Had the Xell not gone extinct—their disappearance another mystery lost to time—the immortals might have been able to provide firsthand accounts of the Goddess and the Witch’s beginnings, of their respective powers. But the only Xell that existed today were those spoken of in stories.
He tapped a finger against the side of his coffee cup, peering at the liquid as it rippled against every vibration. “How did you survive?”
Fell blinked at him. “What?”
He looked up from his coffee. “How did you survive? You said the Witch killed four people at once, that by the time you managed to shoot an arrow, it was too late. So how did you make it out alive?”
Remorse flooded Fell’s narrow features, like when the rains set the canals overflowing. “My lieutenant,” Fell said, “took a shot meant for me. He fell on top of me. I didn’t get back up. I think the Witch assumed I was dead like everyone else.”
Fell wiped at his eyes, but there were no tears there.
“What about Genna?” he asked. “How did she make it out?”
“Sergeant Rizzo didn’t come to the Wistar Mountains. I left her at the naval base on Rakne Bay.”
“Why leave behind a perfectly good soldier when entering possible enemy territory?”
“Because I didn’t think she was ready,” Fell snapped. “I was concerned her desire for personal glory would put the rest of us in jeopardy. She was only on the mission as a trial basis. Now she’s the only guard left under my tutelage.”
Toran thought back to how desperate Genna seemed to get away from Fell. Perhaps that had something to do with his northern mission.
Nes squirmed in her seat. “What about the trees?”
Fell blinked at her. “The trees?”
“Yes,” she said. “When D—the Witch attacked, do you recall anything odd happening with the trees?”
“They…” Fell closed his eyes as if trying to remember. “They died.”
Toran shifted, and beneath the table, Nes’s hand came down on his thigh. He stilled at the touch. Tried to concentrate on Fell’s words as she squeezed.
“As the Witch killed my men, the trees around the clearing died, too,” Fell said. “Their needles fell from the branches and their trunks dried out.”
Dead trees. Like in the Holy Triad.
Nes didn’t move her hand from his thigh as she leaned over the table. “Thank you, Captain Fell. For being honest about one thing today.”
And then she was up and striding for the door. Leaving an indignant Fell to gape at her and Toran with nothing to do but follow.
17
Nes
Nes crossed from the Gash to the Ditch.
She barely noticed as everything around her changed. The air clogged, the streets faded to dirt, and the smell of decay wrapped around her head like a scarf.
“Nes!”
She kept walking. Something like dread was beginning to creep up on her. She didn’t like it. She walked faster.
“Nes! Stop!”
She stopped in the middle of an intersection and glanced down the street. Toran, his breath heavy, stopped beside her. She looked up at him, at the way his hair flopped over his forehead, at the way the cold bit a blush into his cheeks.
“He’s lying about getting attacked,” she said.
Toran nodded. “Fell always lies.”
