That could mean only one thing: something had breached the wards, or at least tried to.
The next instant, I was in the air, Brigid transforming just behind me. The swift eruption of her familiar gray-and-white feathers turned my stomach a little. It had happened soquickly.I knew very well, of course, that the Warden had the ability to surveil far beyond the priory. Whenever a Rose in her human form encountered danger, she transformed not long after.
But suddenly I couldn’t shake the disturbing thought that the Warden was watching us far more closely than I’d realized. Was it possible she’d even spied on Gareth and me? A wild part of me hoped she had. Let her see how little we care about what she did to me. Let her witness our joy and seethe.
I shoved thoughts of the Warden aside as Brigid and I landed at the perimeter a few seconds later.
“What’s happened?” I demanded.
A group of six Lower Army soldiers were struggling to get hold of something writhing in the dirt. One of them looked over his shoulder in panic.
“It’s a man, my lady!” he cried. “Somehow he broke through the wards!”
“Somehow?” The man on the ground was tall, well built. Helaughed through hysterical tears. “Somehow?Can’t you see what’s happening right before your eyes?”
The sound of his voice unnerved me. One moment it seemed entirely human; the next, it was like two different voices had folded messily into one.
I crouched beside him and easily pinned his flailing arms to the ground. At my touch, something flickered in his wide, wet eyes, and he fell still.
“Who are you?” he whispered.
I inspected him quickly. Lacerations marred his dark brown skin. He had recently been bound; open sores encircled his wrists, ankles, and neck.
And the blood that glimmered there had a golden sheen.
My heart pounding, I kept my face impassive. “You first,” I told him.
He blinked up at me, eerily calm. Then his face shifted, and a flicker of amber light flared to life in his eyes.
“I am Caiathos,” he said, in a deep, steady voice that seemed too grand even for his impressive stature. It carried the weight of ages. It reminded me of my mother when she’d come to Gareth and me during our flight from Falkeron—armor and bone, brilliant jewels and gliding footsteps that spanned miles.
“Kilraith is coming,” the man claiming to be Caiathos continued. “In fact, he’s right behind me.”
Chapter 38
Icy dread ripped through my body, throwing all my senses into high alert. Brigid tensed beside me, and one of the Lower Army guards hovering nearby muttered shakily, “Gods unmade…”
I stared hard at Caiathos. His calm face was beginning to twitch. That godly light in his eyes was gone, but when I looked at his wounds more closely, I saw the telltale glimmer of gold once more.
“I’m going to need more information,” I told him. “Has he been holding you captive? How did you escape him?”
He stared at me for another beat, his gaze darting across my face, and then his body jerked violently, his expression fell to pieces, and he began to scream.
“He’s coming from the trees!” he cried, thrashing anew. “He’s coming from the sky! You’re not ready, you don’tunderstand!”
Suddenly, with a thunderous crash, angry orange light burst across the sky. We all looked up. My skin prickled from the air’s sudden volcanic charge.
Lightning slashed through the woodlands a few hundred yards beyond our perimeter. Every single one of the trees exploded in a quick chain reaction, and a dozen sizzling rings of light opened among theruins like fiery mouths. The same thing was happening above the nearest canyon cliffs—lightning tearing holes in the sky.Portals, I realized with horror. Like greenways, but anchored to the air instead of foliage.
And out of them poured Kilraith’s army.
A vanguard of avian chimaera cascaded out of the sky. From the destroyed woodlands hurtled a line of terrestrial ones—dozens of them,hundreds. Wave after wave, letting out a cacophony of bestial sound, all of them charging straight for us.
I threw the screaming Caiathos over my shoulder, ordered Freyda to stay with Brigid, to keep her safe, and then shouted at Brigid herself, “Tell them to reinforce the wards!”
With that, I launched into the air and flew up the lawn toward the house. Our defenses surged into action; within seconds, the grounds teemed with officers shouting commands, soldiers scrambling for their weapons. Something crashed behind me with a thunderous boom. The entire shell of ward magic juddered, its light shifting rapidly between cool blue and seething orange.
I landed on the house’s front steps and looked back.
