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Elaran plucked the gold hairpin from the guard’s eye. “I am happy to provide you with a better report.”
Gerarda held out her sleeve to her. Elaran wiped the pin clean and pulled her hair back in an effortless cascade of curls. She reached for one of the iron handles along the tall, blood-stained doors and pulled.
A vile, sweet scent filled the room. The others pulled their collars up to their noses but I still could not move. I finally scanned the room and my lip trembled to see that it was filled with bodies. Some were soldiers, unconscious or dead along the floor, but most were Shades.
The very faces I had seen drained of life in Damien’s memories were wearing thick handkerchiefs tied over their noses as they gathered in small groups about the room, tending to those who were badly injured.
Oh gods. It had all been lies. I had been so quick to believe Damien. So unwilling to explore the rules of our minds’ connection that I assumed it behaved the same way Feron’s mindwalking magic had. I never questioned that what Damien had shown me wasn’t real because I thought he could only show me pieces of his memory. Bile coated my tongue realizing Damien had constructed those dreams out of his own fantasies.
My eyes fell to the Halfling at the center of the room. I was already running to her as she pulled down her scarf. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, neither of us caring how her chair rolled back as we embraced.
“I knew you’d come,” Myrrah whispered. She patted my face and looked over her shoulder at Gerarda. “I told them so.”
My chest cracked open with my voice. “I thought you were dead. All of you.” Thick streams of tears poured down my face. Myrrah wiped them away.
“Not all of us.” Her smile fell for a moment. “Not yet.”
I pressed my head to hers. There weren’t enough words in any tongue I knew to tell her how sorry I was. To tell her how much I missed her wife too. But at least I would have the chance to try.
I stood, wiping my eyes. Riven and the others were already organizing the Shades by injury. Identifying who would need help crossing the island and who was fit enough to carry others.
“How did you survive?” I pulled at her black scarf. “How did you know to attack tonight?”
Myrrah pointed her chin at Elaran who pulled a tiny faebead from between her breasts. It was bright red, the same color as the orb that Gerarda had kept around her neck.
Gerarda had the decency to look at her boots. “I didn’t tell you because I thought Elaran was dead. She never made it to where we said we would meet. I went back there every day forweeks.” Myheart ached at the pain in Gerarda’s voice. She had kept her grief so hidden. The burning at my throat flared. Perhaps, I’d been too preoccupied to notice.
Elaran swallowed thickly. “I overheard the soldiers talking about destroying the bridge that day and I knew what Damien was planning. I came to the island to warn everyone, but I was too late. There was nowhere for us to go when the soldiers came. I thought about using the bead so many times, but I knew that Gerrie might be stupid enough to come on her own …”
Gerarda huffed a laugh. “You let me think you were dead all this time for thechancethat I might come here and hope to find you alive. You weren’t even supposed to be here in the first place.”
“I had no way of telling you where I was anyway.” Elaran gave Gerarda a quick peck on the top of her head. “And I knew you’d be romantic enough to hope.”
Gerarda’s cheeks flushed but she didn’t say anything more. Vrail stepped between me with Riven and Nikolai behind her. “It will be tight, but we have enough vessels to move everyone. But we need to movequickly.” She glanced at Riven. His jaw was hard and his brow sharp enough to kill. I could see from the thick veins pumping along his neck that the pain of using his magic was draining on him. He wouldn’t be able to keep the ship concealed much longer.
“Where are we going?” a soft voice asked from behind me. I turned around and saw a teenage Halfling with light brown hair braided down her back and a smear of red blood across her face. Fyrel. The young initiate I had helped with her bow training what felt like a lifetime before. She was taller now, but thinner. She had grown into her lanky limbs, but her cheeks were hollower than they should have been for one so young. Her arms were marked with circular bruises from where Damien’s needles had stolen her blood.
My throat tightened as I watched her grab a blade from one of the fallen soldiers and stand ready for a fight. “We’re not going to battle yet. I’m taking you home.”
The room broke into a chorus of whispers. None of the girls or Shades in this room had ever known a home outside these walls. My eyes stung as I thought of the wonder that would cover their faces when they beheld Myrelinth for the first time.
The ones who could, stood as one, ready to follow my lead. I turned back toward Riven and Vrail but noticed something move in the corner of my eye. I spun around and saw one of the soldiers who had been laying along the floor stumbling toward the wide window. He pulled a torch from the wall and I aimed my arrow for his hand.
It pierced through the back of his palm. His scream filled the hall, erupting chaos as the Shades reached for anything that could be a weapon, but that was the least of our problems now. I had been so concerned with stopping the guard that I hadn’t thought of why he had reached for a torch at all.
I watched in horror as it sailed through the air and landed against the tall tower of dried grass that was leaning against the Order. The grass ignited, becoming a tower of flame.
A beacon to warn Damien that the Order had been taken.
I turned back to the room. “Everyone follow Gerarda and Elaran to the east side of the island. Move as calmly and swiftly as you can.”
I searched the room for Syrra and Nikolai. “Can you take Myrrah and the wounded with whatever Shades can help?” They both nodded.
Vrail stepped through the crowd toward me. “Keera, we still have to unlock the seal.”
I grabbed a blade from my belt and shook my head. “I’ll go on my own.”
Vrail grabbed my hand. “And if this seal knocks you unconscious like last time?”
