Page 79
I pulled anyway.
The crack widened enough to show red light. On the other side, Bryony ducked as a chain passed over her head and buried itself in the wall. A second length had wrapped around her ankle. She hacked at it with the short sword while another came off the dais.
“Down!” I shouted.
She dropped without looking round. I drove my shoulder into the broken stone. The wall gave way in a shower of rock, and I caught the chain aimed at her neck.
Its barbed edge sliced my palm. I wound it around my wrist and pulled it towards me. The court answered by yanking the waist chain, but I held my ground and dragged the attacking length away from Bryony.
She cut through the iron around her ankle and kicked it aside. “Took you long enough. Did you ask nicely?”
Relief hit me hard enough to make my answer rough. “The door was being difficult.”
I looked at the broken wall. “I used my shoulder.”
She lifted the sword again. “That explains the hole.”
The brief curve of her mouth vanished when the chain in my hand twisted. I tightened my grip and broke one of its barbs against the floor.
“Get behind the witness rail,” I said. “The old silver line will slow anything Adrian has corrupted.”
Bryony looked at the blood already running down my arm. “What about you? You’re already bleeding through your shirt.”
“I’ll be busy.”
“Arrogant arsehole.”
She moved without wasting time arguing. I stepped between her and the dais as three loose chains rose from the floor.
The throne room had changed since I last stood in it. Red lines filled the carvings on every pillar. The Crown burned red above the empty throne, and Lenora’s raven seal lay at the middle of the dais. Blood covered one silver wing.
“He used the captain’s authority to give the court a false command,” I told Bryony. “He can’t take your claim from outside. He can turn these rooms against you long enough to spill your blood, and the Crown will do the rest.”
The chains struck together.
I caught one across my forearm and let another wrap around my waist. The third went for Bryony. She leaned over the rail, slashed the flat of her blade across the red line in the floor and shouted, “Harrowmere, hold the royal blood safe.”
White light flared under her sword. The third chain dropped a foot from her face.
“Again,” I said. “Name the attack.”
“Reject Adrian Rook’s command.”
The floor shook. Red and white light fought along the pillars, leaving the room in short bursts of darkness. The chain around my waist tightened until I couldn’t draw a full breath. I twisted, locked it against the restraint already fixed to me and pulled both lengths across each other. One snapped. The broken end lashed past my cheek and struck the throne.
Bryony gripped the rail as the room tilted. “Did that work?”
“It annoyed the house,” I said.
“Excellent. I’m annoyed with it too.” Bryony tightened both hands on the sword.
A low laugh escaped me. It hurt, but I had missed that sharp edge in her voice. She kept fighting even while she was furious and afraid.
The red lines surged again. Adrian’s voice filled the room. “You are not the royal heir until the Crown accepts you. Edith hid you among humans and taught you rules that don’t apply here. Come to the throne and stop pretending you can order a court you don’t understand.”
Bryony straightened. “It accepted my blood when it trapped me here.”
“It recognised a source. Nothing more,” Adrian said.
