Nox blinked at her, cocking their head to one side. “Do you really not know what happened to mixedborn children during the war? After? What happens to them in Havensreach even now?”
Tenny frowned. Hesitated. “What do you mean? There are nomixedborn children in Havensreach anymore. And if there were, they would simply be taken to Nyrundelle like they were in the past.”
Kit startled, nearly dropping the pages. She set them back on the table, then gripped the edge of it for support. Nox straightened in their chair, leaning toward her, as though concerned she might faint.
“Who told you they were taken to Nyrundelle? They are not, Tenny. They never were.” She blew out a breath. “They were killed.”
Tenny looked aghast, all color drained from her normally peachy cheeks. “Wh-what? No. That cannot be true. My father said?—”
“Oh, do tell me what the lord paramount said happened to all the mixedborn children on this side of the Chasm?” Kit all but spat.
“They wouldn’t killchildren!” Tenny cried. She dipped her chin, amber eyes shooting to the floor, and Kit thought it might have been an attempt at preventing them from seeing the wetness lining the edges.
“They would, Tenny.” Kit’s expression softened. “They have. Why would they bother going through the trouble of taking them all the way to Nyrundelle?Whois taking them?” She shook her head. “My uncle is the king, and I have never heard of such a thing.”
Tenny’s voice shook when she spoke again. “I’m sorry. Ithought...” She swallowed. “I didn’t know. My father always told me that even though Arcanian and human relations became illegal after the war, there was an entire sanctuary set up in Nyrundelle for just this sort of thing. That no children of any race deserved to be harmed.”
Tenebris Nox released a dark laugh. “The statement is right, but the reality is wrong.”
“What do you mean?” Tenny asked again.
“I mean, he is right in that children do not deserve harm. Yet they are harmed here every day.”
Tenny crossed one arm over her chest and began fiddling with her locket. “You’re speaking in riddles. Why would my father lie?”
“Why indeed?” Nox hummed.
“Is your father not aware of how the children of the Walk live? Even in your own city, people starve, work themselves to the bone.” Kit softened her tone before continuing. “I know that you yourself are very aware. Ellie told me that when you two were at the orphanage...” She trailed off, a stray realization surging from the back of her mind.
“At the orphanage, what?” Tenny asked, voice quiet, shoulders creeping up toward her ears.
A spark of guilt flared to life in Kit’s chest, but she shooed it away. There would be time to feel bad for, well, making Tenny feel bad later. “I need us to go back a second. What was that before? You said, ‘sanctuary.’ ”
Tenny arched a brow. “I did...but you said no children were taken to Nyrundelle, that they were k-killed, so?—”
“Ellie sent a sparrow.” The words flew out of Kit’s mouth in a jumble, her pulse ticking in her ears. “It kind of”—she made a fist, then flared all five fingers wide with a flick of her wrist—“poofedout of existence before we could send back an answer. But they’re still alive, so that’s something.”
“For now,” Nox added, and Kit elbowed the nocterrian, connecting hard with their chest. She tried not to grimace at the burst of pain suddenly lancing up her arm. Hitting the nocterrian was like striking a wall of stone.
“Well, I’m certainly glad to hear that,” Tenny said slowly, “but what does that have to do with any of this?”
“The message was garbled, like some of it got lost on the way back from Dawnspire. But she said it. Ellie said something about a sanctuary.”
Tenny’s eyes widened. “Like I said, when I came across the birth records, I found it interesting, and it reminded me of the stories my fa—” She swallowed. “The stories he told me when I was younger. So, I started thumbing through this.” She gestured at the book.
Kit’s eyes finally focused on the letters embossed on the leather. It took her brain a few seconds to realize the words she was reading were in the old language.Sanctus Salutum.
Sanctuary.
“Tenny, where did you find that book?”
Color returned to Tenny’s cheeks in a rush. “Oh, I, er, well...You can’t tell, all right? I hadn’t read it for years, but then I remembered seeing it in there one day and...Look, I was always going to put it right back after, and he isn’t even here right now so I?—”
“Tenny.”
“From my father’s study.”
“And you know how to read Old Arcanian?”
