Eira wondered if it would feel like this to her when—ifshe returned. She’d been an outsider to begin with. The woman she was now was certain to fit in even less. She’d told her parents that she would go back when she was able, and would visit them when she did. But even only a few days after that conversation, it felt like a lie.
“But I think there is a different feeling to willing patriotism versus…whatever this is,” Cullen murmured.
What was “willing” when it came to patriotism? Could you tell if it was engrained in you from your first breath? She wanted to ask, but didn’t. This wasn’t the time nor place for that debate. The line between pride and mindless following blurred so quickly, especially when the truth was kept under lock and key and sword-point.
Nestled at the heart of the city was a large, official-looking building. Rows of knights were positioned before it along theraised walkway that encircled it. A single stairway was the only entry or exit. Its towering walls were even more fortified than any of the other buildings.
A market had been set up in the square before it, offering Eira and Cullen the opportunity to covertly watch the comings and goings of the knights for nearly an hour as they milled about. Most of the knights looked on at the citizenry with dull, detached gazes.
“I don’t see an opening,” Eira whispered, fearing that they were now just wasting time. “We’re going to have to find another way.”
“I could create a distraction,” he offered. “Lure the knights away. You illusion us, we slip through.”
It was a bit of a haphazard plan, but better than the alternative of continuing to meander.
“This way.” Eira guided them through the markets and into a sheltered alcove. Looking around, she made sure no one’s attention was turned their way and drew an illusion over them. A thin layer of magic coated them like frost glistening on their shoulders. Eira wove the power tightly into place, keeping it close. “Ready.”
Cullen closed his eyes and Eira could feel the surge in his power. In response, a gale swept across the city. It turned tents in the market into sailcloths, flipping them. Wares were sent scattering. Dust from the fields and streets was blown into people’s eyes. Shouts and commotion rose as people scrambled to collect their things.
Another burst of power. One man was sent toppling into another. Cullen repeated the process, sending one, two more off-balance.
The third had the desired effect.
The man who’d been nearly fallen on rose with a shout. Things escalated quickly. Chaos broke free.
Eira took their chance, moving at the same time the knights did. Her hand clutched tight with Cullen’s, they darted along the fronts of the buildings that lined the square. Glancing over her shoulder, Eira met Cullen’s eyes. A shimmering haze surrounded the edges of his face, the only tell of the illusion that she wove around him.
“Wind under our feet,” Eira said, not worrying too much for who might hear. There was enough noise in the market as it was. The likelihood of someone hearing and placing the sound was slim.
Cullen’s reply was a nod, his attention shifting to the building before them. Eira had gone for the far corner instead of the main stair at the front. The knights in the middle were the first to respond to the fighting that had broken out, the others shifting down.
At the wall, Eira leapt and a surge of wind propelled her upward. Her stomach shot into her throat as weightlessness made her head spin. She inhaled sharply and the rogue thought of what it might be like to soar as free as a bird crossed her mind. A question for Cullen, someday in the future.
They landed gently on the stone walkway, the closest knight a few paces ahead.
Eira kept moving, slower now, ensuring their footfalls didn’t give them away. Her lungs burned as she fought her hasty breaths, forcing them to be slow and shallow, even when it caused lightheadedness.
Open the doors, her heart begged,open the doors, she wanted to scream. There were no windows that they had seen. This was the only entrance in and out and they’d yet to catch a knight rotation. For all she knew, the knights didn’t even come from this central building whenever they did change out.
Without warning, the doors burst open. Eira skidded to a halt, slamming herself, and Cullen, against the wall. A group ofknights rushed out around a central figure that held a flashfire aloft.
An explosion rung out over the city as he flicked his finger over the triggering mechanism.
“We will have order,” he boomed across the square.
Eira’s heart thundered with the echo of the flashfire. A cold sweat drenched her from head to toe, every muscle in her body tense. With every blink, she was on the walkway one second, back at the mines the next. The sulfuric smell of the flash bead combining with the sizzle of magic across her flesh made her nauseous.
End him. Have your vengeance, a voice whispered. Eira didn’t know who it belonged to. Ulvarth? Noelle? Herself?
A squeeze on her fingers ripped Eira back to the present. She turned to Cullen, who gave her a pointed stare. They shared a thousand unspoken words. He’d seen her struggle. He knew. Just as well as they both knew this wasn’t the moment to give in to her ghosts, or her most murderous impulses.
Get in. Get out. Keep everyone safe. Accomplish your mission and be stronger for it. Eira reminded herself that those things were all that mattered.
Side-stepping around the group of knights that surrounded the man in charge, they slipped through the entry and emerged into a marble-clad, empty hall. Four doors were on either side of them, two in the back. At the center of the ostentatious room was a sculpture of the eternal serpent of Carsovia, cast entirely in gold, gleaming ominously in the sunlight that streamed through a skylight above.
The room was, otherwise, empty of all else—people included. But she doubted it would be for long. The commotion in the market was going to be quelled in only a few minutes.
“Where to?” Cullen breathed. He must be thinking the same thing she was.
