Five days later, they still had no proof that an army was marching on Cerre or even that Eklor’s army had ever existed. And Kreya was getting very, very tired of failure. So far, Grand Master Lorn had rebuffed her every attempt to speak to Eklor, and Amurra and Zera hadn’t unearthed any new useful information about the connection between Eklor, Lorn, and Lorn’s son, Yarri. The only one who’d had any luck was Marso, who’d sparked a revival of artistic interest in the Bone War.
Of course they weren’t giving up, but Kreya couldn’t help feeling they were running out of time. And when the invitation from Grand Master Lorn arrived, she knew the clock had run out.
The invitation was delivered by a vaguely birdlike construct with gauzy wings and written in gold ink on elegant stationery that felt soft and thick. Kreya read it and handed it to Zera, who read it, snorted, and said, “It’s a trap.”
“Obviously, but is it a trap for us or for the people of Vos?” Taking the paper back, Kreya scowled at it. The invitation had come for all five of them to join the masters of the Bone Workers Guild and other luminaries in front of Grand Master Lorn’spalace on the fifth tier for a “presentation of great import” that would be of “benefit to all of Vos.”
Concerned, Amurra joined them and read the invite. “I’ll get Stran and Jentt—they were planning to search east of the city today, but I don’t think they’ve left yet.” She scurried out of the room, past the fountain.
“At least there’s no more waiting,” Zera said.
Shooting her a glare, Kreya sat at the workbench with her half-finished constructs. She hadn’t expected to run out of time so quickly. Jentt and Stran had been spending hours searching the mountains around Cerre for Eklor’s missing army, while Kreya and Zera had been feverishly creating new constructs and talismans. Marso and Amurra had paired with Guine to spread word of Zera’s donations to the various theater and dance troops around the city. Everything was in motion, but it clearly wasn’t enough.
Jentt and Stran burst into the grand salon, with Amurra and Marso behind them. “What’s happened?” Stran demanded.
“We’re out of time,” Kreya said.
Zera showed them the invite, while Kreya performed triage on her creations: those too far from completion were pushed aside while she focused on the few that were close to done. She’d have to cut corners, make them slightly less agile and slightly less aware, but so be it.
There had been no sign of Eklor’s army hidden in the forests around Cerre. So Kreya was designing these constructs to search through the vast network of caves beneath and near the city. If Eklor was setting his plan into motion, they needed to find his army as quickly as possible—they’d sent a report of their concerns to Grand Master Lorn, highlighting the fact that there was no way to be certain that Eklor had burned and buriedallof his constructs, and he had replied that perhaps the “army” had been exaggerated in their minds, due to the stress of the situation. He asked them to consider the possibility that Eklor was truly repentant and that their own past experience was coloring their view of the present.
Murderers who try to destroy the world should not get the benefit of the doubt,Kreya thought.
She worked as quickly as she could, adjusting legs and inserting bones. She’d modeled these after the spiderlike crawler, but they were much smaller. They had to be fast, agile, and capable of escaping detection if they did find any trace of the inhuman soldiers.
And then get back to her with that information.
Behind her, the others were tossing ideas back and forth—what Eklor wanted, what they could do about it, and who was in the most danger. Zera loaded up on talismans, filling all her pockets.
“I want you to stay here,” Stran said to Amurra.
“You know I’m coming with you,” she told him. “I didn’t leave our children for me to hide behind fancy walls, and I didn’t like being left behind when you talked to Grand Master Lorn before. We face this together.”
“Amurra, we don’t know what we face. I can’t let—”
“Let? There’s no ‘let’ in marriage. You ask. We discuss. I convince.”
“If I were to lose you—”
“You can’t wrap me up in blankets and preserve me like a glass vase. That’s not how love works. I know there are risks. I want to take those risks with you.”
Kreya activated her constructs, and they chittered as their legs began to vibrate then move. Jentt opened the nearest window, and together they watched the fist-size spiders climb out and flow down the side of the palace. “There are a lot of caves,” Jentt said. “This could take a while.”
“We have to try,” Kreya said. She turned to face the others and noted that Stran and Amurra were still arguing. “Amurra, you’re the only one not mentioned on the invite. You do not have to come.”
A smile blossomed on Stran’s face. “Listen to Kreya.”
Amurra frowned. “With all due respect to Kreya, she’s not my commander—”
Kreya wasn’t finished. “But I am Stran’s. And, Stran, I am ordering you to let your wife, a grown woman, make her own choices about what she’s willing to risk or not.”
“Then I’m coming,” Amurra said firmly.
Kreya nodded approvingly.All of us could choose to stay behind,she thought.We could all decide to go somewhere “safe” and pretend none of this is our responsibility.After all, they’d warned Grand Master Lorn, so that should absolve them of their duty. But that didn’t remove the danger to Vos, and if their country was in danger, there was no way to truly flee this. “Nothing we do is safe. You make the choices you think you can live with and hope you do get to live with them. This is my choice. Each of you gets to make your own.” She stalked to the door. “Come on, everyone who’s coming. We have a disaster to witness.”
She walked outside.
Glancing back, she saw all of them had followed her.
