I glance around her and notice the empty bed. No other patients are in sight. “Where is she?”
“Settling into her new room, I’d imagine.”
My heart picks up speed. “Do the gods still speak directly to mortals?” I blurt out.
A smile tugs her lips upward as she faces me again. “I think you already know the answer. They may not be strong enough to walk among us in the flesh, but they find ways to communicate.”
My stomach flips uncomfortably. I have so many questions I want to ask about the gods, but I cannot push past the shock of this woman standing here in Paramount Castle. Why is she here?Howis she here? Given that the Zenith also uses vanishing rings, was she a member of the Zenith? All this time?
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out something, which she slips into my hand. “Neris has her own now. These are for you.”
“How—?” I start to ask. But what question do I even begin with? How is she always in the right place at the right time? She’d been there when Neris collapsed years ago. She’d been there when I’d justbarelysurvived the Cleanse. And now here she is again as I’m desperate for my elixirs.
She swiftly makes an exit before I can ask anything. The door is still swinging when I slowly open my fingers and stare at the small drawstring satchel in my palm. I open it, several vials of purple elixir clanging against each other.
Did she know this would happen? I try to wrap my brain around everything I know about Radika. I once thought her to be a simple potion maker. A healer of sorts. But she’s alreadyrevealed her identity as a Sorceress. Perhaps she has the gift of divination? Something used for scrying? My head aches and my pulse refuses to slow down. I need to head back to my room and just breathe for a moment.
I’m halfway across the castle when Lynx steps in front of me, forcing me to come to a halt and tripling my pulse again. “The sovereign has summoned you and the others,” she says. “It’s time.”
Chapter 44
Icy rain beatsdown on us barely one hour after we leave the cave. The timing is abhorrent, but we ride on. We desperately seek someplace for shelter, but the wide valley with its smattering of short trees and little else leaves us open to the elements
I cling to the pommel of the saddle as Tiernan urges Ghendor forward. All our horses gallop madly as though riding into battle.
When the rain dies down at last, we dismount in a pasture of shaggy, drenched cows grazing in the wet grass. I’m soaked straight through my tunic and leather vest, even down to the band of fabric underneath. My trousers cling to me, making my thighs rub together. Even my socks are wet, my boots squelching with every step. The others look as miserable as I feel.
The mountains are in the distance now, and there seems to be nothing ahead of us but endless pasture. My hope sinks.
I wrap my arms around myself, trying to stop my teeth from chattering and my body from shivering.
Tiernan strokes Ghendor’s soggy mane. The stallion tosses his head and huffs, clearly as annoyed as the rest of us.
Ava waves us over to her, but pinpricks race across my skin. It stops me dead in my tracks, terror slamming into me along with an image of a surprise attack.
“Ambush!” I shout.
Several figures in dark blue with black hooded cloaks materialize around us before anyone can react.
It’s eerily reminiscent of the attack outside the Verge months ago. Except this time, there are no assailants in white among them. We all draw our weapons, though I fumble for my dagger, my fingers numb. My hands shake. I might have to take a life in order to save ours.
We position ourselves in a circle, facing outward. Tiernan is on my left and Ava squeezes in on my right. One of the attackers steps forward, a black mask covering their eyes beneath the hood. My pulse skitters, and I grip my dagger tighter.
“Stay close and donotshadow wield,”Tiernan says into my mind.
I don’t have time to respond before he pushes me behind him to fight against a man with a large, curved blade. He drives the man back as combat erupts all around. The attackers vanish and reappear in a dizzying, chaotic pattern.
A familiar, fractured presence presses into me. Iknowthat aura. Like eroded stone. Like a dam with a crack in it, just waiting to break. My eyes lock on to a cloaked figure of short stature and subtle curves beneath her muscular frame. She stands farther away from the other attackers. I can’t see her face, but her posture seems stilted, nervous.
Somewhere to my right, Alys is lying in the wet grass. Chiyo doubles over at the waist, one hand still gripping one of her throwing knives. Pain distorts her normally fierce features.
Beside me, Ava is bleeding through her white tunic, a cut on her upper arm. My heart hammers erratically, and as one of the attackers charges me, I breathe in and let my dagger loose. Itrotates through the air and finds its home in his shoulder. At the same moment, pain rips across my side. I don’t have time to look down, as my dagger doesn’t stop the assailant. But the knife now embedded in his chest does.
I glance over at Chiyo, who drops to her knees, her hands pressed firmly against her stomach. Isobel steps in front of her with her sword held in both hands.
My ribcage feels too tight; my friends are getting taken down one by one.
The appearance of a large attacker somehow halts the fighting. He says something while confusion claws at me. Tiernan grabs me by my shoulders, his face wrought with pain, tears glistening in his dark eyes.
