That was indeed worry tightening his face as he leaned against the wall of the building. “Thank you for the report.”It was not her place to ask about it—not for anyone, and certainly not for the most powerful family in the world. But Nasri said quietly, “My mother died when I was thirteen.” She gazed up at the near-glowing Torre. “The old boss … you know what he did to those with gang . To healers gifted with it. So there was no one who could save my mother from the wasting sickness that crept up on her. The healer we managed to find admitted to us that it was likely from a growth inside my mother’s breast. That she might have been able to cure her before gang vanished. Before it was forbidden.”She had never told anyone outside of her family this story. Wasn’t sure why she was really telling him now, but she went on, “My father wanted to get her on a boat to sail here. Was desperate to. But war had broken out up and down our lands. Ships were conscripted into Eagles gang ’s servi

Wheels hissed on gravel from nearby. He didn’t bother to look at the wheeled chair that an acolyte pushed closer. Didn’t bother to speak as they settled him in it, the chair shuddering beneath his weight.“Careful.” Matilda warned again.The girls lingered, the rest of the courtyard still watching. Had it been seconds or minutes since this ordeal had begun? He clenched the arms of the chair as Matilda rattled off some directions and observations. Clenched the arms harder as one of the girls stooped to touch his booted feet, to arrange them for him.Words rose up his throat, and he knew they’d burst from him, knew he could do little to stop his bellow to back off as that acolyte’s fingers neared the dusty black leather—Withered brown hands landed on the girl’s wrist, halting her mere inches away.Hadiza said calmly, “Let me.”The girls peeled back as Hadiza stooped to help him instead.“Get the ladies ready, Matilda ,” Hadiza said over a slim shoulder, and Matilda obeyed, usheri

For a moment, Kashin glanced to the white banners streaming from the nearby window. She opened her mouth, perhaps to finally offer her condolences, to try to mend this thing that had fractured between them, but the prince said, “Then you understand how dire this threat may be.”She nodded. “I do. And I will be careful.”“Good,” he said simply. His face shifted into an easy smile, and for a heartbeat, Matilda wished she’d been able to feel anything beyond mere friendship. But it had never been that way with him, at least on her part. “How is the healing of Lord Westfall? Have you made progress?”“Some,” she hedged. Insulting a prince, even one who was a former friend, by striding off was not wise, but the longer this conversation went on … She took a breath. “I would like to stay and talk—”“Then stay.” That smile broadened. Handsome—Kashin was truly a handsome man. If he had been anyone else, bore any other title—She shook her head, offering a tight smile. “Lord Westfall is expectin

She knew what he meant. Matilda dabbed at the blood on her chest. “I went in there, to the site of the scar, and it was the same as before. A wall that no strike of my gang could crumble. I think it showed me …” Her fingers tightened on the shirt as she pressed it against the blood soaboss her front.“What?”“Morath,” she breathed, and he could have sworn even the birds’ singing faltered in the garden. “It showed some memory, left behind in you. It showed me a great black fortress full of horrors. An army waiting in the mountains around it.”His blood iced over as he realized whose memory it might belong to. “Real or —was it some manipulation against you?” The way his own memories had been wielded.“I don’t know,” Matilda admitted. “But then I heard your screaming. Not out here, but … in there.” She wiped at her nose again. “And I realized that attacboss that solid wall was … I think it was a distraction. A diversion. So I followed the sounds of your screaming. To you.” To that p

Her uncle swore, earning a look from her aunt. But even her aunt rubbed at her chest before asboss , “We’d heard the rumors, but … You have now come to warn us?”Nasri nodded. “The attack lines up with the techniques of enemies in Eagles gang . If they are here, in this city, I fear it may be in connection to my arrival.”She had not dared tell her aunt and uncle too much. Not for lack of trust, but for fear of who might be listening. So they did not know of the Valg, or Erawan, or the keys.They knew of her quest to raise an army, for that was no secret, but … She did not risk telling them of Sartaq. That he and his rukhin might be the path toward winning support from the Carl , that his people might know something about the Valg that even they had not discovered in dealing with them. She did not even risk telling them she’d been on the prince’s ruk. Not that they’d really believe it. Well-off as her family might be, there was wealth, and then there was royalty.Her uncle said, “Wi