The guard nearest him shouted and raised his crossbow. There was the tiniest possible twang.
Brysney grunted and stumbled backward into Anjey.
“Cedric? What— Cedric!”
His name on her lips faded into a wordless scream as he slumped to the ground, eyes open and unseeing, his face splattered with blood from the crossbow bolt buried deep in his heart.
Chapter 25
Through the Fire
The hiss of steel sliced through Anjey’s scream. Dimly I saw flashes of silver as Teo scrabbled for another pair of knives and Julienna raised her sword with a yell, but the small red wound on Brysney’s chest filled my vision. Anjey collapsed beneath him, the crossbow hanging forgotten at her side. She had not stopped screaming.
Run. The word came as if from a great distance, swimming up through the choking haze of shock. Another twang. This time Teo cried out and dropped his knife, an arrow piercing his arm at the shoulder. Run!
“Wait!” Rookwood cried. “Don’t touch them! Don’t harm them, you fools! Don’t you know who they are?”
The dreadful excitement in his voice sent everything snapping back into focus. I grabbed Julienna’s arm and dragged her back through the open door. “Julienna, run!” I turned to my sister and tried to pull her to her feet. “Anjey, go!”
“Cedric,” she moaned, cradling his body. “They killed him. They killed him.” Her voice rose to a scream. “You killed him, you bastards!”
“No!”
I reached for her, but she was already on her feet, charging the Vesh with sword drawn. The first man fell with a gurgling cry, clutching the gaping wound in his middle, but the second guard sidestepped her thrust and caught her by the neck, knocking the sword from her hand. She writhed in his grip, screaming hoarsely.
“Go, miladies!” Teo panted. “For gods’ sakes, run!”
I whirled around and crashed headlong into a pillar of shadow and flame. The smell of smoke and charred cloth burned my nose as I stumbled back and hit the ground hard. Without taking his eyes off me, the Minister of the Ledger reached out and caught Julienna by the wrist as she tried to dodge him. She cried out as the hot steel gauntlet seared her skin.
“Well done, Master Rookwood,” the minister said. “Three birds snared and no blood spilt.” He glanced at the fallen guard, then at Brysney’s body. “None of importance, anyway. So this was the slayer of the Great Worm, hm? Pity.”
Anjey uttered a heartrending cry. I started to my feet, only to feel the cold point of a sword slide around the side of my neck.
“Tsk, Lady Daired,” Rookwood said. “None of that.”
The minister turned to me. “Ah yes, Lady Daired! I had hoped we would meet again. Little Aliza Bentaine, my fool of Merybourne. We warned you thrice that this war was coming, yet you still blundered straight into the heart of it.” He shook his head. “Those who belong to the Blood of the Fireborn will face their fate, but you bring yours on yourself.”
There was only one answer I could muster. I spat in his face. It sizzled and evaporated in an instant, and the minister chuckled.
“Bind them,” he ordered. “I shall take them to the throne room.”
Rookwood sheathed his sword clumsily and frowned at the minister. “Don’t you think I should be the one delivering them to the master? Like you said, I did catch them and—”
“Oh, do as you wish. Just do it quickly.”
One of Rookwood’s Vesh seized my arm in an iron grip and hauled me to my feet. It was hopeless, struggling against the ropes, but I did anyway. The Vesh who stuffed a gag in my mouth nearly lost a finger, and the first man who tried to bind Julienna earned a vicious elbow to his temple. He went down hard, but before she could run three other Vesh seized her. Teo fought too, panting and pale as the blood streamed from the wound in his shoulder, but Anjey no longer resisted. She’d fallen silent, her face expressionless and wet with tears. The Minister of the Ledger watched with a thin smile as the Vesh herded us toward the door.
“Commend yourself to whatever god you think will hear you, Daireds,” he said as Julienna passed him. “You are awaited.”
Brysney’s body stared up at us from the threshold. Tears blurred my vision and the splendors of the palace passed by unseen as I turned inward to the only recourse left, praying to gods four-in-one, though for what I hardly knew. The little leather bag in my pocket burned like the last flicker of hope, weaker and weaker with each step.
Suddenly the Vesh in front of me stopped. The gag tugged at my hair as I looked up to see the ornate green and gold archway of the throne room. Rookwood went forward alone, ducking into a perfunctory bow in the doorway.
“What is this?” Lord Camron’s split voice rang out from within. “You dare approach the Silent King empty-handed, Vesh filth? We told you, you are not to weary us with your presence again unless—”
“Unless I bring something worth your while. Yes, yes, I remember,” Rookwood drawled. “As it so happens, I have a present for His Majesty.”
The man behind me drove the butt of his dagger into my back, pushing me forward. So did the others. Julienna cursed through her gag. Anjey moved like a sleepwalker, eyes unseeing. Teo had gone very pale.
The Elementar sat on the king’s throne, its armored shell small and insignificant beneath the bloated shadow that rode it. Wydrick, still dressed in the uniform of an Elsian honor guard, stood on the steps of the dais beside it. He drew aside when he saw us.
My heart gave a great leap. “Ah-uh-er!” I cried through the gag.
Alastair, Edmund, and Lady Catriona knelt just behind Wydrick, their arms bound behind their backs, heads bowed. At my cry Alastair looked up. Blood mottled his face, and one eye was swollen shut. He threw himself forward when he saw our bonds. “Aliza! Julienna!” he rasped. “What’re you—? No!”
“Silence,” the Elementar said with a lazy flick of its wrist. The guard behind Alastair struck him across the back of the head. He fell forward and I bit down hard on the gag, swallowing the obscenities that threatened to strangle me. “Well, Vulture, bring them forward.”
Rookwood seized my bound wrists and shoved me closer. “Show a little respect, my lady,” he chuckled. “You bow before royalty, you know.” He kicked my legs out from under me and I collapsed at Julienna’s side in front of the throne. Anjey and Teo were tossed just as roughly next to her.
The Elementar leaned forward, fingers steepled beneath its chin as it studied us. Its shadow-tendrils crawled hungrily toward Julienna. “The Last Daughter of House Daired,” a quiet voice said from beneath the hood of darkness. “We have waited many lifetimes for this. Well done, Master Vulture.”
“My pleasure, Your Majesty. In fact, if you would be amenable to compensation, I might—”
“Peace,” the Elementar growled, and Rookwood fell silent. “Who are the others?”
“They are of no consequence,” said the Minister of the Ledger.
Hatred pierced my chest like a frozen spear as the Silent King turned to me. “This one looks familiar.”
“She was at the banquet, Your Majesty.”
“At his side.” One twining tendril gestured in Alastair’s direction, who struggled against the gag his guard had stuffed in his mouth. “I was not told there was another daughter.”