A what?
Her eyes locked on Khayrivven’s across what felt like an endless distance, and the powers at her fingertips threatened to burst from her skin. Ycken was standing not three paces from him, a second knife in his hand, ready to throw if anyone dared finish that sentence. His gaze flicked over the murmuring crowd like a black whip. Behind him, Brunn, Nahrit, and Dunveil were on their feet, their hands within casual reach of their weapons. Only Lenya was missing, the Master of Whispers absent at a meal for the first time since Lory’s return.
“Silence!” Ycken boomed, followed by a silver crackle in the air that Lory wasn’t certain was his magic or simply the collective of all magics straining to protect their wielders. The air tasted of singeing heat and the electricity before a thunderstorm, of spices and rain and damp earth. “SILENCE!”
Lory could have heard a needle fall to the stone floor; that was how quiet the room had become, all eyes on the general standing behind the four slaughtered students.
“What we all have just witnessed is an act of treason. Anyone repeating those words will die a similar death to Narica Hayley. Am I understood?”
No one seemed to dare take a breath.
“AM I UNDERSTOOD?”
His words struck like a whip, making her sit up straight and press her scaldingly hot palm on top of her thighs.
“Yes, sir!” Ashlings, thornlings, and tested alike responded, and as Ycken peered in her general direction, Lory’s heart almost stopped beating.
“Heener, Vednis, Ngala, Seine,” Ycken prompted, his infuriated expression making Lory wonder if the four of them were next. “Help Bleek dispose of the bodies. The rest of you”—he took a step toward the front of the platform, gesturing into the mess hall—“get to class. Immediately.”
All around Lory, students got to their feet, some of them grumbling that they had to start the day without breakfast, others whispering about what had just happened, while Lory exchanged glances with Thal and Tabi.
“We’d better go,” Tabi murmured, tilting her head so her little braids cascaded over her shoulder.
Thal was already on his feet, Lory and Tabi following suit, when she noticed Brycon was still in his seat, his brown face slightly green.
“Come on,” Lory uttered at him as she made her way past him after Tabi and Thal. “You don’t want to get on Ycken’s bad side today.”
Brycon swayed as he stood and filed in behind her, but he followed them through the leaving crowd as they slowly made progress toward the leadership dais, where Khayrivven was still standing guard by the dead students as if they could come back to life and wreak havoc on Ashthorn Ward.
Ycken had returned to his table, sipping on a cup of steaming liquid and murmuring with Brunn, whose eyesfollowed Lory through the room like she expected her to bolt and was ready to deliver punishment.
Thal and Tabi reached the stairs first, climbing up them in front of Lory and Brycon, who was slowing with every step he took. None of them spoke a word as they spread out, Tabi and Thal standing next to the boy at the very right, then Lory, who was promptly joined by Hadrian Bleek, whose handsome face twisted with disgust as he reached for the second boy’s arms. “Take the legs,” he instructed. “We need to get him to the stairs.”
Lory more felt than saw Khayrivven drift closer, taking position at Narica’s head and picking her up by the arms while Brycon took the woman’s legs. When Lory dared peek over her shoulder, Khayrivven’s serious expression was all she saw. His eyes weren’t snapping to hers like on a silent summons; his mouth wasn’t quirking with the smirk he so often wore to make the world believe he didn’t care. And when he finally carried Narica down the stairs, Brycon struggling not to trip over his own feet while balancing the woman’s legs, Khayrivven’s face turned near solemn.
The side door opened on a phantom wind, and the first pair disappeared with the corpse of what Ashthorn called a traitor, but whose opinions and ideas Lory would have liked to hear so she could form an opinion of her own. Something had always beenwrongwith Ashthorn Ward, but this was her first time Lory had witnessed someone voice it and the retaliation that had promptly come.
“We’re next,” Bleek said in his usual confident tone, but there was no trace of the courtier he’d embodied in Gildedtraining the night before. Something raw had entered his tone, and judging by the look in his eyes as he watched Narica’s body disappear through the door, his perfect veneer was about to crack.
With a grunt, Lory followed his lead as he lifted the boy’s torso, her palms still hot enough for a living person to notice something was off had she touched one. But the dead boy between them didn’t give her away as they carried him down the stairs and out into the narrow hallway, Thal and Tabi following with the last two bodies, dragging them through the side door.
By the wall, a simple wooden cart wide enough for one person to lie down on stood ready. Khayrivven and Brycon were lifting Narica’s body onto it as Lory stopped behind it, Bleek pulling the boy from her grasp. With momentum, he heaved him on top of Narica, making sure he wouldn’t slip, before waving over Thal and Tabi with the other corpses.
“Take the cart to the end of the hallway,” Khayrivven ordered in a dead tone that made a chill spider-walk up Lory’s neck.
Thal and Tabi exchanged a worried look as they stepped to one side of the cart, grabbing the handles between the wheels at the side of the hip-high platform where the bodies were stacked. Brycon and Lory took the other side, squeezing between the cart and the wall, and Lory forced herself not to look too closely at the faces of the four dead ashlings. She didn’t dare look at her friends either, or at Bleek, who waved them forward, leading the way to the end of the hallway, while Khayrivven walked behind them, his stepsdeliberately audible so the students would know there was no running from this chore.
To Lory, the presence that made Brycon glimpse over his shoulder, sweat beading on his forehead, made her feel less alone, made the task less harrowing, even when inside, she wanted to scream at the injustice of what was happening in these halls.
Missing a meal shouldn’t be reason enough to execute someone. Period.
Opinions shouldn’t be a reason to silence anyone. No matter whether the Ward agreed with them or not.
Fear shouldn’t be a way to lead.
“In here.” Khayrivven walked past the cart, gesturing at an open door to a room just big enough to fit the cart and two people. He stepped aside, waiting for the four students to push their load into the space, then stepped into it behind the cart, raising his brows at them where they stood in front of the doorless room. “Vednis, you come with me. The rest of you, off to classes.”
Tabi shot her a concerned glance as she followed a shaking Brycon and a pale Thal back toward the mess hall, Bleek staying behind to usher Lory into the room and pull a lever next to the opening.
