The ghoul crouched beneath the lintel, the knotted rise of its shoulders just brushing the stonework. Its head, hunched low on its sinewy neck, quested to and fro, peering through the strands of white hair that streamed down cheeks hollowed and sunken with age. It drew in a long breath through slitted nostrils and shifted on its knuckles.
Fear rooted me to the spot. A ghoul that size could cross the room in a single bound, and I didn’t need to see the claws hidden behind those knuckles to know it would take only one swipe to disembowel me. Shouting for Julienna would do neither of us any good; I’d be dead by the time she reached the top of the stairs, and she might already be fighting off enemies of her own. Blast and damn!
Sickly marshlight burned in its eyes as its gaze at last landed on me. Its mouth fell open in a ghoulish grin.
“Stay back,” I said. “Stay back or I’ll scream.”
“So scream, pretty human. No one will come for you.” It spoke in a child’s voice, its Arlean high and shrill. It took one lumbering step forward. “I like it when they scream.”
I brandished my knife. “Your last warning.”
“Teeth!” It giggled. “Oh, this one has teeth! Better and better and better, mhmm. Teeth for the bleeding, the breaking! Steel teeth that will turn against their pretty mistress soon, yes, soon!”
I reached behind me and snatched up the first weapon that came to hand. My fingers closed around a spear.
The ghoul snarled and sprang. The impact drove me backward, tearing curtains free as it shoved me out onto the balcony. My back struck the stone balustrade and the spear splintered in my hands with a sound like a breaking bone. I felt cold claws and hot breath on my face and the weight of the creature pressing in on me from everywhere at once, and then the pressure gave way as the world turned upside down and I felt myself falling, pushed over the edge of the balustrade.
Ivy rushed past and I snatched at it blindly, desperately. Vines creaked and tore around me, but the largest of them held enough to slow my descent, and for one breathless instant I saw everything with perfect clarity. The ghoul’s snarl melted away into a look of pure shock as it tipped over the edge of the balustrade, betrayed by its own eager bloodlust. Shock became panic, and it grabbed for the ivy to slow its fall, but it was too heavy. It struck the pavement of the courtyard below with a crunch I felt in every bone.
The ivy sagged. I buried my fingers in the dry foliage and clung to it for all I was worth. Vines snapped. I slipped, caught, and fell another few feet. The courtyard and the sprawled body of the ghoul loomed below, far, but perhaps not that far. I let go.
I hit the ground with a cry and rolled, coming to a stop next to the ghoul in a shower of shredded ivy. It took a moment to catch my breath and tally all the new aches I couldn’t afford to acknowledge. Still alive. That was all that mattered. Cautiously I stood. Nothing was broken.
The ghoul stirred.
I backed away as it gripped the shattered remains of the spear lodged in its shoulder, breaking off the haft just above the spearhead. It rolled onto its knees, breathing heavily. Dark blood dribbled from its open mouth. “Pretty human . . . doesn’t play . . . nice,” it wheezed.
Wingbeats sounded overhead. I looked up, and the ghoul sprang.
Akarra’s roar shook the courtyard, drowning out the ghoul’s squeal and the fatal snap as her jaws closed around its head. A twist, a crunch, and the creature’s body went limp. She tossed it aside as Herreki landed next to her.
“What’s going on?” the Drakaina demanded. “Aliza, what happened? There was fire and sudden chaos in the streets, and Tekari, and all the bells ringing an alarm and—” She inhaled sharply. “Where is Catriona?”
“And where is Alastair?” Akarra asked.
“They’re still in the palace,” Julienna said. I looked up to see her at the top of the stairs to the courtyard, her twin swords strapped to her back. She gasped at the sight of the ghoul’s body. “Aliza, are you all right?”
I leaned on Akarra’s offered wingtip, suddenly unsure of my legs. “Fine. Did you find Teo? Or any of the servants?”
She descended the stairs two at a time, and only when she was closer did I notice the tear tracks on her cheeks. “They’re dead, Aliza. Dead or gone. The Tekari got to them first.” She wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. “Akarra, where’s Mar’esh?”
“Protecting the Fourth Circle with the other Riders, but for Thell’s sake, tell us what happened!”
“The Silent King controls the ghastradi. We were be—be—” Julienna covered her mouth and turned away, a strangled sob swallowing her words.
“We were betrayed,” I said, and told the dragons what had happened in the palace. I hated how easily the story fell from my lips, how cold and callous the words tasted, but I spoke them anyway. If I allowed myself to feel their true weight, I would choke on them. Akarra shifted from foot to foot, her eyes never leaving mine. They burned first with incredulity, then shock, then, for one terrible instant, fear. When I spoke of Alastair’s last words, she let out an agonized roar.
“You left him?”
“Akarra, we had no choice!” Julienna said. “There were too many and they were closing fast. We had to get help—”
Akarra’s growl drowned her out. Flames boiling around her open mouth as she turned toward the palace. “I’ll burn it to the ground. I’ll burn them all! Ket help me, if they touch him I’ll tear them apart, the shikya-vet—”
Herreki brought her wingtip down hard on Akarra’s snout.
“Kes-ahla, for shame!” the Drakaina said. “Your anger may be just, but your words are rash. If you wish to save your khela, you must use wisdom now, not force. Act the fool and you sentence Alastair to death.”
Akarra whirled on her with a wail in Eth.
“I know what I am asking you to do, kes-ahla!” Herreki growled. “I know—” She stopped and drew in a deep breath. As she exhaled, she bent down to touch her snout to Akarra’s and spoke in a soft voice, softer than I’d ever heard from the great Drakaina. “Tempest-Bringer, you forget my khela is in there too. I would not for heaven and earth see her harmed, but Catriona knows her duty, and I know mine.” Her eyes flicked to mine, and for an instant we were Drakaina and nakla no longer, but comrades. “All shall be done to save Lord Alastair, I have no doubt of it.” Her voice fell still further, just audible above the peal of distant bells, the rising crackle of flames, the howl of direwolves, and the human screams. “Remember, kes-ahla. Tey iskaros.”
A thin cry escaped from Akarra, the desperate mewl of a frightened kitten, and it took everything within me not to fall down next to her, weeping. She drew her wings over her head and turned away.
The dull pain of the oakstone box digging into my side brought me back to the bitter task. “The Elementar—that thing that called itself the Silent King—it wants our heartstones,” I said, forcing myself to speak calmly and ignore Akarra’s cries. “Alastair’s and mine.”
“Why?” Herreki asked.
“I don’t know. If it wants them badly enough, though, it may be willing to bargain.”
“Do you have any assurance of this?”
“No, but we have to try.”