‘A problem we can solve together.’Fola stood.‘The only way this ends is with the fall of Parwys.Whether in rebellion, subjugation by a foreign power, or of its own volition when faced with the bones buried in its foundations.With your help, it might not require rivers of blood.’She extended a hand—dark, road-rough, and calloused, like a horse trader finalising a deal.‘What do you say?’
Siwan looked at Fola’s hand, her expression bemused and weary.
‘It’s absurd that I’m even having this conversation,’ she said.‘Why me, Fola?All I want is to make music, take the stage, and be with the people I care about.I don’t want to think about the kingdom, the rise and fall of it, or the ancient grudges of ghosts.It isn’t fair.’
‘No,’ Fola agreed.‘It isn’t.But the world, even within the walls of the City, is never entirely fair.’
With that, Llewyn could agree.Siwan at least knew what she wanted from life—he had been denied even that taste of normality.There had been only the Grey Lady’s voice, his existence as a tool in her hand.But even he had burned against the injustice, the unfairness of his situation.The sight of Siwan on the altar had added fuel to that fire—his pain in resonance with hers—and given him the strength to break free of the Grey Lady.
Yet there had been no path forward from there.Only the need he felt to protect Siwan, and the affection she felt for the troupe—and which he felt, too, though he was only beginning to admit as much to himself.
It wasn’t enough to only keep her safe.She deserved to lead the life she longed for.This woman Fola was offering a path towards such a future.A path that led through a political morass, negotiations with the vengeful dead, and the manipulation of the ancient, incomprehensible powers of the raven fiend.
Could Fola truly lead them through?Or were these promises only another glamour?
Siwan heaved a sigh and let her shoulders slump.‘All right.If we do this, I can get on with my life, yes?The troupe can reform?I can walk a stage again?’
Llewyn wanted to beg her not to let hope grow, only to die and rot within her.Yet even he had let that flower bloom, though all the horror of his life had hardened the ground of his heart.Hope like he had never known, despite the seeming impossibility of the tasks ahead.
‘If that is what you want, yes,’ Fola said.‘At least, I think so.Or, we can go to the City, and make what sense we can of all of this.’
‘Then I’ll do it,’ Siwan said—neither committing to, nor refusing, Fola’s suggestion that they go to her City.‘How do we start?’
Fola smiled.‘I’m exhausted, and I need to talk to the count, who, I wager, needs his own time to recover.Go and find Damon.Watch him flail about with that sword.Have a good laugh or two.Much as we would all like to end the haunting right this moment, it will take some doing, and a great deal of that effort lies beyond our power.’
Siwan took the suggestion, and soon disappeared from sight behind the keep, where Colm and Damon had gone.
‘You’re right to doubt me,’ Fola said, when the girl was out of earshot.‘As I said, we are far beyond the scope of my knowledge.’
Llewyn considered her, and those words.‘What happens if you fail?’
‘Nothing good,’ Fola muttered.She scratched her bird’s chest feathers.It shut its eyes and cooed.‘The fact of the matter is that Siwan’s situation is unstable.The spells Afanan wove to contain the raven fiend have broken twice already.They will break again.She needs to learn how to control it, if she can.Else this will be but the first nightmare to follow in her wake.’
‘And there is nothing you can do?’Llewyn demanded.‘You, with all your mastery of magic?’
‘With her cooperation, a decade to study her, and all the resources of the city.’Fola shrugged again.‘Possibly?That’s the thing about magic—sometimes, you stumble on something that just refuses to be explained.I hope, for the sake of my own research as much for Siwan’s sake, that this isn’t one of those things.But even determining that much will take time.’
Some of the storm within him—worry, grief, regret—must have shown on his face.Fola stood and reached out to him.He let her place a hand on his arm.
‘This is far from hopeless, Llewyn,’ she said.‘Dangerous, yes.Uncertain, very much so.For now, we have to work together to end the nightmare here in Parwys, and not only for Siwan’s sake.The past has clawed its way free of the grave and would sooner tear this kingdom down to the bedrock than be buried again.’
Fola took a breath, bracing herself.‘But when that is done, she will have to come with me.I know you do not trust me, or my people, but I promise you the City is good.She will be more than safe there—she will be happy.Free to develop her talents, to be who she wants to be.I want that for her as much as you do.And the day may come when she chooses to stay in the City of her own volition.’
‘That day never came for Afanan,’ Llewyn said, feeling brittle and sharp.
Fola smiled softly.‘She carried the City with her, Llewyn.I didn’t know her well, but that much was obvious to me.’
Grief washed through Llewyn.A sudden breaking of a dam he had not known existed.He remembered their last conversation, before the coming of the Huntress.He had said things… horrible things.Raising the notion that the Grey Lady had been right to want Siwan’s death.And Afanan…
‘She wanted Siwan to go with you,’ he said, his own voice sounding thick in his ears.‘She would want her to help you, too, I think.’
Fola nodded, but before she could speak he caught her by the arm and held her tight, so that she would feel the weight of his next words.
‘That child is the best part of me,’ he said, hardly making sense.‘And the best part of her.You will keep her safe.’
Fola took his other arm and pulled him into an embrace.His tears flowed hot, wetting her hair.
‘I will, Llewyn,’ she whispered, and he felt, for the first time, the kindling of an ember of trust in her.‘I swear it, I will do all that I can.’
