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Or Ravens…
One of the maids tore her gaze away and looked ahead. Her eyes met mine and they widened. Letting out a scream, she lost her footing, stumbled sideways, and fell onto her rear, the silver platter clattering loudly beside her.
The other maid careened over her, scrambling for balance as she stared at me from panic-rimmed eyes. “Mercy! Mercy, please!”
Shadows nipped at my fingertips with such viciousness, sweat broke on my forehead, but I folded them into my absorbing hand. “The main gate. Which way?”
The fallen maid scrambled to her feet, shakily pointing down the corridor from which they’d come. “Through the throne room.”
Both maids broke into a flurry of pleas, nearly tripping over each other as they made a swift, terrified escape around the corner.
I took a step toward the abandoned platter, now lying askew on the floor, and looked down. Face webbed with black veins. Shadows sweeping through blonde strands. Eyes dipped in tar. Yes, I’d run, too…
I hurried into the corridor and straight into chaos. A stampede of frenzied servants shot past me, so focused on their flight that most took no notice of me as they mumbled and prayed. Those soldiers shoving themselves through the masses and toward me, however…?
I lowered my gaze and kept to the right of the wall, turning my body outward just a little to hide my shadows as well as I managed.
“Check the dungeon!” one of them shouted. “Make way!”
Armor clanked louder, louder…
… then clattered past me.
I exhaled a long breath and pushed on. The corridor eventually cleared, giving way to a gold-wrought archway. A rich blue carpet rolled out beneath it, leading into an opulent, vault-like structure where a dais of polished white marble led up to… a throne, presumably. I couldn’t really see it.
Not with all the soldiers camping before it, deep in conversation. Too many to fight off? Maybe. I had no desire to find out and be proven right.
I assessed the room. Each side of the dais gave way to passages that most likely lead to private rooms, or perhaps map rooms, just like at Tidestone and Deepmarsh. The only other obvious exit lay directly across from the corridor I had emerged from. The main gate had to be that way. All I had to do was cross without drawing attention to myself.Easy.
My bladder twinged.
I extended my right hand, fingers splayed, and shadows poured into the room. They unfurled like black fog, guided by the flicks of my wrist like I’d seen other deathweavers do. The ones that drifted too far left, risking detection by those soldiers, I thinned-out with my other hand. Just enough to camouflage my movements if I stalked deliberately, but not too much to catch eyes.
Holding my breath, I staggered forward, each step a calculated risk, each second stretching into an eternity. A knot tightened in my stomach, a visceral twist of tension that mirrored the mental strain of the moment. But I shoved that feeling into the background of my consciousness.Almost there!
Stealing into the corridor, I cast a wary glance over my shoulder at the throne room. The soldiers remained with their attention fixed elsewhere, their backs a wall of oblivious steel. A pulse of relief surged through me, but it was a fragile thing, easily shattered.
My ears pricked at the faint sound of metal clashing against metal. Fighting. Nearby.Malyr and Sebian!My heart hammered in my ears as I turned back toward the corridor. They couldn’t be far. If I managed to get there without running into more—
Something slammed into me.
Thrown off balance, I stumbled backward into the throne room and crashed onto the floor. My spine hit the ground with a crackle. Waves of pain reverberated through my body, culminating in a sharp stab at the back of my head. A vibration rippled through my skull, sending a moment of blackness through my vision.
Light returned, and with it, a dread that stabbed into my bladder with such force, I wasn’t sure if it would hold. Because the snarling visage of a wolf looked right at me.
Stunned, I locked eyes with Domren.
No. Not him!
A moment of mutual shock hung suspended in time, then shattered as he bellowed, “Get her!”
Soldiers materialized from behind him, pouring from the corridor. At the same moment, the ones by the throne turned, their swords hissing from their sheaths. Oh no!
A soldier chanced a grab for me.
On instinct, I swept my arm up over my head. Shadows lunged from my fingertips like tendrils of a thorny vine, latching onto his neck and yanking him down with terrifying force.
“Ah!” he screamed, gasping and clawing at his throat as he hit the ground.
