“It’s not so much the cat itself that people fear, or the owl. It’s what they represent.” He reopened his bestiary to a page where he’d drawn a creature that had the body of a black cat and the head of a gray owl, with great wings spanning either side of it. “Panthera noctua. The Night Bringer’s emblematic beast.”
Romie exchanged a wary glance with Nisha and Aspen. “Why do they fear this Night Bringer so much?”
“Rumor is he has returned.” Caius frowned at them. “Don’tyoufear the evil deity who destroyed the Forger?”
“Of course we do. We just, er, haven’t heard the story in so long. Would you tell it to us?”
“Welllll,” he said, stretching out the word, “as you know, the eldritch beasts, like the ones we saved you from today, were born of the underworld, ruled over by the Night Bringer. And the dragons that we draconics owe our magic to were descended from the heavens, created by the Forger, who gobbled up a piece of the sun, took its heat within her heart, and spilled it into fiery mountains across the land to give birth to the sacred dragons. So the Sun Forger’s magic—the power of the sun itself—lives on in both the dragons and draconics like me. But something happened to the Night Bringer and the Sun Forger, and they disappeared fromthe world, leaving behind their respective beasts. Pitting eldritch monsters against us who are Forger-made.”
Caius pointed at the sky. “Only recently has the sun started to burn less and less every day, the nighttime pressing in earlier than it should and stretching on past when is normal. Strange things have been happening all over, like the warmth and light of the sun has been slowly diminishing. The eldritch are growing bolder, more volatile, in the dark.”
“Hence the rumors about the Night Bringer’s return?” Nisha guessed.
A nod. “We were returning from a nearby village when we crossed paths today. The whole place was ravaged by the samecorvus serpentesthat attacked you.”
Romie squinted at him. “If you’re a draconic, where are your wings?”
Caius gasped like she’d uttered the worst swear word imaginable. “Pages and squires aren’t allowed to unfurl their wings outside of the training citadel. Only the masters may shift as they please.”
“Are knights masters as well?”
“Of course. There are three masteries: knighthood, sagehood, and alchemy. We pages and squires study all three before mastering in one. Knights are the warriors, sages are the keepers of the bestiaries, and alchemists are our makers, trained in the secret art of draconic forging.”
“And Tol?” Aspen asked with quiet hope. “What is he?”
Caius’s endearing enthusiasm sputtered out at that. “Tol was still a squire, but favored to become an alchemist soon.” He cast wary glances around them. “I heard you asking the Knight Commander about him earlier.”
“Do you know what happened to him? Where they’re keeping him?” Aspen asked.
“We’re not allowed to speak of draconics who’ve broken their oath.”
“But you know where he is.”
“Maybe.” He eyed them with suspicion. “What do you want with him?”
“We just want to speak with him before he’s…” Aspen swallowed back her emotion. Tears welled in her eyes. “I knew him a long time ago, before he came here to be a draconic. I would give anything for a chance to say goodbye.”
Caius considered. “I’ll be at the Chasm the day of the execution, like all pages and squires. I might be swayed to point you in the right direction before the fighting begins… if you agree to do something for me in return.”
Romie begrudgingly admired his cunning. “What do you want?”
“Master Bayns and the Knight Commander don’t believe me, but I know for a fact thatcorvus serpenteshave no magic, at least not the kind I saw your friend using earlier.” Caius’s eyes went bright and eager. “I want to see that magic again, if only to know I was right.”
“And do what with that knowledge?” Romie asked. She didn’t like the tight grip Caius kept on that bestiary of his. Emory wasn’t an eldritch beast, but her magic, dark as it already was, might not go over well in this world.
“I swear it’s only to satisfy my own curiosity.” Caius worried his lip, glancing at Aspen. “Tol has rare magic too. They say he’s light-blessed. Favored by the Forger.”
If Caius was implying Emory might also be light-blessed, Romie doubted he would run to his masters claiming she was evil. Then again, if a death sentence was what awaited one of their own, someone blessed by their goddess at that…
She certainly didn’t think Emory was anything close tolight-blessed, but she kept that thought to herself.
31KAI
“BRYSDEN, COME ON, IT’S NOWor never.”
Baz had been staring at the lock for the past minute, face tinged green with worry. You’d think he was about to commit the biggest crime of his life.
They were standing in front of Clover’s dorm, and though the corridor was empty, what with everyone still in class, it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
