Page 55 of Shade of Ruin

“What’s the difference between Nightforged steel and normal steel?” I ask.

The Immortal arches an eyebrow. “You’ve never heard of Nightforged steel? It’s…” He pauses for a moment and stands up. His head reaches just below my shoulders, and he’s shaped almost like a barrel, but based on the way he holds himself, there’s a lot of muscle under that leather tunic.

He picks up one of the knives that he has on his table and holds it out to me. It’s made of that same dark metal that Cole and the twins’ blades are made from. So that’s what it’s called. Dark metal that’s almost black covered in fold marks. “Nightforged steel is the best steel made in Draenyth. Heated by House of Flame High Fae for hours until every bit of impurity is burned out of it. Held at the exact temperature before it would melt, everything else is gone. Then, it’s folded a thousand times by House of Steel dwarves. Nothing holds an edge like Nightforged steel.”

I take the blade he shows me and can’t believe how heavy it is. I’d thought that maybe it would be the same steel that Vesta’s knife had been, but there’s no way that they’re the same metal. When I run my finger over the edge of the blade, I have to stop. “Now that’s a sharp edge,” I say with a wince. A single drop of blood runs down my thumb.

“The best edges in Draenyth,” he says with a wide smile.

“Stop looking at weapons, Maeve. We’re supposed to be having fun, not gearing up for war.”

I turn back to see Lee wearing an enormous hat that’s shaped like a flower. And I see my first humans in Draenyth. Cole had said that I wouldn’t want to trade places with any humans here, but I hadn’t understood. I’d forgotten that Draenyth is a place from my nightmares.

A group of ten humans are standing stretched out on a platform. Their hands are tied with leather to thick metal barsabove their heads. Their feet are chained to the top of the wooden platform they’re standing on.

Most of them are barely even alive, their bodies hanging slack from their bonds. Their clothes are ripped and torn, and bruises pepper their body in black, purple, and green. Blood coats what’s left of the rags they’re wearing, and none of them even have tears left to cry.

“Humans for any purpose. Blood on demand. Delicious, soft flesh. A slave… for work or pleasure. Ten copper per pound of flesh.”

We’re in a market, and they are selling humans by the pound. Bile rises in my throat as I watch the Immortals move around them. Those Immortals look at the “merchandise” like the villagers from Aerwyn looked at me, but that’s the point. They’re being sold by the pound like a butcher would sell beef.

I stop, my eyes open wide as Immortals mill around them, sniffing their hair and assessing them. The Immortal merchant isn’t any kind that I’m familiar with. He stands at eye level to me and is covered in shaggy black fur that hangs from him and reminds me of tassels at the bottom of Aunt Prudence’s curtains, complete with beads tying the strands of fur together. Long hooked claws extend past his fingertips, and while that’d look very wild and animalistic, the rest of his appearance makes him look strangely civilized. Like if a wolf stood on two legs and wore a set of coattails. His face reminds me of a very small bear, but his words are as clear as anything I’ve ever said.

He’s wearing similar clothes to Rhion’s. Obviously expensive, but not made of gold. Vibrant violets against dark and luscious greens. He walks back and forth in front of the humans on the platform, his head only slightly higher than some of the taller Immortals, as he tries to draw the crowd’s attention. Those long nails click together as he paces, and he gives the audience and passersby a wickedly toothy smile.

Click.“Have you drunk directly from a human’s vein? Have you enjoyed the taste of their fear as they beg for death?”

Click.“Have you tasted them cooked over a skewer as they scream? The pain flavors the meat. Human goes so well with a bit of bitterberry wine.”

My stomach twists in knots, and anger boils inside me. I can’t ignore this. I knew Draenyth was dangerous for humans, but I hadn’t expected this. I hadn’t thought they’d be so brazen, so heartless and cruel. An entire city that doesn’t care one bit if humans are slow-cooked over a fire.

Click.I begin walking toward him, leaving Darian and Lee behind me as they bicker about Lee’s hat some more. “Perfect slaves for toiling in your garden. They’re used to being filthy. No sense of hygiene. Not any better than a pig. But this pig will happily take care of your roses, and if they don’t, punishing him will be far more enjoyable than punishing a pig.”

I get closer to the humans and the flesh merchant. When he raises his hands to click his claws together, I make out something that surprises me more than I’d ever have imagined. A tiny tally mark on the underside of his wrist. The only reason I see it is because it shimmers in the light, a darker than dark spot on the creature between the braided fur.

Click.“Or maybe you’d prefer humans for bedroom activity. Males and females for your pleasure, with no genuine desires of their own. After you’re done, you can always have a little snack before you fall asleep.”

My fingers inch toward my ring. My shadows could end that creature. It could sweep through those leather bonds and free all of them in less time than it’d take for the creature to even recognize that something was happening.

I would have no problem using revulsion against him. Against everything here. The thought of this place even existing sickensme. As my fingers wrap around the silver ring, a hand grips my shoulder. Hard.

“Don’t you dare,” Darian whispers in my ear. “All three of us would be dead in moments if you took off that ring.”

I turn to him, and I’m sure that the anger is obvious. “They’re selling humans as food. On the streets. Do you see how they’ve been treated? Did you hear what they want to do with them before they eat them?”

Lee grabs my arm, and when I try to hold my ground, she ignores it and drags me away from the humans. All the way out of the market, I try to fight her. Darian’s grinning, but Lee’s as serious as Cole is normally. Once we’re out of the Sickle District and onto a side street that’s filled with hovels rather than shops, she stops.

“I am not a Princess, Maeve. I don’t have the power to protect you from hundreds of Immortals.” She looks down at my mother’s ring and grimaces. “And that ring, along with your bond to Cole, is the only reason that no one has recognized that you’re from the House of Shadow. Yes, we all know about that ring.”

“Everyone knows what that ring is, Maeve,” Darian says with a shrug. “It’s just that it’s very good at hiding in plain sight. No one looks at a ring like that and thinks, ‘Oh, I bet that’s a legendary House of Shadows artifact that was forged by Vyran the Black.’ Then again, not everyone knows how many contradictions you embody.”

My stomach sinks. They knew about the ring. What else do they know about? It doesn’t matter. There are ten people that are going to be tortured for the rest of their hopefully brief lives if we don’t do something.

I may not be able to save the world like Cole thinks I can. I may not be strong enough to save the drakelings and help the Immortals to have children again. I may not be strong enoughfor so many things, but this… I have to do something. Those people are going to be tortured until they die. Until they’reeaten. I can’t just look away. I can’t ignore them.

“We need to save those people,” I say through gritted teeth. “I don’t know how, but we need to.”

Darian and Lee glance at each other, and both of them grin at the same time. Lee asks, “Do you want to do it the easy way or the hard way? We could get Cole to buy out the slaves and then set them free. Or we could…rescuethem.”

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