Page 63 of A Song of Ash and Moonlight

Mara glided past him with a look of wry amusement and pointed through the trees at a building’s silhouette. It was on the far side oftown, perched on a rocky rise. Smoke unfurled from its chimneys, a soft black against the violet evening sky.

“There it is,” she said. “The Torch and Thorn. We’ll stay there for the night.”

“And you’ve been there before?” said Ryder, pushing his way through the thicket with his bare hands. Thorns caught on his clothes, but he seemed oblivious to their teeth.

“Not for some time, but an old friend of the Order lives in Vallenvoren and has vouched for the new innkeepers in recent correspondence,” Mara said. “We’ll be safe here for the night. Vallenvoren is quite friendly to the faithful.”

Ryder looked unconvinced. “Evensixfaithful all arriving at once?”

“Those making pilgrimages to the Altivar Cloisters usually do so in groups,” Mara replied. “The journey north is not an easy one. The closer you get to the Unmade Lands, the harsher the terrain becomes.”

“As if warning you to turn around while you still can,” Gemma said quietly. She was leaning hard on Talan, her wan skin glistening with sweat after passing through so many greenways.

“Exactly,” Mara said, almost cheerfully. “Come on, let’s go down. I’m starving.”

As we followed her into the valley, I hoped dearly that she was right, that the arrival of five Anointed humans and a demon would arouse no suspicion. But of course we would be disguised, and I did believe Mara that this route was well-traveled by faithful citizens on their way to the Altivar Cloisters, where they would pay homage to the gods. I had never been this far north; the land was harsh and cold, nothing but rocks and pines and mountains as far as the eye could see. The sky was vast and full of stars, and on the horizon twisted bands of brilliant color.

I knew what they were—the Echoes of the Gods, a natural phenomenon left behind after the Unmaking, the day centuries past whenthe gods had died. The lights had never hurt anyone or shown themselves to be anything but remnants of the gods’ death, a sort of beautiful scar upon the world, but the sight of them, of all of this, left me uneasy. I felt exposed and vulnerable, as if phantom eyes were everywhere, watching me bumble down the hill toward the cheery lights of Vallenvoren. When we reached the Torch and Thorn and obtained our three room keys from the innkeeper—a jolly man named George, tall and pale and plump, with soft, friendly eyes and a roaring laugh like a lion—I wanted to run upstairs at once and hide until it was time to leave.

But Mara wouldn’t allow it. “We’re going to eat and drink together,” she said firmly. “We’re going to sit here in the dining room and have fun. That’s another thing the Warden taught us during training. Being part of the Order isn’t just about training with weapons and strengthening your body. It’s about being part of a group, fighting as a unit. And the more frequently a unit does ordinary things together, the better they’ll fight together.”

Gareth nodded a little too eagerly. “I agree. Entirely sound logic.”

Ryder grunted his own assent. Then he slapped his palm on the countertop and told the barkeep, “Six pints of the best ale you’ve got.”

As we wove our way through the mass of crowded tables, I felt the cold ripple of Gemma’s glamouring magic slide over me, accompanied by the warmth of Talan’s demonic power, which brought everyone we passed a jolt of oblivious cheer. Hopefully the combined strength of their abilities would disguise our faces from anyone this far north who might know us, but the sensation was unnerving nevertheless. Then I noticed Gareth hurrying after Mara and recognized the look on his face, even glamoured as it was—one of curiosity, questions, professorial enthusiasm—and suddenly all I could think about was stopping him before he did something stupid.

I grabbed his arm, directing him none too gently to sit beside meand not beside Mara, as he clearly intended to do. He shot me an irritated look as we all took our places around a small table tucked into a corner. Torches in wall brackets and candles in small iron chandeliers that hung from the ceiling cast a soft glow over everything. A strapping barkeep with brown skin and black shoulder-length curls came to deliver our drinks, and as he set them down, I leaned close to Gareth and whispered angrily, “If you don’t stop mooning over my sister, I’m going to—”

“I’m not mooning over her,” he replied. “It’s just that…” He trailed off to gaze across the table at her, watching everything she did—shifting in her chair, raising her cup to her lips—with something like reverence. Apparently her glamoured appearance did nothing to diminish his interest.

Before I could say anything else, Mara caught him staring and lifted one eyebrow. “Just say it, Professor.”

That caught Gareth off guard. He blinked at her and awkwardly adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “I…what?”

“You’re fascinated by me—not just me, but my kind. The Roses. The binding magic, how we transform, the mystery of us. I can practically see the wheels of your professor’s brain spinning from here. You have questions.” Mara took a long drink from her cup, then set it down. “So ask them.”

“I…” Gareth recovered quickly, hiding his surprise with a small echo of his familiar dashing smile. “Well. If you insist. You Roses are indeed as canny as everyone says you are.”

If Mara was insulted by his attention, she didn’t show it. Instead, she looked amused, as if she were humoring a child. “And what exactly have you heard aboutus Roses, Professor?”

“That your physical prowess is unmatched by any other being in Edyn. That the magic binding you to the Mist is woven into your very bones by some dark ritual carried out by the Warden after yourtrials. That the transformation from woman to beast is agonizing every time.”

I was too horrified to speak. Mara sat back in her chair, still with that unruffled look of mirth on her face. Talan cleared his throat as if preparing to interject, but Gemma, still ashen from our journey, hushed him with a kiss to his cheek and whispered words into his hair. Talan’s concerned expression softened to one of such affection that I could hardly bear the sight of it. He turned to receive more of Gemma’s kisses, one on his brow, the next on his mouth, and even with their plain glamours disguising them, they looked so beautiful there in the corner, so utterly wrapped up in their own tender world, that I had to stare at my hands, my cheeks flaming and my body suddenly all too aware of Ryder’s thigh touching mine under the table.

“Woman tobeast?” Mara was saying to Gareth. “That’s how you think it works, then, Professor?”

“If it isn’t, please tell me how it does,” he said with a sort of oblivious earnestness that might have been endearing had I not been so mortified. “I’m fascinated, truly, and nothing more. I’m a student of the arcana, you see, and you are the closest thing to a being of the Old Country that exists in our world. You are…” He ran a hand through his glamoured brown hair, giving a helpless little laugh. “You’re a marvel to me. And please, you can call me Gareth.”

“I’d rather not,” Mara replied evenly. “If you’re going to treat me as a specimen to be examined, then I’ll treat you as an examiner and nothing more.”

That remark probably would have shamed any other person into silence, but Gareth remained unperturbed. He flashed Mara the same charming grin I’d seen him flash at a hundred other women, which made me want to kick him hard in the shin, but Ryder touched my arm before I could. The press of his hand against my wrist sent a shockof heat jolting through me, as if I’d received a charge of energy from touching metal on a dry winter’s day.

“Don’t kill him just yet,” Ryder murmured, his glamoured gray eyes sparkling. “You would deny a grieving man his entertainment?”

This made me bristle. “And what would Alastrina think of your choice ofentertainment?”

“Oh, she’d think we were all most decidedly beneath her,” he replied at once, “but she’s not here, is she?” A shadow passed across his face, and his amused expression closed. He took an aggressive drink from his cup. “So please, let her destroy him, and let me enjoy it.”

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