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I wouldn’t have voiced that out loud. “I don’t understand her powers.”
“She’s tied to the land,” Caldren said. “Our queen. She has all its magic. Of course when Ebba tries to use the land to destroy us, she’ll find a way.”
His voice was full of pride, and I raised my eyebrows at him skeptically.
“What?” he demanded.
“As you pointed out, Ebba was trying to destroyyou.Honor came to saveyou.”
As far as we’d come, the thought he was special still made my brother grin. “I guess you’re right.”
His fingers absently touched his chest, as if he was thinking of the mark Honor carried against her throat, where he’d bitten her. Grudgingly, I turned my mind away from the sudden image of the three kings’ marks—Caldren’s, Zehr’s, and mine—twined against her fair skin, and sat up to survey the damage.
I was sure our fathers had originally made these tunnels, but Zehr had taken them over and expanded them for his own purposes, allowing his Scourge to move without us seeing them coming. They were empty now, though; the Scourge were far away.
“We need to finish collapsing all the tunnels,” I said, my voice coming out a rasp. “I sealed the ones under the academy. But we need to close them all. Force the Scourge up into the light.”
“Honor’s with Zehr,” Caldren said, and I frowned at him, wondering if he could feel her.
Caldren turned weary eyes my way. “You should get out of here. Ebba has no reason to attack you. His assassin was targeted towardme.”
“It won’t stop coming until we make a new deal with Ebba,” I said. “Lynx and Branok said they killed everyone involved except for a few nobles they’re tracking down. They also found the cursed item that was made to contact Ebba in the first place.”
Caldren shook his head. “Fine, I’ll contact Ebba and see what new deal I can make with him. But I don’t want you involved.”
“Don’t do it alone,” I warned him. “Ebba is old Fae magic. Old Faerules.You need someone to help you see his tricks.”
We’d left that old magic so far behind sometimes we forgot it still lurked deep under the land. Deep in our own bones and flesh, too.
* * *
The two ofus limped back toward the village. Caldren’s camp spread outside it, a series of colorful tents far larger than the village itself. The smoke from the campfires drifted up against the early dawn blush across the sky. Caldren’s guards spotted us, nodded in greeting. I wondered how they’d act if I approached alone.
Nora met us as soon as we neared the command tent. Her face was grim, and Caldren rushed to her side in a few quick steps. “What is it?”
“The capitol city in the north was attacked by Scourge,” Nora said.
Rylow.Home.
My gut bottomed out. “How many casualties?”
Were Lynx and Branok among them? Had Zehr turned them like he turned Arren, knowing we would divert all our resources to find and save them before the Scourge took them over completely?
Nora didn’t bother to answer me. It wasn’t like her to sound grim; those weremypeople, her enemies. Her focus was fixed entirely on Caldren. “Some of our people intend to attack Rylow while they can,” she said. “They want you on the throne, Caldren, and they think you are just trying to protect the predators because of your family. Because you are…”
She didn’t voice that Caldren was a predator.
She cast a glance at me, but only for a split second, as if I were irrelevant in her world.
“How many?” Caldren asked harshly.
She pointed toward an edge of the camp where the tents were being drawn down. “We’ll see what’s left. We still have Morick, at sea.”
“That won’t be enough,” I said. “Not with Kallus plotting to take our kingdom.”
Caldren cursed. He was badly wounded from our fight with the assassin, but even though he was barely holding himself upright, he said, “We need to stop them.”
“You aren’t going anywhere until we get you healed,” I said, and indeed, he was pale as if he were about to pass out. “Sit.”
