Tilla is hunched on a rooftop, crossbow in hand, dark hair blowing wildly in the wind. She quickly slings it over her shoulder, then throws a rope down at us. “This way.”
Farron scales the wall first, and I gesture for Wrenley to go next.
“I don’t know if I can.” Her fingers shake as she touches the rope, glancing nervously at the dead goblins, their black blood seeping into the cobblestone. “I’m not brave like you.”
“What are you talking about?” I touch her shoulder. “Yousavedme and Keldarion.Plus, you worked for Kairyn. If that’s not brave, I don’t know what is. Now link your hands around my neck. I’ll pull you up.”
She nods determinedly, and we quickly scale the wall.
“Tilla!” I open my arms for a hug. “Never thought I’d be happy to see you.”
Her lip curls into a sneer and she sidesteps. “Can’t say I’ve yet to feel the same, Summer Prince. Follow me.”
We jump from rooftop to rooftop, quick as shadows. From up here it’s easy to see just how bad Florendel is. Goblins, Spring guards, and members of the Queen’s Army patrol every corner. Fae wander in a daze, and those that don’t are carted away.
Tilla silently motions toward a rock wall along the base of the mountain at the edge of the city. When she presses her palm against the stone, the rock shimmers. She passes through.
An illusion.
We enter to a wave of thick heat, dark red walls, and on to a narrow bridge overlooking the Draconhold Forge.
There are no workers, and no store of swords or metal like last time we were here. “A little on the empty side,” I say lowly.
Tilla looks over her shoulder. “Kairyn’s forces stormed the place immediately after Ezryn’s banishment. They took everything: the weapons, the metal. Killed anyone who tried to stop them.”
A growl rumbles in my chest. We pass over the bridge and into another narrow tunnel.
“I’ve been trying to help those who were unaffected escape the city,” Tilla continues. “And help free those that are. Water and that white flower are the only ways to do it. Either clear the pollen from the airways or neutralize it. We’re gathering in the mountain tunnels.”
“Where will you go?” Wrenley asks.
“I don’t know. The idea of abandoning my city kills me, but there’s no way to fight this.”
Farron and I exchange a glance.Go to Castletree.That should be the answer. Why else did the Queen make it so large and vast? Why else create a road from each capital to the castle? But now those roads are overrun with briars and goblins. And even if the people were to make it there, what would they find? Thorny halls and cursed nights? The new High Prince?
We have failed our people.
We have failed our people so greatly.
“Send them to Summer,” I say quickly. “I’ll help you guide them.”
Tilla gives me an almost pitying expression. “There’s something you need to see.”
She guides us around another corner until I feel a trickle of fresh air. There’s a small, curved opening in the rock.
She nods for me to proceed.
Outside, I can peer beyond the walls of Keep Hammergarden, past the Meadowmere Forest and the field of flowers where I’m meant to meet Kel. I can even see the start of the Equinox Passage that cuts through the mountains between Spring and Summer. But right before it are rows and rows of troops. They fly the flag of Spring, but it isn’t only Kairyn’s soldiers or the Queen’s Army camped. There are leagues of goblins, forces of the Below.
Kairyn’s been preparing this for a long time, and based on their direction, he isn’t just planning to overtake Spring.
No.
His next target is the Summer Realm.
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Rosalina
