‘The few we had fled to the docks at the first sign of trouble,’ Narra says. ‘They could smell mischief in the air.’
‘I cast a protective circle around the inn,’ Ligaya says quietly. ‘It will hold for a time, and keep out anyone – or anything – unwanted, but our magic isn’t strong enough.’
‘What do you mean?’ Isagani asks nervously.
Ligaya looks to Morna. ‘We barely made it here from the shop. It’s chaos out there; it doesn’t feel safe.’
‘Safe?’ I repeat, incredulous. ‘If magic was good for something, we wouldn’t be in this mess.’
Ligaya cuts me a look. ‘We don’t have anything else to give.’
‘What happened to you two?’ Morna asks, biting her lip.
Isagani sits mute and hollow-eyed. There are some things that can’t be told, but I try my best to put our ordeal into words. I look at the dark circles under their eyes and their hair matted with sweat. Holy Aistra, what we’ve put our children through.
‘Then Paranish will be aligned now, right?’ Ligaya asks, once my tale is concluded. ‘Everything should return to balance now the royals are dead.’
‘I don’t know for sure they’re dead.’
Narra sighs. ‘Even if the royals are dead, that doesn’t mean something good will take their place,’ she says, chewing her lip in consternation. ‘And the land remembers our abuse. The world won’t return to harmony in an instant. It feels like a shift, an awakening of something.’
Morna gets up from her chair abruptly, looking uncomfortable. ‘We’re going to need more tea,’ she says.
Ligaya and Narra look furtively at each other.
‘What’s going on?’ I ask. Their disturbance is more personal, something unspoken. ‘What happened?’
Morna pauses at the doorway. ‘It’s my fault,’ she admits, turning. ‘I was an informant for the Bastion.’
I start up from my seat. ‘What the actual fuck?’
‘It’s all right,’ Ligaya insists, trying to coax me down. ‘She told us everything. And she’s agreed to a binding spell.’
‘Ris found me out and insisted I tell Ligaya and Narra.’
‘Which she did,’ Narra admitted. ‘It’s been a hard few months for us all.’
Isagani looks terrified. I stare at them and then back at Narra. ‘Are we... safe here? Can we even trust them?’
‘You have no threat from me, I swear,’ Morna says. ‘I didn’t fully understand what I was doing. It was just an exchange of information.’
‘What did they give you?’ I ask, swallowing hard.
‘It seems so trivial now. Books, maps, copies of documents.’
‘You’ve never seen the queen, have you?’ Isagani asks suddenly, their pupils blown.
Morna shakes her head.
‘I have,’ they say. ‘I’ve seen what she can do. Not just to the gifted, but to everyone.’
‘She means to consume the dead,’ I whisper.
Ligaya gasps and makes the sign of the circle around her.
‘You knew she was taking children from their families,’ Isagani shouts. ‘And you helped her. You pointed them out for her.’
Morna is sobbing, shoulders heaving, breaths coming in shallow gasps. Ligaya tries to comfort her.
