Page 115 of Fortune's Blade

Especially not one who had already been replaced and whom nobody appeared to miss very much in any case. And I didn’t think that whatever this was involved the senate, either, as Marlowe had been sent by them to fetch Mircea back. I didn’t know what was happening, and I wasn’t going to if—

What was that?

I found myself leaning in, until the bird’s beak and the ogre’s tusks almost touched, yet I couldn’t see what was now being reflected in that dark eye. But I wanted to; it felt like it might be important and I was supposed to be good at things like this. I was supposed to be very good!

I focused, concentrating everything I had on the latest tiny image, but it didn’t make any difference. It remained miniscule, just a reflection that I couldn’t . . . quite . . . grasp. Well, not and hold onto the ogre, who drunk or not was starting to squirm now, like a panicked horse fighting its rider.

Soon, I would exhaust myself and lose him. And with him, my only chance to find Mircea before his scent trail disappeared. I had almost reached the point of giving up, not understanding why I was engaging in a stare off with a giant raven when I should be heading—

“Augghhh!” the ogre and I both yelled, because suddenly, what had been merely a glint in the raven’s eyes was zooming at us like an oncoming train. My ride staggered back, crashing into the nest and getting pecked at by the two menacing babies in the process, who did not appreciate the intrusion. He tore away and started to run, leaving the hatchlings and their guardian behind, but it didn’t help.

We might be pelting along the bridge, but I could no longer see it. And I had the idea that the ogre couldn’t, either, because when we topped the arch and started down the other side, he skidded and flailed and went down, sliding across the stone floor and shrieking. We were kept from falling off the edge only by the raised side of the bridge, but it wasn’t very tall as guard rails did not appear to be a fey concept.

Leaving us hanging over the side and staring into darkness, something that I saw in flashes in between the image I had grabbed hold of and refused to let go. And then it broke over my head, swallowing me into another place like stepping through a door. But this wasn’t anywhere I knew.

I was flying over a vast range of snowy mountains that seemed to go on forever. There was a river flowing through a cavernous valley far below, but it looked miniscule as we were very high up with clouds all around. And ravens, so many ravens!

They filled the sky to the point that there was a matching river up here, a black one frothing the air in the hundreds, perhaps in the thousands, while swirling about a castle in the sky.

It was bulbous and huge, more like a city than a single building. I could not tell the exact size because the clouds obscured much of it, and because I did not get to look at it for long. For my family and I were diving, tucking our wings close to our bodies and heading straight down until suddenly cutting hard to the left.

And flowing into a gigantic cavern where clusters of the light fey stood, clumped around the strange wooden vessels with which they tried to keep pace with us, but always failed. A golden god stood in the middle of them, shining like a star, no longer trying to fit in or to pretend to be anything but what he was. And the one they called king was beside him, arguing in their strange language, which grated in my ears as we curved about.

He was angry and trying not to show it, but he did not want the All-Father to use his Svarestri to hunt down some myth. They were at war, he said, barely containing his temper. He needed his army here! Caedmon had been driven off by the great storm he had conjured, but would be back and in force, and his magic was depleted—

“Spare me your cowardice,” the All-Father said, as I landed in front of him, sliding a little on the slick stone floor even with my claws to catch me. “Ah, my scouts have returned. Show me; what did you see?”

He took my head in his hands, pulling me close and looking deep into my mind, drawing out images from the day. He saw the arena, far below, and the towering giant, large even at this distance. He saw the tiny creature beside him, small and dark haired and utterly insignificant, easy to miss in the churning dust—

Until she felled the beast, almost without effort, and laid him to waste in a puddle of his own blood.

He also saw what followed, and as he saw, he started to smile. “Your queen had the right of it,” he said to the king. “She had the right! And now we have the key.”

“Unless her guard lied,” the king spat. “I would not put it past him; he was stupidly loyal—”

“He didn’t lie. Just as my scouts do not. I see what they see, and I have seen enough.” He turned back to me. “Fly! Follow the woman wherever she goes, and come back and show me. Show me where to find her!”

The world shattered around my head, and I came back to myself only to see the city passing quickly around me. The ogre had regained control and galloping down the bridge as fast as his stocky legs could carry him. I twisted my neck, trying to find the raven who had shared the vision with me—or the warning, as it had felt more like the latter.

But I couldn’t see her. And it had been a her; I could still see the connection she had to her hatchlings, the way she had swooped down to find out what this strange, double headed creature was that had come too close, and feel her shock at recognizing me. For her eyes were as good as a master vampire’s, and she had seen me down there, in the arena, seen me close up and knew my face.

But I could not see her; I could not see anything behind us but swaying lantern light, which strobed our steps and confused my already jumbled mind. Because why would she bother with a warning? She had been the one to tell Zeus how to find me, if that had indeed been him, and if it wasn’t it should have been.

If I had ever seen a better representation of a golden god, I didn’t know where.

It didn’t make sense, but it did mean trouble; I had no doubt of that. I had thought Ray and I to be safe here where the sands veiled us, lost with a group of dark fey somewhere in Faerie. But it seemed not.

We needed to leave.

But I needed answers before we did so, and my father was still the best person to provide them. And that meant navigating the maze that was the queen’s capitol, which was harder than it looked. Especially when the bridge suddenly shook, hard enough to throw the ogre against a column at the end.

And it wasn’t only happening to us. I saw the waterfall judder off course for a moment and douse a passing pixie, causing her to fly wildly in a circle and chitter furiously. And the ravens abruptly took flight, most of them, maybe all of them, I didn’t know. Just that the air was suddenly thick with feathers, a furious cloud of winged darkness, and then they were gone.

And my last chance went with them, because the ogre had had enough. He sat down, unplugged his stolen cask and took a hefty swig. And then another and another, until he’d drained half of the barrel and slumped over, allowing the remaining liquid to trickle into the dust.

There was a great deal of that now, with the great thud having caused all the soil that had been lying on the slumbering city to rise up and billow into the air. I assumed that a certain amount must have sifted in through the portal as we traveled, along with the sharp, earthy smell of its desert. But I doubted that any more was to follow.

We had finally stopped.

---