Mrath continues. “The Sisterhood is an escape from the bondage of our old lives. Yes, there are assassins in our midst—those who were not allowed to be trained with the king’s archers and assassins. But there are just as many healers. Weavers. Travelers.” She cocks her head to the side. “We have even been known to protect a select few. For a price, of course.”
I nod. “Thank you for welcoming us into your enclave. I have urgent matters to discuss, and I have news that might be of interest to you.”
“Have we welcomed you?” She stares at us long and hard, her eyes passing from me to Niht, then Ulla and Ra'Salore, and then finally back to my face. “What has my brother done to have you sniveling and crawling to my doorstep?”
I straighten my back.
She’s goading me.
“Recently, we were seeking an alliance against the giants, so we invited King Arion to the Festival of Endu. It was my… wedding night. He told the giants of the plan, and they invaded my home and stole my mate. I need help getting her back and killing Rholker.”
She purses her lips. “Such miscare on your end, but I must admit. I already knew all of this—I wanted to know if you would lie.” Her lips curl upward. “Spying is also one of our specialties.”
I tighten my fists. “It was foolish for me to be so trusting, but I never intended for any harm to come to Estela.”
“Es-tell-ah,” she says slowly, drawing out each syllable. “Lovely human name, but I thought the giants made it a rule that humans belonged to them and them alone.”
I purse my lips. “King Erdaraj mended the agreement, but?—”
“Then he was killed by his son,” she finishes. She lets out a single laugh and shakes her head. “Lucky bastard.”
As we speak, one of the squirrels climbs up Niht’s leg and clambers to his shoulder.
Mrath watches, displeased.
“The purpose of the Sisterhood is the betterment of our people. There are neither Enduar nor human women in our ranks, yet you want our help.”
I clench my fists. “We did not know of your existence, we are barely alive ourselves. And as for the humans, others have come in search of the elves—you never met any of them?”
Dread twists in my gut when she shakes her head.
All those who came before seeking freedom with the elves… Did they all die? Arion did not know much about humans, so I assumed they would not have gone to the capital.
Mrath carefully watches my expression as the realization sinks in. We likely didn’t save a single slave we freed.
“You want access to my help? Then you must be as one of us,” she says after a few more moments. “You will learn to steal, cheat, and murder to earn your place.” She’s still spinning her knife over her fingers and letting the drops fall onto the throne. Where her blood touches, small red flowers bloom.
“Those are the rules for you to help us?” I try to clarify once more. All of those things sound like they will take an exorbitant amount of time, and ten days have already passed with Estela in the giant’s clutches.
She tilts her head back and laughs. Her spiny crown doesn’t budge.
“No,Teo. That’s what you’ll do if you want to live long enough to see your pretty little human. You came here without my permission, and there’s only one rule of Sisterhood de Bhaldraithe: don’t fuck with Mrath.”
I stare at her, watching the way her cold eyes take in our small group.
Slowly, I nod.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
She reclines on her great, wooden throne again.
“If you want our help, you’ll have to prove yourself someone worth helping. It’s a fine and pretty thing to say that you’ll slit my brother’s throat, or give back an artifact your father took, but I have no point of reference to know whether or not that is even true.”
My fists tighten. Thorne told her everything.
Ulla speaks up. “Our king was once called the Butcher of Giants, and his father had the ruthless brutality to blow up most of a continent. Surely that is assurance enough.”
Mrath’s chin tucks against her neck and her lips curve down slightly. The air around us feels charged with warning, and the dryads behind her creep closer.
