The grief could no longer be contained. People began weeping, her mother among them.
‘The meat will come,’ the king said. ‘The crops will come. The rain cannot fall forever. In the meantime, remember your purpose,yourcontribution. Remember those outside of these walls with nothing left.’
The tears turned into anger. Not surprising. Seeing loved ones strung up for desperate acts was a special kind of torture.
‘They deserve a burial!’ one man shouted, pushing forwards. He must have crossed an invisible line, because two defenders immediately stepped up to stop him.
‘They’re not criminals,’ another shouted. ‘Youare!’
A simple nod from Commander Wright had two more defenders marching into the crowd.
‘You need to go,’ Blake said, turning to Lyndal. ‘Now.’ Her eyes returned to Kingsley, trying to reconcile that sight with the person she had raced through the trees just days earlier.
Why did she not make him stay? If she had, he would be standing in the crowd with them.
‘We need to find Eda,’ Lyndal said. ‘The crowd is turning.’
Candace’s legs were shaking, her breaths coming in gasps as she stared down at the ground. Their father’s death had nearly broken her. The death of her only son would surely finish the job.
‘You go,’ Blake told Lyndal. ‘I’ll find her.’
Lyndal gathered their mother close and began pushing her way through the increasingly rowdy crowd.
Blake turned at the sound of the portcullis rising and watched as the king and princes retreated behind the safety of the wall. The defenders had formed a line so straight she wondered how they had found the opportunity to line up their feet. Their weapons were drawn now. They were ready to restore order.
‘Eda!’ Blake shouted, looking around for her. The man next to her bumped into her, sending her staggering forwards. She remained upright.
Straightening, she spotted Eda on theother sideof the defenders. Blake froze. Her sister had somehow slipped past the guards and was now standing beneath Kingsley’s corpse.
Blake’s feet were moving then, eyes fixed on the guards atop the wall whose arrows were pointed at the crowd. She knew it was only a matter of time before they spotted Eda below them. As Blake split from the crowd, she was forced to pull up when she met the tip of a sword. Her gaze travelled along the steel blade and up one heavily muscled arm. Her eyes met Commander Wright’s. He retracted his weapon one inch.
‘Do you have a death wish?’ he hissed. ‘Move back.’
She shook her head. ‘I need to get my sister.’ She looked past him to the wall. ‘Please. They’ll shoot her.’
The commander glanced over his shoulder to where Eda was now scaling the wall with a blade wedged between her teeth.
‘She just wants to cut him down,’ Blake said.
He grunted. ‘That really your sister?’
She swallowed. ‘She’s harmless.’ Not entirely true. She was a feral cat when cornered. ‘She’s mute and grieving.’ Eda’s muteness was irrelevant, but Blake threw it out there in case it helped the cause.
‘If I let you pass, they’ll shootyou.’
‘I’m fast.’
‘Faster than an arrow?’
The crowd surged forward, almost pushing her into the commander’s blade. He cursed as he eased his sword back from her.
‘Do not move from this spot. Not one inch. Hear me?’
She nodded.
He sheathed his sword. ‘Close the gap,’ he instructed the men on either side of him. He stepped back, the defenders instantly filling the space where he had been.
Blake had no choice but to trust him. The fact that he had spared her life a few days earlier helped. She remained where she was, hand in her pocket, wrapped around the handle of her knife. She pushed up on her toes, glimpsing her sister over the men’s shoulders.
