‘Yes.I saw women hanging the day we arrived in Capita.The Order is also imprisoning and torturing innocent women accused of Cursing.Even our queen was tortured before she was killed.’
‘It’s not Cursing.It’s called Weaving,’ she barked at me.‘They call it a curse to keep people ignorant and make sure women are powerless.’Her disgust was apparent by the curl of her lip.
She was right to be disgusted.I wasn’t going to defend Pedion’s treatment of women.‘Do women have power in Ephemeros?’I asked.
‘They have more than they do here.’
‘You have the ability to move things like me.Can you turn things into ash?’I wondered if our similar abilities were why Torgrin was never afraid of me.
‘No, I’m an Iron Weaver.I don’t know what you are,’ she said with a sniff.
‘I don’t know what I am either,’ I said bitterly.
The Wound Weaver had called me a Shadow Weaver, whichdid account for my ability to manipulate and produce shadows.It didn’t, however, explain how I could burn and turn things to ash.
‘How old were you when Torgrin left Ephemeros?’I had guessed she was a few winters older than me, and Torgrin was twenty-three or twenty-four.I should at least know his age, I thought sadly.
‘I wondered how long it would take you.’Braya scoffed.
‘What do you mean?’I asked, confused by her contempt.
‘I knew you would start asking about him because I bet he hasn’t told you shit about himself.’She looked at me sideways.
I felt a shameful pinch in my stomach because, yes, he had barely told me anything about his past or his family.She probably thought of me as some foolish girl desperate to save a lover who doesn’t feel as deeply.Was that true?I was secure in my love with Cillian.I had read about Torgrin’s feelings for me, but he had never said the words to me.He desired and felt an attachment to me – but did he love me like Cillian?Did it matter?The kiss we shared before he left, the look he gave me before he turned the corner.It meant something to me.I cared for them both and would do anything to keep them safe.
I guess I was a lovesick fool.
‘Well, you can find your way from here.The inn is a mile down the road.We will meet you in Danu in two days.’Braya turned her horse around and headed back the way we came.
I dug my heels into Nightmare’s sides in a hurry to return to camp.
Torgrin and Cillian had been at Merrick and the king’s mercy for five days now.I couldn’t let myself go to that dark place, the one that imagined what might have happened to them during that time.
CHAPTER 36
Iwas relieved that Atlas hadn’t moved the camp while I was gone.I would have been able to track them, but it would have meant an extra day of riding, and I needed rest.
Atlas came to greet me with food and water.I told him almost everything, leaving out the part where I had promised to present myself to King Goa in Ephemeros as payment.
‘He is going to give us one hundred of his men?’Atlas’s brows drew together.
‘Will that be enough?’I hoped it would be.
‘I think it can buy us enough time,’ Atlas replied.‘But why is General Toro helping now?He was prepared to put a sword through his son’s heart, from what you told us.’
‘I’m a persuasive person.’I shrugged.
His eyes narrowed, but thankfully, he didn’t press for more.Tomorrow, Ania and Wolfe would remain hidden in the woods with a few soldiers for protection while the rest of us set out for Danu.
†
Nervous energy ran through me, coiling under my skin and through my limbs until I couldn’t stand still a moment longer.
‘Stop pacing.’Atlas was calm but alert, as if he were on any regular watch duty.Danu was spread out below us.Lights no longer flickered in windows, and the streets were dim and silent.I could never be a guard.Hours of standing with nothing but my thoughts would be torture.
Danu streets were crawling with Capita soldiers and men in black robes, which meant they were still looking for us.
At nightfall, Atlas sent men dressed as hawkers to the city entrance to tell him when the Ephemeros general arrived.It was too dangerous for us to be anywhere near the city.
