A few days after the unforgivable, despicable slave massacre, Sorscha was finishing up a letter to her friend when there was a knock on her workroom door. She jumped, scrawling a line of ink down the center of the page.Levi popped his head in, grinning, but the grin faltered when he saw the letter. “I hope I’m not interrupting,” he said, slipping in and shutting the door. As he turned, she balled up the ruined paper and chucked it into the rubbish pail.“Not at all,” she said, toes curling as he nuzzled her neck and slipped his arms around her waist. “Someone might walk in,” she protested, squirming out of his grip. He let her go, but his eyes gleamed in a way that told her when they were alone again tonight, he might not be so easy to convince. She smiled.“Do that again,” he breathed.So Sorscha smiled again, laughing. And he looked so baffled by it that she asked, “What?”“That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.She had to look away, go find something to do with
Levi ’s skin was pasty and gleamed with sweat. “This is how he did it, isn’t it?”Benjamin nodded. “Ten years ago, with those three towers. They were all built years before so that this could happen precisely when his invading forces were ready, so no one could strike back. Your father’s spell must be far more complex, to have frozen magic entirely, but on a basic level, this is probably similar to what occurred.”“I want to see where they are—the towers.” Benjamin shook his head, but Levi said, “You’ve told me everything else already. Show me the damn map.”With a wipe of his hand, a god destroying a world, Levi knocked down a crystal, releasing the power. The ice melted, the water rippling and sloshing against the bowl. Just like that. Benjamin blinked.If they could knock out one tower … It was such a risk. They needed to be sure before acting. Benjamin pulled out the map Murtaugh had marked, the map he didn’t dare to leave anywhere. “Here, here, and here,” he said, pointing
“The leaders feared us and what we’d become. They thought the warriors or beasts would handle us, if we didn’t have each other to lean against. They were wrong.” His eyes glittered fiercely. “What they learned was that we love each other as true brothers. And there was nothing that we wouldn’t do, no one we wouldn’t kill, to reach each other. To save each other. We killed our way across the mountains, and made it through the Breaking—the worst of Ramiel’s three routes to the top—and we won the damn thing. We touched the stone in the same moment, the same breath, and entered the Carynthian tier of warriors.”Jane failed to keep the shock off her face. “And you say only twelve have become Carynthian … in five hundred years?”“No. Twelve made it to the mountain and became Oristian. Only three others, besides us, won the Blood Rite and became Carynthian.” His throat bobbed. “They were fine warriors, and led exemplary units. We lost two of them against Hybern.”Likely in that blast that
“I have a proposition for you.”Stomach muscles throbbing, legs aching, Jane stood before Clotho’s desk as the priestess finished writing on whatever manuscript she was annotating, her enchanted pen scratching along.Clotho lifted her head when the pen dotted its last mark and wrote on a scrap of paper, Yes?“Would you allow your priestesses to train with me every morning in the ring at the top of the House? Not all of them—just whoever might be interested.”Clotho sat perfectly still. Then the pen moved. Train for what?“To strengthen their bodies, to defend themselves, to attack, if they wish. But also to clear their minds. Help steady them.”Who will oversee this training? You?“No. I’m not qualified for that. I’ll be training with them.” Her heart pounded. She wasn’t sure why. “Vincent will be overseeing it. He’s not handsy— I mean, he’s respectful and …” Jane shook her head. She sounded a proper fool.Beneath the shadows of her hood, Jane could sense Clotho’s gaze lin
Vincent, former leader of the Consortium, Hand to the newly crowned Head of the Consortium , had discovered that he hated one sound above all others.Wheels.Specifically, their clattering along the planks of the ship on which he’d spent the past three weeks sailing through storm-tossed waters. And now their rattle and thunk over the shining green marble floors and intricate mosaics throughout the Kan of the Southern Continent’s shining palace in Antica.With nothing to do beyond sit in the wheeled chair that he’d deemed had become both his prison and his only path to seeing the world, Vincent took in the details of the sprawling palace perched atop one of the capital city’s countless hills. Every bit of material had been taken from and built in honor of some portion of the Kan ’s mighty empire:Those polished green floors his chair now clattered over were hewn from quarries in the southwest of the continent. The red pillars fashioned like mighty trees, their uppermost branches stre
There were two parts of her, Nasir supposed.The part that was now Captain of Consortium ’s Royal Guard, who had made a vow to her king to see that the man in the wheeled chair beside her was healed— and to muster an army from the man enthroned before her. That part of Nasir kept her head high, her shoulders back, her hands within a nonthreatening distance of the ornate sword at her hip.Then there was the other part.The part that had glimpsed the spires and minarets and domes of the god-city breaking over the horizon as they’d sailed in, the shining pillar of the Torre standing proud over it all, and had to swallow back tears. The part that had scented the smoky paprika and crisp tang of ginger and beckoning sweetness of cumin as soon as she had cleared the docks and knew, deep in her bones, that she was home. That, yes, she lived and served and would die for Consortium , for the family still there, but this place, where her father had once lived and where even her Consortium -bor
Nasir had been standing beside her new king when Jane had flipped open two trunks in her chambers. Jewelry fit for a queen—for a Queen of Assassins— had sparkled within.I’ve enough funds for now, Jane had only said to Levi when he began to object. Give the Kan some of Consortium ’s finest.In the weeks since, Nasir had wondered if Jane had been glad to be rid of what she’d purchased with her blood money. The jewels of Consortium , it seemed, would not travel to Terrasen.And now, as the servants laid out the four smaller trunks—divided from the original two to make it seem like more, Jane had suggested—as they flipped open the lids, the still-silent court pressed in to see.A murmur went through them at the glistening gems and gold and silver.“A gift,” Vincent declared as even the Kan himself leaned forward toexamine the trove. “From King Levi Havilliard of Consortium , and Jane , Queen of Terrasen.”Princess Hasar’s eyes snapped to Vincent at the second name.Prince Sartaq
“Arghun informed me your injuries are new—that they happened when the glass castle exploded. It seems the Queen of Terrasen was not quite so careful about shielding her allies.”A muscle feathered in Vincent ’s jaw as everyone, from prince to servant, looked to his legs.“Because your relations with Doranelle are now strained, also thanks to Jane , I assume the only path toward healing that remains open to you is here. At the Torre Cesme.”The Kan shrugged, the only reveal of the irreverent warrior-youth he’d once been. “My beloved wife will be deeply upset if I were to deny an injured man a chance at healing”—the empress was nowhere to be seen in this room, Nasir realized with a start—“so I, of course, shall grant you permission to enter the Torre. Whether its healers will agree to work upon you shall be up to them. Even I do not control the will of the Torre.”The Torre—the Tower. It dominated the southern edge of Antica, nestled atop its highest hill to overlook the city that slo