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Branok's voicewas a whisper in my mind. “Honor? The last noble is dead. And with it, Ebba’s last hope. Except for you.”
He hesitated. “I don't want you to risk yourself… or your future…but I know you'll do whatever you have to do for our kingdom. And we'll figure it out together.”
His voice sounded raw and touched my heart. Then he broke off. “Lynx, stop scolding me. My gods. We were young once too, and we learned how to torture, and we turned out fine—
”
His voice faded as he focused again on whatever he was dealing with in the real world.
Meanwhile, white mist swirled along the ceiling.
“Welcome back,” I told the chaos god as he formed in front of me. “Ready to chat?”
Those dozens of eyes opened, then narrowed. Ebba gnashed eleven mouths in fury.
Those eyes rolled up to meet mine. “What did you do, Honor?”
“Just making sure you're willing to negotiate.”
“You had the nobles who promised me a child killed.”
“Honestly, they killed themselves when they decided to attack Lynx.”
Ebba’s rage lashed the room, blowing up like a storm. My hair fluttered in the sudden wind. “And now I can’t receive their firstborns, given they won’t be indulging in the act of making. The most chaotic thing mortals do. Most inconvenient.”
“What do you want?” The castle trembled beneath my feet as if it might be shaken apart, like a child’s house of cards.
“You already know.”
“I’m not going to let you have my baby.”
I couldn’t let himhave my baby.Like every young woman in Rylow, I’d carried an enchantment on my womb since it opened. My mother had been dead by then, so it had been my father who walked with me to the midwives’ offices and then stared at the wall fixedly as they massaged me with spells and potions.
It was a requirement for every Posselbaum girl. Spies and warriors don’t get pregnant. Not when they’re young and paying their dues.
Ebba leaned forward, his enormous head looming over mine, his many eyes sparking. “I’ve had a hundred of these conversations, so let me cut to the heart of the matter. Youaregoing to promise me your baby, delaying your pain for the future. Either you lose Caldren now, or you lose some hypothetical baby later. Then you’re going totrytonot let me have your baby.”
He leaned back, looking self-satisfied.
“I don’t just want you to stop stalking Caldren,” I said. “That’s not enough for this deal. I want you to send your assassin after someone else. At my command.”
CHAPTER14
Honor
When Kallus’sraven called on Zehr for a meeting, he told Zehr to find him on his ship.
Zehr was in no state to attend—and I wouldn’t have let him anyway, I didn’t trust him not to weave some devious webfor my own good—so I went wearing Zehr’s face. I stood alone on the shore overlooking the distant ships rocking on the sea.
There had to be an entire fleet massed out there. Kallus was here for war.
Then dorsal fins broke the waves. My heart lifted at the sight of the dolphins, even before their grinning gray faces rose out of the sea. I raised my hand in greeting, wondering if one of them was Morick.
The dolphins rolled to their sides, then disappeared back under the waves. But they circled the ships as if they were watching over me.
“Thank you,” I called, hoping they could hear me.
Then I looked for the largest, gaudiest ship. I found the one that had a woman’s figurehead at the bow, but not just any woman’s figurehead: this one was part snake, with green scales covering its torso. Above its painted wooden face, it wore a real golden crown.
