Page 66 of Silver in the Bone

That fleeting moment had given me enough time to work out a strategy: play the victim, not the suspect.

“You had no right to go through our things,” I said.

“Didn’t we?” Betrys asked. “Strangers show up in our lands and we have no right to ensure they aren’t bringing weapons or more dark magic with them?”

Bedivere stood behind her, silently backing the words. He took the Hand of Glory from her, careful to touch only its metal holder. His top lip curled in disgust. “What is the magic attached to this ... thing? I can feel its presence, but it does not reveal itself.”

The hand remained stiff and the eye shut. It was a true reflection of how grim our situation was, and my heart swelled a bit at Ignatius’s loyalty.

“Is that ... ?” Neve breathed out, daring to come a bit closer.

“I always wondered how you managed—” Emrys began.

“To find such—ah, a uniquely carved torch?” I finished. “Very lifelike, isn’t it?”

“Very,” Betrys said, eyes narrowing. “And its magic?”

“To brighten its glow,” I answered.

“My sister is drawn to strange and dreadful things,” Cabell offered fondly.

“Love ’em,” I said, not missing a beat. “Bring me the macabre, all things forbidding and ghastly—as long as they’re not possessed by angry spirits.”

Emrys snorted in amusement.

“Why do you think I spend so much time with this hideous wretch?” I said, jerking a thumb in his direction.

“Ha,” he said. “And here I thought it was for my repulsive personality.”

If I’d been in Betrys’s place, I would have made me light the wicks and prove my ridiculous torch story. Instead, she simply took my word for it and passed it back to me.

“Flea has a similar fascination,” she warned, “and the habit of collecting odd things, so I’d keep an eye on it if I were you.”

I felt Ignatius’s own eye roll beneath its lid as I rewrapped him and took a stab at changing the subject. “You said something about bathing?”

“Yes,” Betrys said. “I did. If you’ll follow me?”

“Actually ... ,” Emrys said. “I’m exhausted. Is it possible to be shown to wherever you’re going to have us sleep?”

“I’ll accompany you,” Bedivere told him.

“Wait, if you wouldn’t mind,” Olwen said, catching Emrys’s arm. “That is, if you aren’t too tired, would you take a look at my garden and see if there’s anything I may not be hearing from the herbs about what they need to thrive?”

My eyes narrowed on the place her fingers still curled around the crook of his elbow. Really? It couldn’t wait until morning?

Something clenched in my chest as he nodded. I forced myself to look at the floor. He’d never been able to resist the opportunity to charm before, so this was hardly a surprise.

It was just that we had come here together—the four of us. It seemed important to stay together until we had a better grip on what was going on.

But Cabell had his hand on my shoulder and was guiding me out through the door before I could say anything at all. The door shut behind us on Emrys’s soft laugh, snuffing out the faint but soothing glow that had briefly sheltered us from the cold and dark of this Otherland.

And if we had dared to forget them, even for a moment, the restless Children of the Night had not forgotten us. They shrieked from the other side of the old stone walls, piercing the peace of the courtyard. Relishing their starless night.

Betrys led us across the courtyard, toward a door in the fortress’s wall. A man in armor leaned over the rampart above us, curious. Behind him, a fire pot licked at the sky, doing little to brighten it.

At Neve’s sharp gasp I looked back, only to do a double take. A massive figure, nearly ten feet tall, slowly lumbered around the tower’s stone face, heading toward the tree that served as the tower’s foundation and spine.

Its body was like a rough sketch of a human, cobbled together from twisted branches and roots, with hollows near the joints. They groaned and creaked as the creature walked. Atop its head was a spiked crown of twigs and leaves. As it moved, the seams of its body exhaled a mist that glowed green in the night.

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