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My breathing quickened under the constraint of my black cuirass, the weight of leather strangely heavy compared to the velvet of my usual shadowcloth tunics. “Two hundred of their archers…”
Father shifted beside me in his silver armor, his sword of blackaerymelsheathed by his side.There wasn’t a fate better with the blade in all Vhaerya,Asker kept telling him whenever they sparred, each thrust of their swords guided by visions. Dreadfully boring, watching two fates fight, none of them ever landing a hit…
“Numbers mean nothing, Malyr.” He stroked his beard, his focus on the table once more, his hair put into a tight braid. “A thousand Ravens can decimate an army of humans ten times that. You mustn’t fear them.”
“I don’t fear them.”
I feared myself.
Didn’t trust this wild, vicious blackness inside my chest. How it writhed and slithered, twisting at my core, carving itself through the gap in my ribs in an attempt to escape my meager control.
My gift.
My curse.
One that had brought about three days of feasting once I revealed at age seven. Father had held a speech about how proud he was, having a deathweaver in the Khysal line once more. Voids had patted my head and squeezed my cheeks, enticed by the strength of my shadows. The strongest weaver since before the first word was written, they’d called me. I’d been so happy.
Until my shadows choked me.
Had escaped me that first night, ripping me from sleep with a death-strangle around my neck. They hadn’t killed me; they’d killed my hound instead. One moment, Asadur had barked, then the next, he’d whimpered, collapsed, and soiled himself.
So I’d kept them inside me. Imprisoned the most vicious of my shadows behind flesh and bone, sensing them grow stronger, angrier, pacing the bars of my ribcage.
Against the weight of my parents’ expectations—the entire damn kingdom’s expectations—I shook my head. “I cannot.”
Father sighed. “Not this again…”
“My prince Malyr,” Asker said. “Have we not practiced your weaving? You can do this!”
“He can, and he will!” Father slammed his fists on the slab of carved stone hard enough, the table quivered and caused several figurines to fall and roll around. “This is war, and I won’t have my son hide in the chambers with the women and children while Ravens spill their blood for the realm and their royals!”
Shadows twisted at my core. Scratching. Scraping. Slithering along my veins and into my fingers, urging me to wrap them around Father’s throat.
I gripped the amulet that hung from my neck instead. Clasped it tightly, allowing it to calm my nerves and shadows alike, this white salt stone surrounded by a socket of blackaerymel.
Where are you? I need you.
“My king…” I looked at Father, holding his stare that had long lost whatever pride they’d held on the day of his speech. “I am of no use to you in fighting off this attack. Merely a liabi—”
A tremor rocked the earth.
Dust rilled from the mortar between the stone columns that held up the roof. A deafening sound echoed across the sanctum, making me spin around just in time to see how a part of the highest watchtower crumbled into the depth.
“Blast these featherless cunts!” Father shouted, hand going to the pommel of his sword. “What now?”
Asker gaped at the damage. “Brisden’s catapults must have arrived and hit the tower. They’re trying to put Valtaris under siege.”
“Honorless cunts!” Father’s hand landed heavily on my shoulders as he pulled me toward him, bringing us face to face. “Fly! Find the pathfinders and lead them like isexpectedof you. Protect them from our enemy’s arrows!”
“My shadows do not protect,” I ground out. “All they do is kill.”
“That’ll serve us just fine. Now do as you are bid, Malyr, or I swear, I’ll tie your ravens—”
“Omaniel.” Mother stepped up beside us with Naya sitting on her hip, her dark hair beautifully pinned up with black clasps shaped like feathers, placing her hand on his wrist to calm the shadows at Father’s core. “Do not be so harsh on him.”
Father removed her touch. “No, Elnora. I have watched this one hide from his gift for far too long. This is war! Do you hear me, Malyr? These humans are spreading lies. Dishonoring your father, shaming your mother! Do your duty by this family and unleash your shadows. Let them cut, bite, and choke through every human who dares mean us harm!”
His shout jabbed at my shadows, making them slither and slink just as I contracted every muscle in my body, my entire focus on holding them back. “I cannot… control… them. Not to this degree. Not while standing at the center of chaos and slaughter. They do not do as they are commanded, but as they please.”
