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He stopped mid-sentence when the witch touched his shoulder, her knobbled hand like a white talon.
“Keep him near,gaera, he’s a good one,” she said, patting idly at his back, then his face. Andry made a small noise, his eyes wide. The witch ignored him, pointing two fingers at Dom and Sorasa. “I haven’t decided on these two, but better than none.”
Sorasa braced bloody hands on her hips. “She’s seen our faces and she won’t stop rhyming. We need to kill her.”
“I don’t think that can be the solution to every obstacle,” Andry said weakly.
The Amhara was not amused. “It’s served us fine this far.”
Corayne sorely wished for her charts, or at least a map. “What weneedis a plan of action. A direction, a heading.”
“Staying out of Gallish custody is plan enough,” Sorasa replied. “Ride for the closest border, regroup in safety. Not in a crumbling barn ten miles from execution.”
The weight of another sleepless night suddenly loomed, heavy and precarious as the collapsed roof. Corayne ran a hand over her brow, trying to think. Everything felt soft-edged and slow, a sleepy warmth battling against the odd, bracing cold.
She bit her lip. “That Spindle isn’t going to close itself.”
“Spindles,” the old woman said lightly, emphasizing the syllables. She toed a rabbit’s spine aside and made a noise of triumph. Her smile leered. “So the bone tells.”
Even the wind in the fields dropped, going silent. Andry froze over his pack while Dom gripped the collapsed wall, his knuckles white on stone. Slowly, he hung his head. Sorasa did not move, her body too still, her face impassive and neutral. As if she was holding back, fighting to remain calm. Corayne could hardly breathe, feeling like she’d just taken a hammer blow to the chest. The air in her lungs hissed out slowly.
“There’s more than one?” she whispered, looking to Dom. He met her eyes with something like shame.
“Already,” he murmured. “Already.”
Incensed, Sorasa leapt forward, hands free and flexing. She glared into the old woman’s eyes, as if she could find something in them. “Why does anyone believe this?” she spat.
The witch swept aside another bone, letting it skitter over Sorasa’s feet. Her smile turned brittle.
“Amhara Fallen, Amhara Forsaken, Amhara Broken,” the witch said, each word like a knife. Sorasa fell back, flinching as the blow landed home.
“They call you Amhara.” The witch looked at each of them in turn, her brilliant eyes flashing. “But you are Osara.”
Sorasa collided with the crumbled wall of farmhouse, broken stones coming up to her shoulders. Her eyes flared open and her mouth moved but nothing came. Corayne had no idea what the witch’s words meant, but they were enough to steal fire from Sorasa Sarn.
“Sorasa, what is she saying?” Corayne bit out. “What is Osara?”
But the Amhara assassin did not answer. Her nostrils flared and she dropped her gaze, her sunset eyes burning at her feet.
Andry gritted his teeth, his words bringing them back. “There’s another Spindle. Another army.”
Dom dragged his eyes from Sorasa, now silent and far away. “This was his plan from the beginning. The more Spindles he opens, the weaker the realm becomes, the thinner the boundary between Allward and What Waits. Like destroying columns holding up a dome. Of course he’d tear another before we could strike back.”
Corayne heard defeat in him, clear as day. She felt it too, but refused to let it eat her whole. She took the Jydi witch by the arm instead. Her flesh was as cold as her fingers, even through her clothes.
“Do you know where,Gaeda?” Corayne asked. It was like grabbing for the chain of an anchor already sinking. Useless. “Where the Spindle is or where it might lead? Is another army already here?”
The Jydi fixed her with a piercing stare, bones littered at her feet. She nudged one without looking. “No. No.No.”
“All right,” Corayne said, latching on where she could. The chain snagged in her grasp. “Can we hope to fight whatever comes through? Or at least hold it off long enough to do... whatever it is I have to do?”
My blood, the blade. Another Spindle.Her stomach flipped.Another chance.
“There’s only four of us, Corayne,” Dom muttered.
“Five,” she bit back, still holding on to the witch. “Can we do it?”
The Jydi stared into Corayne for a long moment, as she had stared at the bones.
