“I haven’t. I won’t.” She set a palm to his chest, felt his furiously pounding heart. Her idea scared him as much as it scared her, and she had not even told him what it was yet.
“This could be a trap,” she began. “Farah could have sent Raffan; we have no proof of his loyalties. They could be trying to get me to go to Revalti, where they could capture me, and then use meto capture you.But we know from prior reports that Farah hasbeen gathering black powder. I also believe that Raffan’s reasons for coming were honest. He…admitted some things to me. Things that he regrets. And he risked his life to deliver his warning—he knew we would take him prisoner, yet he came anyway.”
Venick’s expression morphed into something resolute. “If what Raffan says is true, and Farah is hiding out at Revalti Manor, I’ll lead a team there. We’ll infiltrate the building and assassinate her.”
“Revalti is a fortress. Farah will be buried deep inside, surrounded by guards. You will never find her without her consent, and even if you did, you would not make it out alive. But we do not have to force our way in. I will do as Raffan suggested—I will request tospeak with my sister.”
Venick drew back. “You’ll agree to surrender?”
“No,” Ellina replied. “I have a better idea.”
THIRTY-TWO
The following morning, Venick sat on a stool in Ellina’s room, methodically tearing one of Erol’s minceflesh flyers into tiny pieces. He wasn’t usually one to waste supplies, and he had nothing against the flyer, but if he didn’t do somethingwith his hands, he would rip out his own hair.
Ellina, who sat at a nearby writing table, glanced up. Lifted a brow.
Venick set the mangled flyer aside. One, two, three seconds before he picked it up again. Kept at his tearing.
Ellina’s hands were busy, too, but unlike his, hers were steady. She dipped the nib of her quill into a little jar of ink, continuing her letter where she had left off.
“Ellina.”
“Hmm?”
“I’m worried Farah won’t accept your request.”
“She will.”
“Even if she does, she could do so with other intentions in mind. She could still contrive a trap.”
“That is possible, yes.”
“If you’re wrong about this—”
“I’m not.”
“But you could be.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You’re going to get yourself hurt. Your sister is going to hurt you.”
Ellina blew on the parchment, then rolled it into a small tube, which she secured to the leg of a waiting messenger hawk. The hawk was not a currigon. It was smaller, a western species commonly used by mountain nomads. She pushed open the window and set the bird aflight.
“No,” Ellina said, “she won’t.”
???
Venick smelled the woody scent of therezahein Dourin’s glass before he saw the elf enter his room. The window at Venick’s back showed a golden sun setting over the ridgeline of roofs, the pink and gold clouds like a swath of tiger stripes.
“We have a problem,” Dourin said. The glass in his hand was down to its ice, as if Dourin had come straight from whatever he was doing and hadn’t thought to set it down. “The Dark Army is on its way.”
“What, here?”
“They have been spotted beyond Heartshire Bay, heading east.”
“That’s not possible. We wiped out half their ranks in Hurendue, and most of their supplies. How are they already attacking again?”
