“We can use the sewers,” Venick said, turning from one side street down another. He glanced up in dismay to see the glow of lanterns lighting from behind curtained windows, citizens roused by the sound of the bells. “There are grates along the river wall, entry points. Do you remember them?”
Ellina matched his pace. Her eyes flashed as they locked on his. “And they lead out?”
“Yes.” Gods, let that be true.
“Wait.” Dourin moved to block them. “Ellina.” His face was ghostly-white, his eyes two dark holes. “How do you—this could be a trap. How can we be certain he is telling the truth?”
Venick thought he’d begun to learn all of Ellina’s faces. The way her eyes would narrow when she was about to argue, the proud set to her jaw, the way she tried and failed to hide her thoughts. But the look on her face then was nothing Venick recognized. It was hard and soft at once. Honest, which she wasn’t usually, not with him.
She met Venick’s eye and gave her answer. “Beuro en imastha.” Because I trust him.
This time, there was no mistaking what language she spoke.
TEN
Ellina stared at the rush of water below. It roiled red and brown, the waves lulling up the seawall. The smell of it touched her nose, a smell she had not noticed the first time, had not had time to notice. But she noticed now.
The human—Venick—stood to her left, Dourin to her right. If Dourin was nervous, he did not show it. Neither did she. She schooled her face into calm indifference, as if the water did not terrify her, as if she was not haunted by visions of drowning, washed ashore pale and swollen, her lungs filled with water. As if that image was not overwhelming her thoughts now.
She felt Venick’s eyes on her and let out a breath. It did not matter what she did or did not hide. He knew. He had known the first time, too, that she could not swim, that she was afraid. It should bother her how well this human could read elves. How well he could readher. But she only listened to his low reassurances and tried to stay calm.We’ll use the ladder. I’ll be right here, Ellina. It won’t be like last time, you won’t go under.
But how could he be sure?
Because I trust him.
Ellina watched the water. It churned darkly. Her thoughts did. Had Dourin asked her this morning, she would have answered differently. Ellina trusted no one save Dourin and her eldest sister. Trust was something to be guarded, to cherish, but Ellina had spoken those words in a language that did not allow lies. Theymustbe true.
They could not be.
Could they?
She glanced sideways and caught a glimpse of winter eyes. Venick was watching her. Patient. Too patient, given the precariousness of their position: butted up against the river, out in the open. She might have counted on a sharp word from Dourin—You need a push?—to get her moving, but Dourin had gone silent and dark by her side. That was resentment.
Because I trust him.
“Ellina.” Venick’s voice was controlled. “We have to go.”
“I—” She blinked back down at the water. She gripped her sword’s hilt hard enough to hurt. And again, the vision of drowning. She saw herself swallowed up by the river. Glassy eyes, blue lips.
If you slip, I will come for you, Venick had said to her. Dourin scoffed at that.
She is not a maiden in need of saving.
Dourin was right to resent her. He was her oldest and closest friend. They had joined the legion together, trained and traveled and fought together. Back in the forest, Ellina had told no one her true plan but him, and even then, she had not told him everything.
I am taking the human to Kenath, she had said.Raffan has agreed to give me until first moon to question him, but I—will be late. I will catch up with you and the others after. Do not wait for me.
She had trusted Dourin not to ask for details. He had not. Had instead chosen to risk himself to come for her and her unknown mission. And now she had pulled rank on him, shoved the knife deeper by putting him second. To ahuman.
“Ellina,” Venick said again. His fingers brushed her back. Lightly, almost not a touch at all. She did not look at him. Could not. She clenched her sword harder to intensify the pain, to try and distract herself from the human and the water andeverything.
She could hear the clatter of boots over the high chime of the alarm bells. The telltale hiss of a sword drawn. It seemed impossible that they had not yet been spotted. If she did not move soon, they would be. Her heart was a bird in flight. It fluttered in her chest. She ground her teeth and urged it toquit. She was a legionnaire, highborn, a warrior. She would not be disarmed by this human, or Dourin, or the coming guards, orwater.
She spun and lowered herself down the ladder’s first rung.
Then the next.
Then another, until she was even with the sewage grate’s wide bars. The water lapped at her ankles. She stared into the black tunnel and did not think of becoming trapped inside. Did not think of the water rising to take her. She clutched the ladder tightly with one hand as she reached out the other to catch the sewer’s metal grate. A deep breath. Another.
