“The Arlanders?”
“Everyone. Everyone you can help.”
His body felt warmer. A headache pulsed in his temples. The cold from the chains bit his flesh where they connected. But they had been fastened with sinking in mind, not restraint. There wasno lock he could discern, and while his arms were fastened tight to his sides, the chain was looser below his elbows.
“What about me? Who will take care ofme?”
His vision was blurry, but from tears, not poison. And perhaps his lack of spectacles.
“You’re clever and kind. You’ll be all right.” Fienna caressed his face once more. “So get up. Avenge me. Vanquish the villains and save the world. If not the world, then at least the people I once looked after.”
“Like a hero?” Cain smiled for the first time. Fienna smiled back.
“Like a king.”
Gladdis was looking down at him. Cain had never actually gotten a good look at her face before. Her white-streaked hair framed her small and wrinkled face. She wore padded clothes made from red Cassian velvet. Her expression was quizzical.
“Why is his face wet?” She touched his cheek. “Are these tears?”
“Still alive, I see. Move aside, my lady, I shall take care of this.”
The ex-legionary let go of the oars and stood up.
Fienna held out her hand. Cain gripped it, and got to his feet. But that was only a hallucination of the poison-addled head. What actually happened was that, all of a sudden, Cain sprang to his feet of his own accord and slammed his head directly into Gladdis’s face.
Gladdis screamed. The ex-legionary woman, with surprising calmness, drew her sword and swiftly sliced at Cain, but the blade merely scraped against the chains wrapped around him, causing sparks.
Cain stretched out his hand through the loosely tied chainsand grabbed Gladdis’s side, feeling a handful of soft Cassian velvet. With a strength that would have torn any other fabric, Cain pulled at her as if bringing her into an embrace.
He spun, his legs wrapped in chains, Gladdis’s body helpless against the weight of Cain’s and the heavy chain. The ex-legionary took a step back to avoid colliding with the two of them, and Cain, still grabbing the older woman’s clothes, threw himself overboard.
Just before his body hit the water, the ex-legionary shouted something. He did not understand Kamori.
The sea engulfed them, and Cain was chilled to the bone within seconds. The weight of the chains dragged him and Gladdis down, pulling them toward the inky depths. Gladdis clawed at the water as if it could give her purchase, but soon she stopped moving. Cain released his grip and watched as the woman who had killed Fienna and planned next to take the lives of a hundred thousand more sank to the bottom of the ocean, her once-struggling hands and feet motionless.
His own air ran out. He tried to loosen the chain around him, but he didn’t think he could make it to the surface even if he did. He’d been too optimistic about his chances of survival.
But this was enough. He had avenged Fienna. Without Gladdis, the plot to use the Circuit of Destiny was over. The pressure that had been gripping his heart since Fienna’s death finally lifted. He hoped death would come before this feeling of freedom left him.
The last breath from Cain’s lungs became a bubble in the water and floated up to the surface.
27ARIENNE
By the time she had climbed up to the middle of Finvera Pass, it was past noon. The steep passage was covered in pristine snow, evidence of sparse travel in this severe season. Fir trees shook off snow whenever a sudden gust of wind blew down along the slope to chill Arienne’s face.
Since burying Lysandros alive under the old inn at dawn, Arienne had walked along the highway then the narrow road through the pass without a moment of rest. Having been a desk-ridden student her whole life, she was unused to a climb as sharp as that of Finvera, but she could not afford to take her time. Lysandros would catch up to her at any moment. Even if she managed to reach Arland, who knew what would happen to her there. A Grand Inquisitor of the Office of Truth was sure to have a backwater prefect at his beck and call, and possibly the legion as well, to aid in his hunt for the rogue sorcerer.
But even the tension and fear couldn’t keep her going forever.Arienne had to stop at a rock overlooking the shaded valley below and catch her breath. She was hungry and thirsty. She had some food left in her sack, but there had been no time to grab her waterskin when she left the ruins of the inn. There wasn’t a sign of a river or stream nearby.
“Why are you dawdling?”
Ever since the bandages around his arms had come undone, Eldred had been running his fingers over everything he could in the room as if he had just discovered the sense of touch. He stroked the bedsheets and massaged the pillows. Everywhere he touched, he left a black smudge. It made her uneasy, but she didn’t want to know what it was.
“I need to rest a bit. I’m so thirsty—”
“Why not melt some of that snow and drink it.”
“Isn’t it dirty? I can’t boil it now like I did before.”
