The boy was whimpering. “Bones. In my bed. My father—”
“Don’t blame your father,” Kreya told him. “Master Eklor is the one who brought horrors into your home. And our city.”Blame your father for inviting him inside,she thought, but she wasn’t going to say that to Yarri, who seemed traumatized enough. Imagine sleeping on a cache of human bones and not knowing it. Nightmare fuel for years. “We’ll burn the rest.”
“Of course, Master Kreya,” one of the guards said. He looked nearly as wild-eyed as the boy. “We’ll bring them to the pyre.”
She stopped him. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. But I don’t trust Master Eklor. He’ll be here any minute to check on his supply. We need to destroy it before he gets here.” Every second mattered. She wasn’t taking any chances with Eklor.Never underestimating him again,she promised herself.
The guards didn’t argue. At all. One rushed out into the hallway and returned with a lit torch. The others helped her, Stran, and Marso shift the furniture away from the bed.
Taking the torch from the guard, Kreya lowered it to the bedding and the bones. Dry as kindling, it lit easily, and the fire spread, skipping from bone to fabric and racing across it all. She watched it burn. Only when she was satisfied that the bones were charred enough to be useless did she feel the tightness around her chest loosen. This would have to slow down Eklor. “Keep the fire going until they’re ash,” she instructed the guards. “And see that the fire doesn’t spread beyond this room.”
The boy began to cough.
“Don’t breathe in smoke,” she told him. “Outside. Now.”
Shooing the kid out of the room, she strode into the hallway. Stran and Marso fell in behind her. Now they had proof.They just had to get it to the guild headquarters and present it, ideally jointly with the testimony of the doctors from the hospital. Combined, it had to cast doubt on Eklor’s claims, perhaps even enough to overcome the effects of the persuasion talisman. “We’ll regroup with the others. Present everything at once for maximum impact. If we can keep him off balance enough, we might be able to create an opening to destroy the talisman. At the very least, we should be able to delay him.”
Outside, by the broken door, Kreya informed the guards about the fire. They saluted and rushed in to help. Belatedly, she noticed that Lorn’s son was still following her. A young boy shouldn’t be wrapped up in all of this. “You need to stay here,” Kreya told him.
He blinked back tears. “But what if Master Eklor comes back? What if he’s angry? What if he blames me? What if he blames my father, and uses me...”
He’s right,she thought. Master Eklor wouldn’t hesitate to use Grand Master Lorn’s son as a hostage against him. In fact, he’d already done so. “Fine. Come with us.” The boy could stay at Zera’s palace until this was all over. He’d be safe enough there.
“I want my papa.”
Stran put his arm around the boy. “We’ll get you back to your father as soon as we can, okay?” he promised. “Until then, we’ll keep you as safe as if you were one of my own kids.” He helped Yarri onto one of the floating stones, and they rode away from Lorn’s palace toward Zera’s.
Shepherding Yarri inside, Kreya didn’t see the chaos at first. Stran halted, and Kreya had to peer around him. Instantly, adrenaline flooded through her. She rammed her hands into her pockets, pulling out talismans, and half-crouched in a defensiveposition with the boy behind her. Every muscle tensed. “Stay behind me, kid.”
Stran was already in motion, crossing the vast room.
On one side, Guine was tending to the servants. Bodies lay under curtains. A window had been shattered. One pillar was damaged. Juice and blood mingled on the marble floor. Kreya cataloged it all fast.
Whatever had happened here was over.
She slid her talismans back into her pockets and straightened. Her heart was thumping painfully hard in her chest. Whatever had happened here... It shouldn’t have happened.
It’s my fault,she thought.I miscalculated. Again.She should have predicted this. Set guards. Made plans. Had contingency plans in case those plans failed. Everyone knew their team was staying in Zera’s palace. She should have realized that would make this place a target. And anyone in it.
Stran strode between the bodies, yanking back the sheets and bellowing, “Amurra!”
Behind her, Yarri’s voice quivered. “Who did this?”
“Three guesses, and they’re all named Eklor.” Kreya stepped forward, and Yarri caught her arm. His grip was so tight that if she raised her arm, he’d dangle off it.
“Don’t leave me!” he squeaked. “You said you’d keep me safe!”
“I won’t abandon you,” she reassured him. Yet another person she was responsible for. “But you need to stay by the door. If anything dangerous happens, run outside. Okay? Can you do that? Run instead of freeze?”
He nodded. Tears flowed freely down his cheeks.
She wasn’t certain she believed him, but she also thought it wouldn’t be an issue—this was the aftermath of a disaster, notthe start of one. Still . . . She stalked through the room, checking out the window, around corners. “Any threats remain?”
Guine shook his head. He swallowed hard and looked at Stran. Kreya followed his gaze. The big man looked terrifying as he exposed the dead bodies, looking for his wife.
Kreya shifted so that she blocked Guine’s view of Stran. “Tell me what happened.” She kept her voice calm and even, as soothing as she could manage. They could fall apart later, but now she needed to assess the scope of the disaster.
“I heard her calling to me,” Guine said, focusing on her. “And then she was screaming. We tried to fight it, but we’re not warriors.”
