I dropped my chin, drawing my face a bit closer to hers.I have no people. Only duty.
“Must be lonely.” Without another word, Lyra scooted down two seats.
I folded my arms over my chest, ignoring the aggravating desire to take the chair at her side for the rest of the revel.
On the last beat of the drum, a heavy thud pounded on the door to the tavern. The crowd hushed when it came again, like someone tossing themselves over and over against the wood.
The tavern matron bustled across the room and flung open the door, mouth opened to berate the one who’d disturbed the tune,but she screamed when a young Stav Guard staggered inside, blood dripping down his lips.
His eyes were wild, unfocused, but his words were clear. “Ravagers…attacking at the gates.”
The Stav fell facedown on the floorboards, and let out a final, gurgling breath.
22
Lyra
Two hands took hold ofmy shoulders before my mind could even fathom what had happened.
Roark ripped me from the seat, knocking the table filled with horns, and shoved me toward the back door of the tavern. His gestures were collected, calm. But I did not need his voice to know he was barking commands at the Stav Guard.
I did not need to hear him to feel the way he demanded I be taken out of sight at once.
The Sentry drew his sword. He did not look at me before careening into the frantic mess of the crowd trying to flee from the fallen guard.
A ram’s horn bellowed and the tavern went hauntingly still.
My shoulders rose and fell in heavy breaths.
“To the gates!” Baldur the Fox stepped across the threshold, not sparing a single glance at the dead Stav beneath his boots.
At once, the Stav Guard maneuvered into organized lines—axes, blades, bows—ready to defend the walls of Stonegate.
“Melder Bien, this way. Hurry now.” The Stav left to look out for me urged me into the back rooms of the tavern.
There, we were met with another battle.
“I will defend these walls as well as you.” Prince Thane was surrounded by a trio of guards, but his ire was pinned on the cowled face of his Sentry.
Roark gestured wildly at the prince and shoved—shoved his palms—against the prince’s chest when Thane tried to follow.
“Roark,” Thane shouted, but the three guards stepped in front of the prince in the same moment Roark disappeared into the main room of the tavern. Thane’s eyes flashed with heady rage at the guards. “Your orders come from the royal house, not the Sentry.”
“Apologies, my prince. Not when the royal has a desire to get his throat slit.”
The prince cursed and spun around. His features were contorted in unmanaged anger until he caught sight of me. “Lyra.”
Without a thought, I reached for the arm of the prince. “What’s happening?”
“Damn ravagers. They’ve been getting bolder in recent seasons.” The prince’s jaw worked. “But I fear rumors might’ve reached them, and they are beginning their retaliations.”
For me. Because Stonegate took me, just like the night I lost my past, blood would spill.
I swallowed through a scratch in my throat and tightened my grip on the prince’s arm. “Then I hate to tell you, my prince, but I agree with the Sentry and you must get into the palace.”
Thane returned a narrow look. “I’ll never forgive you for saying that.”
“I’ve been banished too.”
