“Aye, it was.” Rookwood stepped forward. “And lest we forget, seeing as I was the one who actually caught the girl—”
One of the Elementar’s shadow tendrils pulled taut. Lord Camron’s eyes blazed yellow.
“—I think I should be the one to—”
Camron buried his dagger in Rookwood’s back. The King of the Vultures managed one last gurgling grunt before he fell.
“We tired of his insolence,” the Elementar said. “But, Wydrick, you disappoint me.”
“Master?”
“And you, little one.” A bone-deep shudder took me as one of those shadows brushed my cheek, burning like poisoned ice. “A brave and foolish bargain you have made.”
Quicker than a viper striking it seized my wrist, closed my hand around the heartstones, and wrenched. The burning ice drove knives deep into my hand, my arm, my shoulder, my entire body. A strange noise came from somewhere nearby, strange and thin and high. Like someone screaming. Screaming.
I was screaming.
The Elementar raised my arm, holding it aloft for all the room to see. My voice broke on the third scream. “Tiresome and insolent as he was, Master Vulture was right,” the Elementar said. “We came for justice, and it is justice we shall bring.”
It released me. My knees gave way and I collapsed on the dais. Tears filled my eyes, blurring everything into shades of pain and helplessness and the swelling, mangled mess of broken bones that was my right hand. The heartstones fell from my grasp and rolled away.
“Master, I don’t understand.” Wydrick’s voice came faintly through the haze of shock.
I raised tear-blurred eyes as the Elementar turned to him.
“When we asked for the heartstones of the Daireds, did you think that we meant those dead things your people wear as jewelry?” it said. “Oldkind heartstones have their uses, yes, but we can get them from our agents any time we wish.” It pointed to Alastair and the others. “It was their heartstones we wanted.”
A thunderstruck silence fell over the throne room. Even my pain gave way before it. Wydrick had gone white as the corpse he was.
“You . . . Master, you didn’t tell me . . .”
“Why should we? You are as much a fool as all the others. Now stand aside. We have business to attend to.”
Wydrick fell back, mute, staring, his face the bloodless cast of a man who had made a terrible gamble and lost. I saw it through the burning haze of tears, his expression fixing me like an anchor. Betrayal. Utter, profound, and agonizing.
“Enough delay,” the Elementar said. “The time of accounting has come.”
Someone seized my shoulders and yanked me to my feet. The ground swam and pain like lightning seared through my right arm, and suddenly, with terrible clarity, everything came into focus.
Wydrick, trembling with his hands gripping my shoulders. The traitor betrayed, breaking beneath the weight of his misplaced loyalty.
Anjey, tears streaming down her cheeks, held helpless between two of Camron’s guards.
Camron cleaning his dagger of Rookwood’s blood and watching in ghastly delight as the Elementar made for the Daireds.
Catriona, her face white as salt, grim and hopeless.
Edmund breathing heavily, his head bent, blood dripping from a split lip.
Alastair, one eye swollen shut, still struggling against his captors.
Julienna, fighting like a cornered banshee as the column of shadow approached. Her ghastradi guards brushed off her hobbled blows like they were nothing. The Elementar stopped in front of her.
“Remarkable, isn’t it?” it said. “After all this time, the Blood still runs true. Niaveth’s form and features live again in you, child. We have seen this face in our dreams for six hundred years, the treacherous, smiling filth. She, the pride of Arle, Daughter of the Fireborn, Heir to House Daired, Rider of the South Wind—and what was she truly? A base, faithless coward. She failed to serve her penance, so you must do so in her stead. It is what justice demands. Wydrick, give us your sword.”
Wydrick released me and unsheathed his dragon-clawed blade. The Elementar studied it thoughtfully for a moment.
“Dragons again. How fitting. Your father’s gift, wasn’t it?” Wydrick started as if thunderstruck, and a cruel smile split the shadow. “You think we didn’t know of your heritage? Of the corrupted blood that runs in your veins? We know you better than you think. Where else would we find such a fit blade to use against House Daired but from the traitor’s own armory?”
“Master . . .”
“Be thankful your father fulfilled his family legacy, or you would be kneeling there with the true sons of the Fireborn. He was a faithless coward as well.” The Elementar signaled the guards, who pulled Alastair, Edmund, and Catriona to their knees. The man behind Alastair seized his plait and tugged his head back, exposing his throat, and the Elementar turned again to Julienna. “Let her speak,” it said, and the Vesh holding her removed her gag. “Which will it be?” The point of the sword traveled in a lazy arc from Alastair to Edmund to Catriona and back. “You will choose the price, Niaveth.”
“If you touch them, I swear I will kill you. Thell as my witness, I will kill you!” Julienna choked through her tears.
A gap appeared in the darkness covering the Elementar’s face, and a pair of lips curled into a smile, bloodless and withered. “Three of your gods are blind, child, and Thell turned her gaze from us a long time ago. You will find no help among the Four. Your friends and allies have failed you too, as they always will. You can no longer escape the choice. Whose blood shall pay your debt?”
Julienna spat.
“No? Still you will take the coward’s way out?” The shadowy mass billowed out behind the Elementar. “Ahla-na’shaalk,” it growled and laid the sword against Edmund’s throat. “Very well. We shall choose for you.”
“Do not touch him!” Lady Catriona cried hoarsely, and the Elementar turned to her in surprise. Her gag hung loose around her chin, damp with blood. The guard behind her snarled and reached out to replace it, only to stop at a motion from his master.
“Let her speak,” the Elementar said. “What is your defense, old woman?”
“If you would have Daired blood, then take mine,” she panted. “Leave the children alone.”
“As you wish.”
Wydrick’s sword whistled through the air. There was a damp crunching sound, and Catriona’s head rolled from her shoulders and onto the floor.
Chapter 26
Saint Ellia’s Day
Julienna screamed.
“Who next, Niaveth? This one?” the Elementar said, and raised the sword to Alastair’s throat.
I saw the glint of steel, the beads of sweat rolling from Alastair’s forehead, the warm creep of blood pooling beneath Catriona’s body. Julienna’s cry hung in the air, oddly muted through the humming in my ears. Alastair would die. Alastair would die, and no amount of heartstones could save him. I knew it as I knew my next breath, hanging suspended on parted lips in that timeless instant before the blow fell. Alastair would die, and Edmund would die, then Julienna, and then Anjey, and me, and I couldn’t stop it, and the whole of the kingdom would fall to this creature—this thing—this—