I turned to the large, scarred man. There was evidence of years of torture on his skin.
“I have things that need to be done.”
Vox grunted. “Will you run back to my father?”
Malak’s jaw tensed. “Only to carve out his heart.”
Vox looked at Lierick, who was staring intently at the man. “He means it.”
“So be it.” Vox stepped closer, not reacting when Powell and Celis leaned further away, as if the distance would protect them. He squatted in front of Malak, his eyes burning. “Yaron is dead. If revenge is what you’re after, he is fish food at the bottom of this very lake.”
Malak shuddered, and I could almost see the relief that the monster was gone.
Vox dropped his voice even lower. “I am going to excise the rot from our Line, one person at a time if I have to—this I swear to you.”
Nodding jerkily, Malak shrunk back into himself. “There are still things I need to do. People who need to die.”
“Then may you become the nightmare who haunts their every waking moment,” Vox said softly, before he turned and climbed back up on deck.
We made Malak a pack with food, a waterskin, money, and spare clothes. There was enough there to start a new life, if that was what he wanted, or to fuel a vendetta.
After mooring on a rundown dock, we tiptoed across the rotted boards. The hounds went first, tired of being stuck on a boat. Epsy seemed content to wrap himself around my neck like a scarf, and I could already feel the icy breeze coming down from the mountains up north.
The winds of home.
Celis was dressed in some of my clothes, but we hadn’t expected her, so between us, there wasn’t enough to truly stay warm. We’d have to pick up some more coats in the next town.
I turned back to the lake. Even from here, I could see the small cloud of smoke that was rising from the fiery wreck of Yaron Vylan’s yacht.
Malak cleared his throat. “The Baron is going to come for you,” he told Vox in a hoarse voice, damaged from who-knows-what tortures.
Vox shrugged. “I hope he does. I’ll send him down to reunite with his firstborn.”
Malak nodded, his face conflicted. “It won’t be that easy. The Court, his counsel…” The First Line man trailed off, and he didn’t have to say more. They were used to being in power, so even if the Baron was gone, they’d likely continue to fight.
Malak didn’t know our secrets, not really. He didn’t know we had the Second Line, though he may have suspected that we had the Third, due to Hayle’s presence, and probably the Fifth, considering we’d rescued Powell.
It didn’t seem like enough, but it would be. I’d make it so.
“Then I’ll die trying and be the end of my Goddess-forsaken Line,” Vox told him softly. “Either way, their reign is over.”
Throat bobbing, Malak knelt in front of Vox. “Then I pledge myself to the true Baron of the First Line. I’ll stand in your army when the time comes.”
Vox didn’t deny him, didn’t deny he would be Baron, and we’d all come to the same silent conclusion. Vox might not want to be Baron, but he was our only hope.
“I thank you for your fealty, but I hope it doesn’t come to war, Malak. I hope you get a life of peace from here on out.”
Standing, Malak bowed his head. “There is no peace for men like us.” He nodded to the rest of us. He turned south, and we watched him walk along the lake’s edge until he disappeared into the darkness of the early morning.
Hayle came closer, wrapping an arm around my chilled shoulders. “We should go. I’d like to be at the base of the Vale Stairs before breakfast.”
The Vale Stairs weren’t actually stairs. They were a cliff face of huge, hexagonal pillars that shot up into the sky. They looked like large, smooth plinths, somehow both majestic and foreboding, and cut off the South of Ebrus from my home in the North, acting like the gates to the Ninth Line Barony. It would be impossible to march an army over them, but if you knew the way, you could wind your way up, giant step by giant step, until you reached the top. It would take all day, but it would be quicker and safer than going around across the lake, then up the border between the First Line and the Ninth Line.
We’d swaddled Celis’s feet in bandages and thick socks, but still, one of us would have to carry her the whole way. Vox could have floated her along behind us without much trouble, but being held in First Line magic would be too much for her.
Iker volunteered to go first, and he said something softly to the girl as squatted down beside her. She gingerly climbed onto his back, Powell helping her with gentle hands. She clung to Iker’s neck, though her whole body was stiff.
She was brave and strong. I hope she held onto that strength, because she’d need it.
