AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Uh, yeah. It’s three blocks down.” I cleared my throat, the image I had seen of Del projected onto the palace walls flashing to mind. “I’ll secure us a room for the night and meet you there.”
Callon and Lyra nodded, and without a word, I made my way toward the pub I saw next to the inn to see what else I could find out and to grab a much-needed drink.
* * *
The three of us hadn’t been tucked in the corner of the inn’s tavern room for more than a handful of minutes, ale in our mugs and Lyra’s senses open and probing, before the merc we’d been following strode into the Silver Bow Inn. He maneuvered around tables of drunken patrons and over to a bench on the other side of the room where a nondescript man with a brown hood pulled up over his head was already sitting. They made no gestures in greeting and simply sat across from one another.
Lyra listened while Callon and I counted our breaths in suspended anticipation. Callon rubbed his stomach, full from too much stew and bread, and I took another hearty gulp of ale.
My head was light, having downed two pints already, just enough to take the edge off. Other than the prophecy, we’d unearthed no other concerns, for which I was grateful. King Eduart was raising additional men and women for his army, intent on going to the desert lands, and that was plenty for us to be worried about for now.
We had people who could fight, warriors and others capable and willing to give their lives for the greater good. But that they would have to at all was as disheartening as it was enraging. They’d already been forced from their homelands, all of them seeking refuge in the outerlands because they’d lost everything else.
Now, I would have to return to tell them they needed to prepare themselves to fight again and perhaps die in the process.
“Do you think the prophecy is real?” Callon asked in Lyra’s silence.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Regardless, they are using it to build a bigger army, one that will be at our doorstep, probably within a matter of months. We have no choice but to be ready for them.”
More silence hung between us as Lyra listened. Callon took another swig from his mug, his fingers tapping on the table. “What are they saying, Lyra?” he hissed. “The suspense is killing me.” He took another sip of his ale and looked at me. “I don’t think she knows how this works, Fin. She has to relay the information, not just—”
“Shut up,” Lyra bit out. “They haven’t said how, exactly, but—” Lyra took a sip of her ale to wet her lips, staring at her mug as she focused on their conversation. “Corvo’s definitely involved.”
Callon straightened as I stared at Lyra, unblinking. It took all the focus I had to register her words—to mull them around and let them root—because that was the last thing I’d wanted her to say.
I cleared my throat. “What else are they saying?”
Lyra’s face was a mask of consternation as she continued to listen. “He says his master wants half of the samples taken to Corvo...To a temple...a temple on an island.”
Alcatraz.
Callon gasped, and my blood ran cold as chills prickled over my skin.
“Isn’t that where they were harvesting Healer blood?” he asked.
I nodded, reluctant to believe it was all circling back to where it started in the first place.
“He’s telling them they have to leave tomorrow so they can get to the city before the equinox.” Lyra shook her head, rolling her eyes and completely oblivious to the gravity of her words. “God, they’re superstitious bastards.”
“So...we have to go to Corvo,” Callon said, his gaze burrowing a hole through me.
I hadn’t stepped foot inside the Corvo Kingdom in ten years, not since the massacre in my village that sent us on the trek for refuge. Corvo was the last place I wanted to be—the only place I swore I’d never return. But...
“We have to know what they’re doing on that island,” I said to no one in particular. And I knew what that meant. As much as it twisted me up inside, my path was glaringly clear.
“Fin,” Callon said cautiously. “Are you sure? I mean, I know you can do this, but—” He grabbed my shoulder. “Maybe you should think about it.”
Lyra glanced between us, knowing very little of my past with the Corvo princess. But Del’s mother was up to something like always. I would find out what it was. “I have to go,” I told him. There was no other choice.
Callon filled my mug to the brim and slid it closer to me. The ale sloshed over the side, and I gladly grabbed the handle, gulping the entire contents down. Then, with a heaving breath, I ran the back of my hand over my mouth, and Callon poured me another.
Despite the time that had passed, seeing Del would not be easy. But I refused to believe she would intentionally put my people and me in harm’s way or that she would knowingly sit by while her mother used that damned island for her schemes again. Ihadto believe that.
I gulped down half of my ale and stared at Callon and Lyra. Both of them watched me with concern.
“You should get some rest,” I said curtly. “We leave at first light.”
4
