Page 41 of Vow of the Shadow King

“Have a care, brother!” Sul yelps when I nearly knock him into the lake. He grabs me with his good hand, and I grip him by the shoulder.

“I’m glad you’re alive, Sul.” The words rush foolishly from my lips even as I struggle for another gasp of air.

“I’m glad I’m alive too, Vor. If nothing else, just to witness that feat of kingly prowess you just performed. Gods above! Did you really snap the woman’s arm in two? You’re a mighty beast, brother mine.”

The relief in my heart is so real, so raw. I squeeze his shoulder again, and he manages a ghastly grin before turning from me. His brow puckers. His smile disappears into a grimace. Cradling his broken arm against his stomach, he inches across the rock. “Hael?” He leans over my captain’s body, pushes wet strands of hair out of her face. “Take a breath, will you? Come on, I need to hear you—”

Her body convulses. A sudden gush of water fountains from her lungs, splashing Sul in the face. He curses but doesn’t draw back. Instead, using his one good arm, he rolls her onto her side, patting her back until she’s finished heaving. When she’s through, he helps her sit upright. Not once does he stop touching her, his good hand moving from her shoulder to her arm to her back.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Shaking water from my eyes, I turn from them and peer over the edge of the rock. Lur is close, still in the craft she shared with Toz and holding my empty boat by a line. Grir and Wrag are on their way to us, paddling hard. I raise a hand to let them know we’re all right. They nod but don’t slow their progress.

“What happened, Big King?” Toz asks, looming over the three of us. His big frame dominates the space. “What was down there?”

I shudder. “I . . . I think it was someone who . . .” The words don’t want to come. I force them out. “I think it was someone who had attemptedva-jor.”

“Va-jor?”Toz scratches the back of his big hard head.“What the hells isva-jor?”

Hael, however, sits up straighter, turning sharply to meet my gaze. “Do you mean to say . . .?” A shudder ripples from the top of her head all the way down her spine. She wraps her arms around her middle. “Do you mean the dead down there aren’t really dead?”

“Oh, they’re dead all right,” Sul says darkly. “I got an eyeful when I was washed out of the riverway. It’s like Dugorim all over again.”

I know Sul and Hael remember as vividly as I the aftermath of horror we’d seen in that town on the edge of my kingdom. But this is different. This is something more, something worse.Raogpoison turns the mind to violence and self-destruction. The woman in the lake was certainly poisoned. But she was also encased in stone. Stone which kept her alive, or semi-alive, even underwater. Long after she should have died and been freed from her madness.

“My King,” Hael says suddenly, her voice ragged. I turn to her. She motions with one hand. I touch the lower half of my face only to realize that, in my haste to remove my helmet before diving into the lake, I had also dislodged my mask. I’m breathing the unfiltered air of Hoknath even now.

“It’s all right,” Sul says, catching my eye. “The poison has already dissipated. Otherwise, I’d be rabid as awogghamyself by now.”

I study my brother’s face, searching for signs of theraog. While his eyes are a bit hollow and sunken with pain, he doesn’t look poisoned. His gaze is sharp and clear as ever.

“We need to get you back,” Hael says. Her own mask is knocked askew and can’t be doing her much good anymore. She pushes it back into place and, after a momentary struggle, manages to get to her feet. “We need to get you both to Madame Ar as quickly as possible.”

“I won’t argue with that,” my brother says.

I rise, brace my feet, and turn toward the hanging city. There’s something out there, something . . . I can’t quite describe it. Like a pulse. Deep down in my gut. A vibration, low, guttural. As though the city itself utters an agonized moan.

I narrow my eyes, searching out the lowest point of the nearest stalactite. That is the site of the Low Temple of Zoughat. I’ve worshipped there when visiting Hoknath on royal progress. It’s half-submerged in the lake now due to flooding, but I’m certain—absolutely certain, though with no reason I can articulate—that I will find the answers I seek there. The pulse emanates from that point.

“You go,” I say, without looking at the others. “Hael, take Sul, Grir, Wrag, and Lur. Toz, you’re with me.”

“What are you intending, my King?” Hael demands.

I set my jaw. “We do not yet know the full extent of the damage in Hoknath. We must venture into the city, find out what we can.”

“You and Toz? Alone? In thatraog-filled ruin? Quite probably crawling with cave devils?” Sul snorts. He’s managed to get to his feet and sways heavily, holding his broken arm against his chest. “That sounds like a winning strategy to me. Wish I’d thought of it myself.”

“I’m not leaving you, Vor,” Hael growls. “Where you go, I go.”

I catch my captain’s eye. Her loyalty truly is unmatched in all the Under Realm. How could I have doubted her? How could I have pushed her away all this time? I wish I could say something to her now, let her know that I’ve forgiven her failures, that indeed, there was nothing to forgive all along. Now is not the time, however.

“Fine,” I say brusquely instead. “Hael, you’re with me. The rest of you, get the prince back to Mythanar as fast as you can.”

Sul studies me closely. When I finally turn and meet his gaze, his face is oddly contemplative. “That pulse . . .” He lets the words trail away a moment before finally finishing with, “You hear it too, don’t you?”

I nod.

“It’s been singing in the stones and the water since I got here. I heard it best while I was unconscious. I felt it trying to . . . to pull me in.”

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