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I rolled my eyes. Vrail rocked back and forth on her feet, unsure of where to look. “Hitting someone in the back of the head is a cowardly way to overcome your target,” I said.
Gerarda slipped her blade through her fingers once more. “You say cowardly, I say efficient.A blade must be sharp and always at the ready.” She bent down and cut through the rope along my elbows with her knife.
I groaned as the blood flow returned to my upper arms. Gerarda had tied them tighter than she needed to. “Didn’t we hear the mistresses say that enough when we were initiates?”
“Apparently you needed some repetition.” Gerarda left the binds along my wrists uncut so I had to struggle to loop my arms around my legs and pulled the knots free with my teeth. Vrail stepped forward to help but Gerarda shook her head.
“She won’t hurt you, Vrail,” I said, rubbing the red marks along my wrists. “Gerarda may rattle like a snake but she rarely bites.”
Gerarda pulled back her lip to flash her fangs.
“I’m not so certain,” Vrail mumbled.
I stood and was welcomed with a salty spray against my face. The mist cooled my skin and helped clear the fatigue from my mind. I peered down and saw waves taller than any dwelling in Elverath crash against the cliffs like ripples in a pond. We stood at the point where two towering cliff edges merged. As I looked into the distance, one cliff verged to the south, decorated with the descending foothills of the Burning Mountains and swirling trees that I had only ever seen in the Singing Wood. The other cliff broke to the west, climbing even higher in elevation until its peak tickled the bellies of the gulls above.
It was as if powerful magic had cut through the middle of a mountain and cast it into the sea. I had never beheld the sight before, but whispers of these cliffs had reached me even in the kingdom. TheCliffs of Elandorr were said to be cursed by the souls of the Elves who had been lost the day their city crashed into the water and was never seen again.
“I thought this was only a story,” I whispered in disbelief.
Gerarda stared out at the cliffs with the same reverence. Her voice was soft like the breeze that blew through her short hair and my messy braid. “We were told many stories as children. It will take more than one lifetime to find the seeds of truth within the soil of Aemon’s lies.”
I turned to her but didn’t say anything. Gerarda and I had spent the entirety of our lives in opposition. Competitive initiates and then adversarial Shades. Even now, my every muscle twitched in anticipation for her strike, but how much of that was founded in truth and how much in the way Aemon had made us distrustful of those who should have been our closest allies?
The thought made my throat burn, yearning for the sweet taste of wine that would wash any other revelations from my mind completely.
I patted my pocket for the wineskin I’d been carrying when Gerarda knocked me over the head. It was gone.
“You thought it wise to kidnap meandtake my wine?”
Gerarda didn’t say anything, but walked behind us to where three horses were grazing in the meadow. She undid one of the saddle bags on the small brown mare carrying Gerarda’s favored weapons. Her small hands slipped inside and reappeared carrying two wineskins. They hung from her fists like geese held by their necks.
I swallowed against the dryness in my throat and snatched them from her. Vrail’s foot tapped uncontrollably as I uncorked one of the skins and took a heavy gulp.
“That is all we have,” Vrail said. Her soft jaw pulsed as she stared at me in that shy but unrelenting way only she could master. “Best ration your supply until we know how long this will take.”
I took another, smaller swallow and replaced the cork. My gaze bounced between them. The only reasons I could think for the two of them to go to the trouble of kidnapping me would be to travel to the Order. Yet we were leagues from there … That only left one other option.
I pinched the bridge of my nose to dampen my anger. “This is about the seals?”
Vrail bit her lip guiltily, but she didn’t evade my gaze.
“I already told you, I’m not going to listen—”
“The time for listening has come and gone.” Gerarda held her thin blade to the belly of my wine sack. “I realize your hopes have left you and you’re determined to spend your days chained to your despair. But I will not allow one of our best warriors to drink herself to ruin until Iknowthe Shades are gone.”
Gerarda’s blade pushed a little harder against the sack. I leaned back and clenched my jaw. “You fill my cup but ask me not to drink from it?” I stepped back and my laugh seared my throat.
Gerarda lifted her chin. “Your wine eases the pain of lost hopes—I intend to reinvigorate them.”
I was about to ask her how she meant to do such a thing when the breeze from the cliffs grew into a gale, blowing Gerarda’s claim out to sea. The gulls that had been resting their wings suspended in the winds high above dove for the water, plummeting from their heights as the entire sky turned black.
There were no wisps of cloud or hints of the moon along the horizon. Even the suns were gone, entirely covered in shadow. The sea below us disappeared but the roaring waves echoed through the darkness, marking the passage of time as all other markers were stripped from our senses.
The blackness settled across the land as far as we could see. A tiny ball of light floated by my head and I reached for it, but couldnot touch it. As it slowly grew larger, I realized it was not a tiny faelight floating in front me at all but a much larger one coming closer in the distance.
Vrail ignited a faelight of her own, illuminating the open fear in her face and the resolved, hidden worry in Gerarda’s. I grinned wickedly at them both. Whatever plans they had for me were moot. They had failed to outrun Riven and his shadows.
Three figures appeared on horseback. In the middle, riding a tall stallion the same color as his shadows, was Riven. Nikolai rode to the left of him while Syrra protected them from the right. All three had their eyes locked on the Dagger.
