There’s a chance we might make it out of this alive.
*
IT’SSTILLINSIDEthe cavern. Only the occasional rustle as someone turns on the furs we’re using as bedrolls, the odd soft snore. The Clanschief is beside me. I’m glad he’s finally asleep, his confounded humming stilled. But hard as I try, I remain alert, ears pricked. Even though I know Orthriel is standing guard outside the cavern, returned to their true form so they’re invisible to mortal eyes. Every so often, I hear a horn on the breeze. But they’re imagined sounds, only the wind keening through the cave.
I roll onto my side, careful not to disturb Blayze, and shut my eyes. We’ll need to ride out before dawnrise, while we’re still under cover of darkness. I must sleep.
‘Astrophel.’
The warm tickle of breath at my ear drags me back to full consciousness. Leilani has left her side of the cave, where she ought to be sleeping beside the other women. Maris glowered when I insisted on the split, but someone needs to maintain decency and it’s not going to be the Clanschief.
‘We need to talk,’ she says.
My stomach lurches. ‘Now?’
‘Now.’
She slips behind a lofty boulder in the furthest corner of the cavern. I follow her, guided by the soft glimmer of her skin.
‘So, talk,’ she says, folding her arms. ‘I thought you’d betrayed us.’
I sigh and lean heavily against the boulder. ‘You were supposed to. Orthriel and I couldn’t make you complicit, in case our plans failed, and they sentenced you alongside me as a traitor.’
‘Orthriel?’ The word comes sharp as the blade of my Crescent Sword.
I nod. ‘We spoke in my chamber soon after the sleeping draught wore off. Orthriel confided in me they were weak – that they couldn’t free us. That they could no longer protect you. Not on their own. But they had a plan.’
I take a breath. It’s important Leilani understands all that happened while she was held captive. She saw me with Briar – I heard her call out to me. Night after night. She saw what I did. If I want to earn back her trust, I mustn’t rush this.
‘Do you remember I thought I saw a cragstalker as we approached Galtair? Well, Orthriel saw it too, knew for certain what it was. They remembered how the pack helped our forefathers traverse the peaks long ago, believed they could be prevailed upon to help us again, especially after learning the Arx Magnum had hunted them to the brink of extinction.’
Leilani’s lips purse, fingers pressing so tight against her arms the tips are turning white. ‘And you both kept this from me – plotted together behind my back. Didn’t you trust me to help?’
Gently, I reach for her shoulders. She stiffens but doesn’t shake me off. ‘You’re the future of the Stellarion dynasty, Leilani. Arcelia’s saviour. We had to protect you. We’ve both made solemn vows to that end. And I-I needed to do this. I needed to make up for…’ I groan and turn away from her. ‘So much has changed since we arrived in Galtair. I’ve been so blind. So blind.’
‘That makes two of us,’ she mutters darkly.
For a long moment, neither of us speaks. The soft, deep breaths of the sleeping echo the cragged walls of the cave. How to make her understand? I clear my throat and try again.
‘For our plan to work, I needed to worm into the Arx Magnum’s good graces, gain access to the Outrealmers, learn the layout of the dungeons, retrieve our belongings, buy time to locate the cragstalkers – convince them to help us. I needed you to believe I’d defected.’ A bitter smile twists my lips. ‘I can be very convincing when I want to be.’
Leilani rolls her eyes. ‘That infamous silver tongue.’
I allow her the jibe. I deserve worse.
Leilani unfolds her arms. Steps towards me, chin lifted high. ‘You say it was all an act, but you beat Briar. I saw you. And I heard you encourage the Arx Magnum to conduct experiments on her.’
My breath snags. I look down at the earthen floor, unable to meet her eye. ‘I said and did many things I’m not proud of to earn that man’s trust. But Briar knew everything, from the very beginning. Agreed to it all. She wanted to help. It was she who convinced the cragstalkers to come to our aid. That’s what we were doing, all those nights I passed beneath your window. Under the guise of exercise to prevent her muscles wasting and her powers diminishing, we were searching for the cats. Meeting with them in secret. Briar has been…’ I swallow, throat thick. ‘She’s been so brave, Lili, and suffered so much. They all have. Orthriel too. They used their dwindling Aether reserves to cloak our plans from you, so you couldn’t scry them. Exhausted yet more of their power to dazzle and stun the Arx Magnum and the guards stationed at your door and in the dungeons the night we fled, while I stole the keys and broke everyone out. And when we made our escape, they took an even greater risk in holding off the guards…’
I fall silent.
‘But why, Astrophel? Why do this? I understand your loyalty to the Throne, to me, but why risk so much to save the Outrealmers? You’ve never liked them. You never wanted this alliance.’
I rub a hand at my throat. ‘You’re right. And it was easy to convince the Arx Magnum of my hatred for the enemy races. I knew exactly what he needed to hear; the words tripped right off my tongue. After all, Ihavehated them all my life, blamed them for my father’s death. I believed the lies your father fed me.’ My voice turns rough as I remember those conversations with the Arx Magnum, the venom I spouted for his amusement. ‘It was easy to rail against him too in the end, to denounce the Stellarion name, once I learnt the truth. Once I saw his lies for what they truly were. And the Arx Magnum lapped it up. His own loathing made him careless – too quick to trust.’
‘Lies. What lies?’ she asks.
I laugh. Bitter. Broken. And stare up at the ceiling of the cave. ‘He didn’t tell me the truth about why my father died, how he contracted the fever. I spent a lifetime blaming the wrong people. And all along, it was the Highlanders’ treachery and the King’s pride that took my father from me. It was nothing to do with the Fire Clans.’
