Page 64 of A Crown of Darkness

What a tangle, he thought. It was worthy of a mummers’ play.

‘Enough,’ Roland sighed. ‘We’ll see it through. We will work it out. But first we need to reach Elodie and wake her. She’ll know what to do, Wren. She always does. You know that.’

And in this he only hoped he was right.

CHAPTER 36

WREN

Roland was grim and everyone else picked up their mood from him. It was inevitable. And of course he wasn’t wrong. It was dangerous, this flight south. On horseback, Wren took her place in the centre of the group, knights before and behind her, Laurence and Finn at her side. They rode in silence, leaving the College of Winter far behind them. All the time she expected an attack. Leander wanted her and the crown. He’d be waiting.

And then there was Finn.

The light in him shimmered under the surface, just out of reach, just out of sight. But she could feel it. Crawling through him, aware of her, watching her, when he was distracted or focused on the road. And it hated her. The Aurum.

Perhaps the armour kept it at bay. Perhaps it was Finn himself fighting it, but even he couldn’t keep that up forever. She remembered the Aurum from Pelias, the way it had taken control of Elodie.

If Elodie, who had trained and studied and lived a life ready to be the Chosen of the Aurum, hadn’t been able to withstand it, how could Finn?

The Nox was still broken. Wren might have access to some of its power but so much was banished beyond the veil and it couldn’t reach her. Not unless Leander had his way.

The crown was buried in a pack on the back of Roland’s horse. Hestia’s son followed the Grandmaster like a puppy, desperate for some kind of safety, and Wren felt the same way. Perhaps he reminded the boy of Gaius, or perhaps he just sensed that Roland was someone who could help him.

It was impossible to be in the Grandmaster’s presence without feeling that he could still make everything all right. Even Finn seemed to fall under that spell without a moment of doubt.

Roland would make everything better. He always did. He always had.

Light, she wished with all her heart that he would now. Just with a wave of his hand, or a sweep of his sword.

They were still two days north of Pelias when the attack came, on a desolate stretch of road which offered little by way of refuge.

It was too quiet. She noticed that first. Far too quiet. No birdsong, nothing moving in the fields and hedgerows on either side of them.

‘Smoke,’ said Olivier. ‘In the air, can you smell it?’

‘Keep your wits,’ Roland replied. ‘Anselm? Ride ahead.’

Wren’s skin tightened around her frame and she shivered as if a cloud had passed over the sun, stealing all the warmth of the day. Shadows stirred eagerly in the bushes on either side of the road.

Too eagerly.

They whispered, just on the edge of her hearing, and Wren stiffened in the saddle. Her horse almost bucked, dancing back instead of forward, and Olivier and Finn both turned to help her. Distracted, all of them. By her. Just when that was the last thing they needed.

‘Look out!’ she shouted.

They came out of the trees, and up from beneath the stones, shadow kin larger than any she had ever seen, and behind them Ilanthian soldiers. Wren tried to control her mount but the poor beast gave a crazed whinny and tore the reins from her hands, bolting ahead. All she could do was cling to the saddle, scrabbling to get the leather back into her grip.

The noise in her head became a high-pitched whine and behind her she heard the clash of steel. Anselm shouted something and the thunder of the horses’ hooves drowned it out.

She reached out to the shadow kin, trying to focus, to command them, to turn them against their Ilanthian masters. They were her creatures, weren’t they? Or the Nox’s anyway. They had to obey her. They always had before.

But not this time. Even as she reached out, she felt the promised control snatched away, the magic wrenched out of her hands.

He laughed. She heard him laugh. Leander…

Oh little bird, it’s not so easy. Did you really think I’d let you go just like that? They miss you. They want you back and I’ve promised to help. They won’t obey you now.

His voice was almost like a caress. It chilled her to her heart.

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