My lips twist in a cruel smile. “Which means Rihad, for all his great powers, remains a fool. But Rihad hurt you. Why?”
“I have no such value to him, and he needed an example.” She waves a tired hand. “Rihad demanded to know how I came to be banded as a woman, and I told him it was through the dark arts.”
I snort. “Well, that had to give him pause.”
“Not enough. He had me forcibly unbanded and scorched with fire—I think he believed he would get my band himself, but it disappeared the moment it slid from my arm. I wasthrown into a cell until I could be killed with due dishonor. Fortunately, I still have some friends in the First House, and I made my escape easily enough, hoping to live long enough to see him dead. But I haven’t been idle—my spies remain loyal too, and they have shared the predicament facing Rihad now. The Imperial army, this delegation you see here, is just an advance party to scout out our loyalty to the Imperium. If they don’t return with a positive report, more soldiers will come. Even if they do return with a positive report, our time as a Protectorate is likely coming to an end. It’s apparently been too long since we have impressed the Imperium with the dangers we’re keeping away from them.”
“So Rihad needs an attack that he can protect everyone from, doesn’t he?” I can see it now, a solution that’s at once elegant and brutal. “And since he’s had the crown of wings all this time, he can summon the skrill at will. He’s planning another attack here today.”
She nods. “He announced that there would be a demonstration to honor our guests, and he brought everyone here—along with the house lords from the western borders and Nazar. So far, the soldiers of the Imperium have been treated with absolute respect. Now, I fear they’ll all die—the delegation, the house lords, Nazar.”
“And Gent?”
She grimaces. “Rihad still can’t summon his Divh, but once he subdued Gent, he seemed to stop trying. I think—I think he’s lost connection to his Divh entirely.”
“Yeah, I bet he has,” I mutter, thinking about the crown on his head. Miriam doesn’t know that I freed Zhang…I wonder if Rihad does. “But Rihad brought Gent here, what—to be sacrificed? He’sbleeding. He’s been hurt!”
“He’ll unleash him if the skrill get out of hand, I suspect.” She sighs. “Like I said, Lemille can’t see your Divh, but I can.And I could see what Rihad’s soldiers did to him, weakening him through blood loss and holding him in place with spelled chains. It’s an abomination, but…Gent did let it happen, I think. He didn’t fight it.”
I grimace, my heart quailing in my chest. Did he think I broke my connection with him willingly? Does he think I abandoned him?
These thoughts fracture as Miriam fixes her bloodshot eyes on me again. “Rihad did the same to Szonja, and she was able to break her bonds. Maybe you can help Gent break free?”
“I…I don’t think so. But maybe.” I shove a hand through my hair, but my words are only meant to soothe Miriam, not because I believe them. “Is there anything else I should know before we…do something? Because we can’t let this continue, Miriam. We can’t let Rihad do anything more.”
She nods. “Apparently, when the Imperator leveled the order for all Divhs to be severed from their warriors outside the Protectorate, we received orders too—we are now only able to summon the Divhs for the Tournament of Gold. So, Rihad told the head of their delegation that, by order of the Imperator, he couldn’t summon the Divhs otherwise unless we needed them in true battle. I think he’s got several warriors planted in this crowd for that purpose, depending on what happens with the skrill.”
“That’s it?” I ask roughly. “That’s his plan?”
She gives me a wry smile. “That’s it.”
“Then we act.” I shake my head firmly and hold her gaze. “Miriam, Nazar was right. You may not have been born a warrior, and you may not have been trained as one, but you have become one, nonetheless. And we need all the fighters we can get.”
I hold out my left hand to her. Her gaze drops to my bicep where my sentient band is already alive with movement beneath my sleeve, and she physically recoils—but for only a step. Thenshe raises her bloodied, shaking left arm, and puts her hand in mine.
The band bursts to life around my arm, and the familiar searing pain rips down my forearm and palm, then leaps onto her wrist. Miriam gasps and staggers, but her eyes are steady on mine, her mouth breaking into a smile so full of wonder that my own heart surges with joy.
“Kreya,” she whispers, but I place a firm hand on her shoulder, holding her in place.
“We will need her—and we’ll need every Divh she can summon to come with her, across the Blessed Plane. I can’t summon Gent anymore, but you—Nazar—even the western lords…I can connect to you. And together, we will fight.”
She nods and I grimace, hearing an answer that Fortiss gave me so long ago it seems to be another lifetime.
Together, we cannot fail.
But even as I think those words, a cloud passes over the sun, thick enough that even with the searing heat of Miriam’s band still sizzling on my skin, it feels like we have entered into a chilling frost. I stumble away from her as she clutches her cloak around her again, both of us peering up to the sky.
All the breath dies in my throat.
The cloud that covers the sun is a writhing, twisting mass.
Though my own warriors still haven’t answered my call, the skrill have answered Rihad’s. And now they’re here…
In broad daylight.
Chapter 47
“To Safety! To Trilion!” Rihad’s roar is so loud, I practically vibrate with it, and this time I know for sure that it’s not simply the weight of his voice carrying forth, but the amplification of dark magic.
