There are six fae inside. Three sit on benches along thewagon’s sides, their wrists chained to iron rings set into the wood. The other three stand in the center, swaying with the wagon’s movement, their hands gripping a bar overhead for balance. Every one of them wears an iron collar that gleams dully in the afternoon light.
Therin goes rigid to one side of me.
“Cairn.”
“I see them.”
Cairn’s stillness has changed, and I’m startled by the rush of rage that goes through me. It’shisemotion, not mine.
No one speaks as the wagons roll past, but the hairs rise on the back of my neck, responding to the building tension in the air. Then Cairn shifts his weight slightly. Therin and Vel move a second later, flanking him.
The tension in the air is becoming unbearable.
“What about her?” Vel doesn’t even look at me, but I know what she's saying.
If they attack, I could shout out and warn them.
Cairn turns to look at me.
Will you?
I jerk back. His lips didn’t move. His voice came from inside my head. Clear as if he’d spoken aloud.
And in that second, the dream I had floods my mind. When he’d spoken to me.
Did you enjoy the show, Moirthalen?
It wasn’t a dream. Iknewthat. I’ve known it for a while, but hearing his voice inside my mind makes it real in a new way.
Will you warn them?His voice again.Will you call for rescue?
I look at the wagon holding the fae inside, with their collars, chains, and empty eyes. My eyes move to the guards who would surely save me if I called out to them.
No … I won’t.
He holds my gaze for a second longer, then turns away, gliding toward the road with Therin and Vel. They make no sound at all as they move.
There’s no one to stop me now. One sound and the three of them would be surrounded. But I stay where I am, and try not to think about what that means. Instead, I stare at the ground, counting my breaths, my ears straining to hear anything that might tell me what is happening.
Then the world fractures, and I’m in two places at once. Hiding behind the trees, and somewhere else …
It’s happening again. Like the dream. Only … this time I’m not asleep. Sensation floods through me. Metal flowing over skin, the weight of hilts forming in his palms. And through his eyes, I see the man on the gray mare … I watch his face as the fae drop their glamour ...
And then Cairn is moving.
The first guard dies before he clears his weapon. Cairn’s blade opens his throat in a single, clean stroke, and he’s already turning toward the next one. Blood sprays warm across his armor. A sword comes at his head, and he flows under it, driving his blade up through the man’s ribs.
Ifeelthe scrape of steel against bone.
A guard comes from his left. Cairn pivots, both blades moving in arcs too fast to follow. The man’s sword arm separates from his body at the elbow. His scream cuts off when the second blade takes his throat.
Another guard tries to run. Cairn lets him get three steps before the blade takes him between the shoulder blades. Two more guards throw down their weapons and drop to their knees, begging for mercy. Cairn moves past them, leaving them for Therin and Vel.
The man on the gray mare scrambles down and backs away.And for a brief second, I’m outside of his mind watching from afar, as Cairn stalks toward him silently.
He looks like a god of war descended to walk among mortals. Or a nightmare given flesh. A beautiful, merciless nightmare, with blood dripping from the edges of those curved blades.
Heat uncurls low in my stomach.
