“Stop!” Lestara ran into the fray, pressing one hand to William’s chest and another to Ronan’s. “Please!”
“Give me Alexandra’s head, or the alliance between Cardiff and Harendell is over!”
“No! And I suggest you run, because the first thing I intend to do when I walk out of this room is reinstate every law against your kind!”
“William, please!” Lestara pleaded. “Don’t do this. If we negotiate, I’m sure we can find middle ground.”
He slapped her arm away. “There is no negotiation, Lestara. My mother is innocent, but more than that, she is a good Harendellian woman and I’ll not sacrifice her to witches and stargazers.”
Shock filled Lestara’s face, but it was swiftly filled with hurt, and Keris couldn’t help but pity her as she came to realize that she’d always be second to her husband’s mother. A very distant second. He wondered how long until hurt turned to fear, because if Lestara was behind Katarina being brought to Verwyrd versus executed in the field, as seemed likely, Alexandra would make her pay.
“Take the Crimson Widow’s head, Ronan,” William said. “Take the whole goddamned corpse, and do whatever you bone casters like to do with them. Ask your stars what you should do, but know this: Harendell is the mightiest nation of the north, and I am now Master of the Bridge. We do notneedCardiff when trade with all the wealth of the south is now ours. I hope your stars will tell you that we are better off friends than enemies.”
“I do not need the stars to tell me what is clear to my own eyes,” Ronan replied, then lifted his fingers as though to test a wind. “A storm is coming, and not everyone will survive it.”
85
Ahnna
Ahnna surveyed the Sky Palace,a crossbow resting against one shoulder.
The gates to the wall around the base of the spiral had not opened once since Katarina had passed through them, and while rumors ran wild over what might be going on in the Sky Palace, all of it was pure speculation. The only way to find out what was going on would be to get up there herself.
It was the darkest hour of the night, but patrols in Verwyrd were heavy and the Harendellian soldiers watchful. For the first time in decades, the nation was at war, and it had changed their demeanor in a meaningful way. This would have been much easier in prior days when they’d been so confident in their supremacy that they believed no one would dare attack the capital.
But that was of no matter. Ahnna had spent her life doing difficult things, and she would not balk at one now.
Ahnna had acquired everything she needed to go about this like an Ithicanian, and as she watched the unnatural mist roll toward the Sky Palace on the gentle breeze, she remembered how this had once been what Lara and Aren had used to escape a king’s tower. Tonight she would use it to infiltrate one, and then assassinate a queen.
Holding her place in the shadows, Ahnna waited until the wall ofmist was nearly at the spiral, and then aimed the crossbow and let the heavy bolt fly. Wincing at the loud retort, she watched the metal hook soar through the air, trailing behind it a thin length of black rope. Metal clinked against stone several rings up right as the mist enveloped the spiral.
Keeping one ear alert for any sign of alarm, Ahnna held her breath as she pulled the rope, only exhaling when the grappling hook caught on the metal railing of the spiral. Knowing the mist wouldn’t last long, she secured the end of the rope. Shouldering her small pack and securing the crossbow, Ahnna took hold of the thin rope and started to climb.
The bone in her right arm was long healed, but Ahnna felt the loss of strength in the muscle as she worked her way toward the spiral. Her heart pounded, half from exertion and half from fear of discovery by the soldiers below, but there was no time to rest. Already, the mist was beginning to clear, and when it did, not even her dark uniform would be enough to hide her against the bright moonlight.
Faster,she ordered herself.Fucking climb!
Her muscles shuddered as her gloved hands dragged her higher, and though instinct demanded she look down, look to see how much farther she had to go, Ahnna only stared upward at the brightening orb of the moon.
Hurry!
Her hand struck metal with a dull thud. Tilting her head backward, Ahnna swiftly examined the railing and then hooked her legs more firmly around the rope before reaching with one hand to grasp the ornate iron barrier. Within a heartbeat, Ahnna was on the other side of it. Watching for a break between soldiers patrolling the base of the tower, she tugged on the second line that was fixed to her belt, which released the primary from where it was mounted below. She swiftly pulled both ropes up, leaving behind no trace for patrols to find.
With the ropes hooked around her shoulder, Ahnna began the long climb up to the Sky Palace. She moved as swiftly as she couldwhile still maintaining silence, for while the wind moaned through the spiral, Ahnna well knew how the sound of running feet echoed in this place.
Higher and higher, but as she reached the bend that would reveal the gate to the courtyard into the palace itself, she dropped into a prowl. Keeping tight to the shadows, she edged around until she could see the gate.
As expected, it was locked tight, several armed men staring through the thick bars, hands on their weapons. Ahnna backtracked a full rotation, then grasped the railing and leaned out.
Looking up.
The palace reared above her, walls as smooth and unclimbable as she remembered, but the tops of them more heavily patrolled. She marked the distance between glowing lanterns. “Shit.” Too close together by far for her to shoot a grappling hook over the top without one of them noticing.
Which meant it had to be a window.
She slowly circled the spiral, searching for a dark window in a location unlikely to have anyone in it at this time of night. Spotting a likely square of glass, Ahnna readied her bolt and its rope, then climbed over the railing. Like the spiral itself, the palace narrowed, the whole of it slightly conical, but the angle was still awful for what she needed to accomplish.
Grimacing, Ahnna fastened her second rope to the rail and then around her waist. Taking a deep breath in a fruitless attempt to calm her racing heart, she leaned back.
