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“He’s always on edge around me,” I said. “I think he hates me.”
Nikolai’s chuckle was dampened by the coach sitting over his head. He rolled back out and raised a single brow at me. “Did you not hear that speech?” Nikolai’s mouth split into a mischievous grin. “Riven doesn’t hate you, Keera. And we both know why you put him on edge.”
I rolled my eyes. Nikolai and I were not havingthatconversation. “The only thing I know is that you need to get to work. I reckon we have five days until the Shades begin patrols. Which means we have four days to blow up the dam.”
The hours passed in a haze of uncomfortable sleep lying across the coach benches, while the uneven road jostled me awake every few hundred feet. When the horses started to slow, I searched for an easy trade. Each time I gave a small pouch of gold worth three times the value of two horses. We didn’t have time to barter. We stopped for only a few minutes before we were on the road again.
Some stolen explosives were tied to the bottom of our carriage. Some were tucked under the bench I sat on. The rest were stuffed into the false roof Nikolai had designed. His work was so seamless I don’t think anyone would notice the hidden compartment unless they knew it was there.
The days were cut into four-hour shifts. One would drive the coach and one would keep watch. The other two would try to rest inside before switching places again four hours later. I partnered with Nikolai, not trusting myself with Riven. We all needed to focus on the dam. One mistake and our mission would fail.
Nikolai barely slept. He stitched long sheets of fabric together for hours. I didn’t understand what he was constructing other than it would hold the explosives. Nikolai moved too quickly to answer my questions, his eyes red with a lack of sleep.
We hardly spoke. Everyone was too exhausted for words, but there was also a creeping tension building between us with every mile we gained on Silstra. Questions swirled in my head, keeping me from sleep. Would the Shades stop us before we even got to Silstra? Would the explosives be enough to damage the dam? Would the damage be enough to destroy the canals entirely? Every moment felt like we were dangling over a cliff edge, one strong breeze from falling into oblivion.
On the second night, I whispered the questions aloud, too tired to keep them in my head anymore. Nikolai looked up from his work, a cutting blade tucked behind his ear and a spool of thread sitting between his teeth. His brows crossed, and he plopped the spool onto his lap.
“The dam will blow, Keera,” he said with wild red eyes. “I’ve done the math. Once I fill the detonators, these belts will be strong enough to bring down the palace at Koratha if we wanted to.” He dove back into his stitching, muttering to himself. All his flirtatious energy had drained away, leaving a Nikolai I barely recognized.
Nikolai the inventor, who had an eye for nothing but his work.
We made it to Silstra in three days. A miraculous speed I hoped I never had to achieve again. My entire body ached from the journey. My throat burned from thirst. I was too tired to know if I craved water or a drink, but I pulled out the vial ofwinvraelixir anyway, dropping a taste of black liquid on my tongue. The scratchy feeling faded along with the stiffness in my neck, but the exhaustion still pulled at my limbs as I dragged them out of the coach.
I grabbed the saddlebags tied to the back of the carriage. Riven came up behind me, grabbing his own bag and mine. “Leave them for the others to grab,” he said softly as three Halflings appeared out of the safe house. “You need rest, Keera.”
It was the first time we had spoken since leaving Cereliath. I nodded and stepped into the house, wanting nothing more than a warm bath and bed. Riven greeted the Halfling who waited for us inside. She wore a sturdy dress, her skirts covered by an apron. She held out two keys.
She passed a black key with a gold label to Riven but he shook his head. “Give that one to her,” he said, gesturing to me. I raised a brow, taking the key from the Halfling’s hand.
“It’s the only one with its own bath,” Riven explained, his eyes soft. I stilled, touched by the kindness, and he disappeared up the stairs with a key of his own.
I took my time in the bath, washing off every minute of the last three days. I savored the bed, grateful that I could sleep in my nightgown rather than the clothes I’d been wearing for days. My body relaxed into the soft mattress ready for sleep, but my mind couldn’t help but wonder if that night’s rest would be my last.
CHAOS HAD ERUPTEDwhen I came downstairs the next morning. The tables in the dining area were pushed against each other to make a space large enough to hold Nikolai’s belt chain of explosives. The chairs were stacked along the windows, curtains drawn so no one could see inside. People were scattered about the inn, preparing weapons and food.
Nikolai and a Halfling I didn’t recognize were busy measuring explosive powder and triple-checking fuse connections. By tonight, both chains he’d constructed would be rolled into large spindles for us to unspool along the base of the dam. Once set, we would light the fuse lines and have just enough time to get out of the blast radius before it blew.
If Nikolai’s calculations were sound.
And if we managed to dock the explosives to begin with.
“We’ve been watching the dam for two weeks. There are guards posted at each tower, and threes Shades who shift between them,” another Halfling reported to Riven, who stood beside the innkeeper’s desk. His ears were clipped, and he wore the clothes of a butcher. Another Halfling hiding in plain sight. Riven’s network was larger than I’d realized.
“There aren’t three,” I said as I took my place beside Riven. He wore no cloak, just his tunic. Half his hair was pulled back in a single braid, the rest tumbled past his shoulders in soft waves. I studied the sharp lines of his jaw and cheeks. He so rarely showed his face, preferring to hide it behind his hood or hair.
Riven turned to catch me staring and raised his brow. “How do you know there aren’t three?” he asked, not in his usual harsh tone, but in the same way he spoke to Nikolai. Curious and calculating, hungry for all the information.
“Shades work in pairs. If you’ve seen three, there must be a fourth.” I picked up an apple from the bowl on the desk and bit into it. Its flesh was soft, but its sweetness made up for it. My stomach grumbled as I chewed, I’d not eaten before going to bed.
I stared down at the map on the table, the dwellings rose from the parchment in my mind like I was flying over the city, seeing all its detail from above. Silstra was split in two by a long river. Banks of brick had been built along its edge, on the west were the stone dwellings of the old Fae city and on the east the haphazard constructions of the Mortals. The houses scattered outward from the river, but all came to a stop at the edge of the dam.
Silstra was built beside a cliff edge that towered over the ports below. Once the river that cut through the city had roared over the rockface in a monstrous waterfall, but the king had stoppered the water when the canals were built. Now a large stone wall jutted out from the rockface and hung the inner city in its shadow. On either side of the dam stood two watch towers, peering over the crenelated edge. Slow waters churned on the inner side of the dam. The outer side held a small patrol bridge at the base of the dam, almost two hundred feet below. Usually, it was barely visible in the mist of the release spouts tumbling into the bay far below.
“Have you checked the rooftops?” I asked the Halfling.
He nodded. “They’re clear. Have been every day this week.”
I suspected as much. “Then the fourth is inside the dam.” I took one last bite of my apple and tossed it into the burning hearth across the room. It sizzled against the log.
