I swallowed hard. “What do you want to show me?”
He drew a deep breath. I could feel the nervousness surrounding him, a nearly tangible cloud. “It will be a lot,” he warned. “But I will protect you. I promise.” He held out his hand. Asking me not to fear him, to come with him, to trust him.
I couldn’t do most of those things. He could be lying about letting me go. But if he wasn’t, all I had to do was take a look at whatever put that panic in his eyes. And then I’d be free. I would have done my part to keep the Gods-Chosen safe without having to die.
I slipped my hand into his.
SEVENTEENSAMIRA
A handful of Kaldfolk came riding up to the longhouse, faces flushed with cold and exertion. Each rider carried at least two or three more people on their horse. Urgency marked their every movement. They barely paused to deposit their passengers before turning their horses around and bolting back down the hill, sending frozen earth exploding up around them in a wave.
Rade led me through the unfolding chaos, steps hurried as he dodged rushing Kaldfolk.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
Rade stopped beside an idle horse. “The Shroud.”
Before I could ask anything further, he hefted me onto the horse. I scrambled to grab hold of the saddle’s pommel and pull myself the rest of the way. Rade climbed up behind me, arms encircling me as he grabbed the reins and dug his heels into the horse’s sides. We took off like an arrow down the hill from the longhouse. My heart lurched against my rib cage, and I held on to the saddle’s horn for dear life.
We raced away from Frostguard. A shadow loomed at the horizon, growing as we drew closer. A wall of darkness.
That allure I’d felt in the forest, which made my insides clench and gooseflesh break out all over my body, stretched from the ground far, far into the sky. A writhing mass of solid black. Like the night sky had become a living thing.
We came to a stop when we reached flat land, a town full of thatched homes. Kaldfolk ran wildly. A woman cried out as she was knocked off her horse by a young man. He seized the reins and kicked the beast into a sprint. The woman paused to look back at the impending darkness. The terror melted away for a moment. Her eyes became shiny, and her face went slack with awe. She took a steptowardit.
Sillia raced up to her. Scooped her up, deposited her into a different saddle, and smacked the horse’s hide, sending her sprinting back up the hill. Then she turned to help the next person.
The living shadow pulsed, reaching toward us inch by inch, swallowing the settlement more with each second.
“What is that?” I asked breathlessly, not taking my eyes from the horrible wall.
“That,” Rade said as he slid off the horse, “is the Shroud.” He gazed up at me, eyes imploring. “See this, Amunet. See what’s happening.” Then he turned and ran to where a figure was standing much too close to the darkness. One look at the swinging braid, the yellow eyes stark against the night backdrop, and I recognized Keir.
Velka raced by me on horseback, as fast as the wind. She jumped off her steed, grabbed two more people who appeared enthralled by the darkness, both of whom were marked with black tattoos, and deposited them on the back of a horse. When the horse took off back to Frostguard, she stooped to the ground. Before she even landed on all fours, she was a bear, paws streaked with blue like the tattoos on her hands. She chased after the horse.
I slid off my horse on shaky legs, lips parting as I took in the Shroud. Keir and Rade were just ahead of me, and I suddenly noticed there was a third person with them. An elderly man in a wooden rocking chair.
“You have to leave,” Keir was saying to him. “You have to go now—”
“I already told you, I’m staying right here,” the man responded. Unlike the others, he didn’t look like he was in a trance. But he was resolute in remaining in that chair.
Keir turned to Rade. Where his First always possessed an air of total control, now he seemed frazzled, wide golden eyes stark against his kohl-painted face. “Do something.”
“It’s his decision.” The king said the words tiredly. Like it was a conversation they’d had many times before.
“He has a granddaughter. I can’t find her. It’s possible she’s already been taken to Frostguard, but he’s not—”
“It’s his decision.”
“He doesn’t know what he’s deciding!” Keir burst out. He grabbed Rade’s shoulder with one hand, the fabric of the king’s shirt bunching beneath his grip. “Please, Rade.”
Rade hesitated a moment more, eyes darting to the Shroud, which was only a couple of yards away now. Then he looked at the old man. “Come on, Finan. Get up.”
“My wife was taken by this thing twenty years ago,” the old man replied stubbornly. “I want to see her again.”
“Your wife isdead, Finan. Your granddaughter isn’t.”
“You’ll look after Milena.” Finan set his jaw and faced the darkness. Which had scuttled even closer. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and my feet shuffled with the desire to carry me toward it. Consciously, my mind was awash in terror, yet I couldn’t shake the need to feel those tendrils wrap around me. Ice slid down my spine, and I studiously avoided looking at the Shroud, as much as I could avoid looking at a looming wall of darkness.
