated by the notion… but something changed. Mere curiosity became a relentless pursuit. I didn’t know then, that Adela had already got to him. And fool that I was, I didn’t want to lose him, so I gave in.”
Vi stared at Arwin’s detached and determined eyes. The woman had her jaw clamped so tightly, the muscles in her cheek twitched.
“When the time comes, I have to be the one to do it.” She was talking about murdering a man she’d loved enough to marry at one point. “Neither of you will take this from me. I have to be the one to kill him.”
“Are you sure?” Taavin asked, far too gently for a heart as ragged as Arwin’s. “You and he were—”
“He’s yours,” Vi interrupted. Arwin looked directly at her now with all the same murderous intensity. “Adela took something—someone—from me, too. A woman who was a sister to me until I learned of her true nature. She was taken in by Adela, just as Fallor was. I had the satisfaction of revenge in her death. You will have your satisfaction today.”
Arwin gave a small nod, the beginnings of what looked like a new foundation of shared understanding in her eyes. If Vi had read it correctly, it was coming from the last place she would expect. Without a word more, Arwin leapt from the crest of the hill on which they were standing. The shift rippled around her, and she was gone in a blink, a bird soaring off down to the town, ready to implement their plans.
Chapter Nineteen
“Jayme?”Taavin asked as they started down the sloping field toward the main road into Toris.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Vi looked over the crops and land as they passed between fenced pasture and open field alike. An uncomfortable quiet had overtaken the hill. The houses were still; not a single farmhand was out tilling soil.
“I haven’t asked about her because I assumed she’d decided to stay behind, but you said—”
Vi spun, rounding on him. “I said I don’t want to talk about it. She was a traitor, nothing more.” Her voice dropped softer as she tried to quell the rage. Vi wrapped her hand around his. “I don’t want her name coming from your mouth. I don’t want to associate anything of you with betrayal.” She’d already toed that dangerous line once on finding out the true nature of the Faithful.
“Are you all right though?” Taavin held her fast as Vi tried to pull away. “Jayme was—”
“Jayme was no one. She was a traitor. She betrayed my family. It’s because of her Adela has my father. It’s because of her Adela had me. I gave her a traitor’s death and I don’t want to speak about her ever again.”
“Very well.” Taavin released her and Vi quickly started on again.
It felt like she was running. But she didn’t quite know from what. Just the mere thought of Jayme filled her with brutal darkness—not unlike the darkness that seemed to be settling on the land.
They quickly discovered the reason why no one was working the fields—the houses were abandoned. What crops there were had rotted where they stood. Tilled soil had turned to hard, cracked mud, small deserts breaking up what Vi assumed was once fertile farmland. An ox rotted where it fell, eye-sockets oozing white.
“Raspian’s power grows,” Taavin said, giving voice to their shared thought.
“How much longer do you think the world has?” Vi wondered aloud, gripping the strap attached to the scythe.
“Not long enough.”
When they arrived in the town, there was no main gate to enter Toris. The buildings crept up from the earth. Most of the construction was waddle and daub, an ashy clay the same color as the raw earth of the central town square. By all appearances, it was not a wealthy place—but a few buildings boasted shingled roofs or intricately decorated glass in their windows. Where would money like that come from in a place like this?Nowhere good, Vi thought wryly.
“Good luck,” Taavin whispered. “I’ll keep you in sight. Stick to the plan.”
“I will, and good luck to you too,” she breathed back, before they promptly headed in opposite directions. Taavin wandered off to the side and Vi continued along the town square until it evolved into a market that extended right down to the docks.
Here, Vi could appreciate the majesty of Norin.
There were only two main docks and neither could tie up anything larger than a medium-sized vessel. The larger ones were anchored in the sheltered bay formed by the cliff sides, or further still, out at sea. Only dinghies were tied up at the docks.
It seemed incredibly… small. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but after the greatest port in the world, followed by a magical city of twilight, Toris seemed lackluster. Though Vi supposed there were average or below-average towns everywhere, no matter how fantastical certain elements of the world were.
“Don’t just stop in the road, girl.” A man pushing a wheelbarrow laden with feed veered around her. “Daydreamin’ kids.”
Vi quickly stepped to the side and mumbled an apology. She positioned herself by the side of a building where she could see the whole market. She scanned the seabirds on the docks and the silhouettes against the late afternoon sky, looking for Arwin or Fallor, but Vi saw neither. Not that Vi could tell Arwin apart from a normal bird. The oil-slick plumage of the nightwisp was common in this region of Meru.
She settled into Step One of the plan: observe and be noticed.
After an hour of normalcy, Vi debated if she should move elsewhere in the town. She’d taken two laps around the market trying to make herself visible, and was just about to wander the docks when the sound of shouting filled the air.
Vi glanced over her shoulder and into the small store she’d been passing. Two men argued within, nearly coming to blows. The larger of the two scooped the smaller by the collar, pushing him out.
