And only more to come.
* * *
After dinner, I left Res asleep beside Caylus as he stroked the crow’s head and followed the winding stone path down to the cells, a slice of chocolate cake in hand. My conversations with Elko and Auma turned over in my head as I spiraled back through memories in Illucia. Memories of Ericen fighting Razel in my place, of him letting me fill a box with pastries to the brim, of him standing in the stables, his forehead pressed against the night-black face of his stallion, Callo.
Whatever everyone else believed, Ericen was not my enemy. I was sure of it.
And now, surrounded by my allies in celebration, I’d felt like something was missing. Someone. I wanted Ericen on my side,bymy side, in moments like these and through whatever we faced next.
I’d just reached the plateau below and started for the cells when a searing orange light washed over the courtyard. Someone screamed, and I whirled, dropping the plate as my hand went for my belt knife.
Atop the highest plateau beside the main complex, fire cut across the grass, eating its way through plants and wood and stone alike with an unnatural ferocity.
I felt Res come alive in a panic. Fear thundered through our bond as he sought me.
Armor up!I screamed down the cord even as I sprinted back up the stairs. Monks swarmed alongside me as council members and dinner guests rushed past us away from the fire.
The flames licked along the outermost building, the stone crumbling like paper into ash. It was the same as the fire that’d burned Cardail, the same that’d torn through Aris on Ronoch.
The dining corridor was in chaos. Whoever had started the fire hadn’t come alone. Elkona and Samra dueled someone, Auma engaged with another alongside Kiva. Estrel and Res fought beside each other, his metal wings flashing like knives as they cut and slammed into bodies. Two monks rushed the king and queen inside.
I recognized these people. They had kingfisher tattoos on their arms.
These were Malkin’s mercenaries.
Rain, Res.We needed those fires out.
Res dove forward, slamming his head into a mercenary and knocking him hard into a pillar at his back. His head came away bloody as he crumpled to the ground. The crow was beside me the next moment as clouds swallowed the starlight.
Rain fell in a downpour over the flames, hissing as it struck. Then something flashed at the corner of my eye. The scream had no sooner formed in my throat than it died as the arrow plunked harmlessly off Res’s armored body. The archer who’d fired it gaped at the uninjured crow. Then I was beside her, drawing a line up the side of her arm with my knife. She dropped the bow with a yell, stumbling back—and straight into Elko’s incoming attack.
The archer dropped, and for an instant, I stared at the blood blooming at her side where Elko’s moonblade had slashed deep, at the yawning emptiness in her green eyes. Then someone jostled me from behind. I lurched forward, seizing the bow from the ground and a handful of arrows, and came up beside Elko.
“Have you seen Caylus?” I asked.
She deflected a knife strike. Then a metal wing curled around us, blocking a sword a second before Res slammed the mercenary back.
“Toward the fire!” Elko yelled. Then she was at Auma’s side.
Res and I pushed toward the edge of the corridor where the flames had been reduced to wisps. A man stumbled back, clutching his jaw. Behind him, Caylus spun, driving his elbow into a second attacker’s sternum.
Then something snapped through the air. It struck Caylus in the back, sending him to his knees with a cry. A line of red traced down his exposed skin.
Malkin stepped forward. I nearly stumbled as I stopped running. He couldn’t be alive—I’d seen the ocean take him.
The copper-haired crime lord grinned down at Caylus with all the menace of a rabid wolf. He raised his whip.
In a breath, the scene played out before me: the opening between Caylus and one of the men as I nocked my arrow; the choice between putting an arrow in Malkin’s leg or in his chest; the reminder that my mercy was what had brought Malkin here. What had caused this battle to begin with.
I would not make that mistake again.
I loosed. The arrow slammed into Malkin’s chest. He dropped to the ground, his men turning too late to help him. Caylus drove his fist into one’s nose, breaking it. Then two monks were there, detaining them, and the last of the fire flickered and died.
Caylus stood panting like a wild animal, his hands closed tight into fists. Res rushed to him, cooing as his armor faded back to feathers and he nudged Caylus with his beak. I slid past them to Malkin, who clutched at the arrow in his chest, blood flecking his lips as he coughed for air he couldn’t get.
Even dying, he grinned at me. Blood coated his teeth. “Razel didn’t—” He coughed again. “Didn’t think you had it in you.”
“That’s what she doesn’t understand,” I told him. “I’ll do anything to protect the people I care about.”
