Page 152

I glanced at the captains. “They will know the truth about…”

“They already know Fadey lives.”

Ofan, the man who spewed his hatred after Roark slaughtered Fillip at the ravines, hung his chin. “Melder Bien, the queen confessed the secrets kept on what truly happened at Stonegate. We know how you fought to stop the bones of the fallen from being used and battled against Melder Fadey. I hope to the gods one day I might earn your forgiveness for misplacing my hatred, for assuming you are like the dark melder.”

Roark clacked his teeth at Ofan, much like Skul Drek.

I squeezed his palm and faced Elisabet. “I’ve no need for apologies. I need to save him. Fadey attacked the deledan in the realm of souls.”

“How?” The queen’s vibrant eyes burned like a new spark of a flame.

“He trapped me, and Skul Drek followed. Fadey attacked him, and he disappeared. When we broke the trance, Roark was like this. What do you mean he is tethered?”

Elisabet cursed and turned back to the prince. “Trapped within him. A rent soul is but a remnant of the whole soul. It is never meant to overpower the body, the mind, the heart. But once it is split, it cannot be forced back into what it was. The remnant will always remain separate. It is a blood craft spell, one with hints of darker curses used against soul crafters in wars of old. The craft is forcing the deledan back into Roark, as though trying to make his soul whole again, and it is poisoning him.”

The white glowing barbs. No doubt a binding spell to tether Skul Drek inside Roark’s whole soul, forcing a restoration that should never be.

“How do we stop it?”

Elisabet was pale when she faced me. “I can’t stop it. Not unless the blood craft is broken. This is Ingir’s work. She is clever and cruel. I will take her head.”

“No.” I stepped in front of the queen. “No. I do not accept that there is nothing we can do for him. I will not watch my husband die because his soul is not free.”

The queen dragged her fingers through her hair, pacing. “I cannot rend him again. It would take too much from him, likely kill him just the same.”

A throat cleared. “Is there a way to slow the poison?”

I startled. Yrsa, Thane, and Emi stood at the flap of the tent.

The princess approached the queen, chin lifted, poised, as regal as I had ever seen her. “Queen Elisabet. Tell me, is there a way to slow the poison?”

The queen looked between Yrsa and Thane, then to Roark. “The fragment of his soul will be trying to get free. It will shadow my son, but if he had other tethers to cling to, it could help him keep in control a little longer. But it would not be permanent.”

“Would it be enough?” Thane pressed.

Elisabet’s jaw set. “It would be long enough to give me time to kill your mother, Prince Thane.”

Thane flinched. “You are trying to test me, Elisabet? See if I am truly loyal to your son? I mean, you did arrange for his fate to cross with mine, hoping he’d betray me in the end.” There was a darkness in the prince’s tone when he leaned over the table, his eyes on the queen. “Let me assure you, every soul I would go to war for is here. In this camp. The rest, I have resigned, could meet the gods. Some certainly should.”

“You would kill your own mother?”

“It is not a desire of mine, no,” Thane admitted. “But for them”—the prince gestured at all of us—“I would do many despicable things. They are my family, Queen Elisabet.”

“Good.” Elisabet’s face softened. “Because Roark does not live if your mother survives. It could be a season, two. But he will fall to the poison. No matter how much we slow it.”

Thane blew out a breath, but he did not falter. “Then Roark lives. Yrsa, any ideas on how we can give him something to hold on to?”

The princess closed her eyes. I did not know how the blood craft spoke to her; I did not know if instincts played a role, or if there was a shift in her blood. But when Yrsa opened her eyes again, her posture straightened and her voice was sure.

“We need something stronger than the desires of the deledan to pull him out of the haze it is creating.”

Roark touched my fingers, drawing my attention. You brighten the night.

All gods.

“Me.” I spun back to Yrsa. “Create a tether of me, of you, of Emi. Thane. Every one of us Roark Ashwood would die to protect. We are the souls who kept him fighting when he did not have control once before.”

Yrsa’s grin turned vicious. “Perfect. I know what to do. Everyone who cares for the prince, give me your damn blood.”