A very splits near Anielle," he murmured,

running a finger along it. ''It veers southward

to the Silver Lake and Anielle, and then the
other branch runs northward, past the F erian
Gap, skirting along the Ruhnns and up to
nearly the border of Terrasen itself."
''I can read a map, brother," Hasar growled.
Sartaq ignored her, his eyes meeting
Chaol's once more. A spark lit their steady
depths. ''We avoid the A very until Anielle.
March inland. And when the city is secure, we
begin a campaign northward, along the
Avery.''
Nesryn pushed off the wall to prowl to the
prince's side. ''Into the Ferian Gap? We'd be
facing the witches, then.''
Sartaq gave her a half grin. ''Then it's a
good thing we have ruks."
Hasar leaned over the map. ''If we secure
the Ferian Gap, then we could possibly march
all the way to Terrasen, taking the inland
route." She shook her head. "But what of the
armada?''
''They wait to intercept Kswanin's fleet,''
Sartaq said. "We take the soldiers, the
Darghan cavalry, the mks, and they wait for
the rest of the army to arrive and tell them to
meet us here."
Hope stirred in Chaol's chest.
"But that still leaves us at least a week
behind the army marching for Anielle,"
N esryn said.
Truth-they'd never catch up to them in
time. Any delay could cost untold lives. "They
need to be warned," Chaol said. "Anielle must
be warned, and given time to prepare."
Sartaq nodded. ''I can be there in a few
days' flight.''
"No," Chaol said, and Yrene lifted a brow.
"If you can spare me a ruk and a rider, I'll go
myself. Stay here, and ready the mks to fly.
Tomorrow, if possible. A day or at most." He
gestured to Hasar. "Dock the ships and lead
the troops inland, as swiftly as they can
march.''
Yrene's eyes turned wary, well aware of
what and whom he would face in Anielle. The
homecoming he had never pictured, certainly
not under these circumstances.
''I'm coming with you," his wife said.
He squeezed her hand again, as ifto say,
I'm not at all surprised to hear that.
Yrene squeezed right back.
Sartaq and Hasar nodded, and Nesryn
opened her mouth as if she'd object, but
nodded, too.
They'd leave tonight, under cover of
darkness. Finding Dorian again would have to
wait. Yrene chewed on her lip, no doubt
calculating what they'd need to pack, what to
tell the other healers.
He praye d they'd be swift enough, prayed
that he could figure out what the hell to say to
his father, after the oath he'd broken, after all
that lay betwe en them. And more than that,
what he'd say to his mother, and the not-so-
young brothe r he'd left behin d when he'd
chose n Doria n over his birthright.
Chaol had given Y rene the title owed to her
in marrying him: Lady Westfall.
He wond ered if he could stomach being
called Lord. If it mattered at all, given what
bore down upon the city on the Silver Lake.
If it would matter at all if they didn't make
it in time.
Sartaq brace d a hand on the hilt of his
sword. ''Hold the defenses for as long as you
can, Lord Westfall. The ruks will be a day or
so behin d you, the foot soldiers a week behind
that.''
 She wouldn't be able to do it. She would
fail in that, even if she outlasted Maeve.
Outlasted what she might have glimpsed
lay beneath the queen's skin. If that had been
real at all.
Against Erawan, there had been little hope.
But against Maeve as well ...
Silent tears pooled in her mask.
It didn't matter. She wasn't leaving this
place. This box.
She would never again feel the buttery
warmth of the sun on her hair, or a sea-kissed
breeze on her cheeks.
She couldn't stop crying, ceaseless and
relentless. As if some dam had cracked open
inside her the moment she'd seen the blood
dribble down Maeve's face.
She didn't care if Cairn saw the tears,
smelled them.
Let him break her until she was bloody
smithereens on the floor. Let him do it over
and over again.
She wouldn't fight. Couldn't bear to fight.
A door groaned open and closed. Stalking
footsteps neared.
Then a thump on the lid of the coffin.
"How does a few more days in there sound to
you?''
She wished she could fold herself into the
blackness around her.
Cairn told Fenrys to relieve himself and
return. Silence filled the room.
Then a thin scraping. Along the top of the
box. As if Cairn were running a dagger over it.
"I've been thinking how to repay you when
I let you out.''
Aelin blocked out his words. Did nothing
but gaze into the dark.
She was so tired. So, so tired.
For Terrasen, she had gladly d this. All
of it. For Terrasen, she deserved to pay this
•
price.
She had tried to make it right. Had tried,
and failed.
And she was so, so tired.
Fireheart.
The whispered word floated through the
eternal night, a glimmer of sound, of light.
Fireheart.
The woman's voice was soft, loving. Her
mother's voice.
Aelin turned her face away. Even that
movement was more than she could bear.
Fireheart, why do you cry?
Aelin could not answer.
Fireheart.
The words were a gentle brush down her
cheek. Fireheart, why do you cry?
And from far away, deep within her, Aelin
whispered toward that ray of memory,
Because I am lost. And I do not know the way.
Cairn was still talking. Still scraping his
knife over the coffin's lid.
But Aelin did not hear him as she found a
woman lying beside her. A mirror-or a
reflection of the face she'd bear in a few
years' time. Should she live that long.
Borrowed time. Every moment of it had
been borrowed time.
Evalin Swanryver ran gentle fingers down
Aelin' s cheek. Over the mask.
Aelin could have sworn she felt them
against her skin.
You have been very brave, her mother said.
You have been very brave, for so very long.
Aelin couldn't stop the silent sob that
worked its way up her throat.
But you must be brave a little while longer,
my Fireheart.
She leaned into her mother's touch.
 You must be brave a little while longer, and
remember ...
Her mother placed a phantom hand over
Aelin' s heart.
It is the strength of this that matters. No
matter where you are, no matter how far, this
will lead you home.
Aelin managed to slide a hand up to her
chest, to cover her mother's fingers. Only thin
fabric and iron met her skin.
But Evalin Swanryver held Aelin' s gaze,
the softness turning hard and gleaming as fresh
steel. It is the strength of this that matters,
Aelin.
Aelin' s fingers dug into her chest as she
mouthed, The strength of this.
Evalin nodded.
Cairn's hissed threats danced through the
coffin, his knife scraping and scraping.
Evalin's face didn't falter. You are my
daughter. You were born of mighty
bloodlines. That strength flows through you.
Lives in you.
Evalin's face blazed with the fierceness of
the women who had come before them, all the
way back to the Faerie Queen whose eyes they
both bore.
You do not yield.
Then she was g, like dew under the morning
sun.
But the words lingered.
Blossomed within Aelin, bright as a
kindled ember.
You do not yield.
Cairn scraped his dagger over the metal,
right above her head. ''When I cut you up this
time, bitch, I'm going to-''
Aelin slammed her hand into the lid.
Cairn paused.
Aelin pounded her fist into the iron again.
I will never think of you again. Your name
will be erased from Perranth, from Terrasen,
from Adarlan. There will never be a whisper
of you, nor any reminder. You will be forgot."
Vernon paled-just slightly. Then he
smiled. ''Erased from Perranth? You say that
as if you do not know, Lady Elide." He leaned
forward as much as his chains would allow.
"Perranth now lies in the hands of Morath.
Your city has been sacked."
The words rippled through her like a blow,
and even Lorean sucked in a breath.
V emon leaned back, smug as a cat. "Go
ahead and erase me, then. With the rubble, it
will not be hard to do."
Perranth had been captured by Morath.
Elide didn't need to glance over a shoulder to
know that Aelin's eyes were near-glowing.
Bad-this was far worse than they'd
anticipated. They had to move quickly. Get to
the North as fast as they could.
So Elide turned toward the door, Lorean
stalking ahead to open it for her.
"That's it?'' Vernon demanded.
Elide paused. Slowly turned. "What else
could I have to say to you?''
''You did not ask me for details.'' Another
snake's smile. ''You still have not learned how
to play the game, Elide."
Elide returned his smile with of her own.
"There is nothing more that I care to hear
from you.'' She glanced toward Lorean and
Aelin, toward their companions gathered in
the hall. ''But they still have questions."
Vernon's face went the color of spoiled
milk. ''You mean to leave me in their hands,
utterly defenseless?"
"I was defenseless when you let my leg
remain unhealed," she said, a steady sort of
calm settling over her. "I was a child then, and
I survived. You're a grown man." She let her
lips curl in another smile. "We'll see if you
do, too."
She didn't try to hide her limp as she
strode out. As she caught Lorean' s eye and
beheld the pride gleaming there.
Not a whisper-not whisper from that
voice who had guided her. Not from fear, but
... Perhaps she did not need Anneith, Lady of
Wise Things. Perhaps the goddess had known
she herself was not needed.
Not anymore.

Aelin knew that word from her, and Lorean

would rip out V emon' s throat. Or perhaps
begin with snapping bs.
Or skin him alive, as Rowan had d with
Cairn.
As she followed Elide, the Lady of
Perranth's head still high, Aelin forced her
own breathing to remain steady. To brace
herself for what was to come. She could get
through it. Push past the shaking in her hands,
the cold sweat down her back. To learn what
they needed, she could find some way to
endure this next task.
Elide halted in the hall, Gavriel, Rowan,
and Fenrys taking a step closer. No sign of
N esryn, Chao 1, or Sartaq, though shout would
likely summon them in this festering warren.
Gods, the sch of this place. The feel of
it.
She'd been debating for the past hour
whether it was worth it to her sanity and
stomach to shift back into her human form-
to the blessed lesser sense of smell it offered.
Elide said to n of them in icular, ''I don't
care what you do with him."
 "Never underestimate the power of
breaking a few bs,'' Lorean countered.
"See what you can get out of him," Rowan
said to her instead. Lorean whirled, mouth
opening, but Rowan snarled, "We can decide,
here and now, what we wish to be as a court.
Do we act like our enemies? Or do we find
alternative methods to break them?''
Her mate met her stare, understanding
shining there.
Lorean still seemed ready to argue.
Above the phantom sting of chains on her
wrists, the w of a mask on her face, Aelin said,
"We do it my way first. You can still kill him,
but we try my way first." When Lorean didn't
object, she said, "We need some ale."
~

Aelin slid the tankard of chilled ale across the

table to where Vernon now sat, chains
loosened enough for him to use his hands.
 false move, and her fire would melt him.
Only the Lion and Fenrys stood in the
chamber, statid by the doors.
Rowan and Lorean had snarled at her order
to stay in the hall, but Aelin had declared that
they would only hinder her efforts here.
Aelin sipped from her own tankard and
hummed. ''An odd day, when has to
compliment their enemy's good taste in ale."
V emon frowned at the tankard.
"It's not poisd," Aelin said. "It'd defeat the
purpose if it was."
Vernon took a small sip. "I suppose you
think plying me with ale and talking like
we're steadfast friends will get you what you
want to know."
"Would you prefer the alternative?" She
smiled slightly. "I certainly don't."
"The methods may differ, but the end
result will be the same."
''Tell me something interesting, Vernon,
and maybe it will change."
His eyes swept over her. "Had I known
you'd grow into such a queen, perhaps I would
not have bothered to kneel for Adarlan." A sly
smile. ''So different from your parents. Did
your father ever torture a man?"
Ignoring the taunt, Aelin drank, swishing
the ale in her mouth, as if it could wswan away
the taint of this place. "You tried and failed to
win power for yourself. First by stealing it
from Elide, then by trying to sell her to
Erawan. Morath has sacked Perranth, and no
doubt marches on Orynth, and yet we find you
here. Hiding." She drank again. " might think
Erawan's favor had shifted elsewhere."
''Perhaps he statid me here for a reason,
Majesty."
Her magic had already felt him out. To
make sure no heart of iron or Wyrdst beat in
his chest.
"I think you were cast aside," she said,
leaning back and crossing her arms. "I think
you outlived your usefulness, especially after
you failed to recapture Elide, and Erawan
didn't feel like entirely ridding himself of a
lackey, but also didn't want you skulking
about. So here you are." She waved a hand to
the chamber, the mountain above them. ''The
lovely Ferian Gap."
"It's beautiful in the spring," V emon said.
Aelin smiled. ''Again, tell me something
interesting, and perhaps you'll live to see it."
"Do you swear it? On your thr? That you
shall not kill me?'' A glance toward Fenrys
and Gavriel, st-faced behind her. ''Nor any of
your companions?''
Aelin snorted. ''I was hoping you'd hold
out longer before showing your hand." She
statid here."
Erawan or Maeve had to have known.
Somehow. That they'd wind up here, and
planted Vernon in their path. To tell them this.
"Did she say where her army was?" Not
Terrasen-if it had g ahead to Terrasen ...
"She did not, but I assumed her forces had
been left near the coast, to await orders on
where to sail."
Aelin shoved aside her rising nausea. "Did
you learn what Maeve and Erawan plan to
do?"
''Face you, I'd wager."
She made herself lean back in her seat, her
face bored, casual. ''Do you know where
Erawan keeps the third Wyrdkey?"
"What's that?''
Not a misleading question. ''A sliver of
black st-like the planted in Kaltain
Rompier's arm."
 Vernon's eyes shuttered. "She had the fire
gift, too, you know. I tremble to think what
might happen if Erawan put the st within your
arm.''
She ignored him. ''Well?"
Vernon finished his ale. "I don't know if he
had another beyond what was in Kaltain's
arm.''
"He did. He does."
"Then I don't know where it is, do I? I only
knew of the my cunning little niece stole."
Aelin refrained from grinding her teeth.
Maeve and Erawan-united. And not a
whisper of where Dorian and Manon were
with the other keys.
She didn't acknowledge the walls that
began pressing in, the cold sweat again sliding
down her back. "Why did Maeve ally with
Erawan?''
 ''I was not privy to that discussion. I was
dispatched here quickly." A flswan of
annoyance. ''But Maeve somehow has ...
influence over Erawan. ''
''What happened to the Ironteeth statid here
at the Gap?''
''Called northward. To Terrasen. They were
given orders to join with the legion already on
its way after routing the army at the border,
then at Perranth."
Oh gods. It took all her training to think
past the roaring in her head.
'' hundred thousand soldiers march on
Orynth," Vernon said, chuckling. ''Will that
fire of yours be enough to stop them?''
Aelin put a hand on Goldryn' s hilt, her
heart thundering. ''How far are they from the
city?''
Vemon shrugged. ''They were already
within a few days' march when the Ironteeth
legion left here."
Aelin calculated the distance, the terrain,
the size of their own army. They were weeks
away at best-i f the weather didn't hinder
them. weeks through dense fore st and enemy
territory.
They'd never make it in time.
''Do Maeve and Erawan go to join them?''
''I'd assume so. Not with the initial group,
for reasons I was not told, but they will go to
Orynth. And face you there."
Her mouth turned dry. Aelin rose.
Vernon frowned at her. ''Don't you wish to
ask if I know of Erawan 's weaknesses, or any
surprises in store for you?''
''I have everything I need to know." She
jerked her chin to Fenrys and Gavriel and the
former peeled away from the wall to open the
door. The latter, however, began tighing
Vernon's chains once more. Anchoring him to
the chair, binding his hands to the arms.
"Aren't you going to unchain me?" Vernon
demanded. ''I gave you what you wished."
Aelin took a step into the hall, noting the
fury on Lorcan's face. He'd heard every word
-including her oath not to let him slaughter
Vernon.
Aelin threw Vernon a crooked smile over
her shoulder. ''I said nothing about unchaining
you.''
V emon went still.
Aelin shrugged. "I said n of us would kill
you. It's not our fault if you can't get out of
those chains, is it?"
The blood drained from Vernon's face.
Aelin said quietly, ''You chained and
locked my friend in a tower for years. Let's
see how you enjoy the experience." She let her
smile tum vicious. "Though, once the trainers
here are dealt with, I don't think there
will be any left to feed you. Or bring you
water. Or even hear your screaming. So I
doubt you'll make it to years before the end
claims you, but days? ? I can accept that, I
think.''
"Please,'' Vernon said as Gavriel reached
for the door handle-to seal the man inside.
"Marion saved my life," Aelin said,
holding the man's gaze. ''And you gleefully
bowed to the man who killed her. Perhaps
even told the King of Adarlan where to find
us. All of us."
''Please!'' Vernon shrieked.
''You should have conserved that tankard
of ale," was all Aelin said before she nodded
to Gavriel.
V emon began screaming as the door shut.
And Aelin turned the key.
Silence filled the hall.
Aelin met Elide's wide-eyed stare, Lorean
savagely satisfied at her side.
''It won't be quick this way," Aelin said,
exding the key to Elide. The rest of the
question hung there.
Vernon kept screaming, pleading for them
to come back, to unchain him.
Elide studied the sealed door. The
desperate man behind it.
The Lady of Perranth took the outstretched
key. Pocketed it. "We should find a better way
to seal that room.''

"Our worst fears have been confirmed," Aelin

said to Rowan, leaning over a railing of of the
Northern Fang's balconies, peering to the
army gathered on the Gap floor. To where
their companions now headed, the task of
permanently sealing the chamber in which
Vernon sat chained completed. Where they
should be headed, too. But she had paused