Page 8 of No Greater Sorrow

Val tilted his head, rustling the feathers of his mask. “There’s no need for torture. I’ve come to seek refuge. Isn’t that what you offer in the Hiding Place?”

“You won’t come to any harm if you tell us the truth. Why are you here?” Taddeas said.

“I’ve defected from the Astraelis army.”

“And you thoughtthiswould be the safest place for you?” Nicolas said, letting his wings fill the small tent.

Val’s expression was hidden by his mask, but the tremor shooting through his body was obvious when his chains rattled. “I haven’t come empty-handed. I have information that the Hiding Place needs if it’s to survive,” he stammered.

“Go on,” Nicolas said. Behind him, Red shuffled through the books in her wagon.

“The Astraelis haven’t attacked because they’re not interested in the Hiding Place. Not yet.”

“What are they interested in?” Taddeas asked.

“They’re looking for the Third—what the humans call Death. Their plan is to trap him.”

A silence fell over the tent, broken by Red as she hummed and searched for another book. It was too large for her to carry, and she had to lift a foot onto the wagon to balance the cover on her knee.

“Is that possible?” Taddeas asked, shooting Nicolas a glance. Taddeas was the youngest of the Dark Saints, but even Nicolas didn’t know much about the Third, aside from one of the strictest rules imposed on the Knowing One.Do not take someone too close to death or the Third will be angry. Indeed, Nicolas had felt a brutal wave of magic move through him as he’d whisked Aleja’s grandmother to her dreamworld when her heart failed.

“Theoretically, yes, though it has never been attempted. I would need to send Gray back to the library for more books,” said Red. Her index finger traced the length of a paragraph filled with shifting text.

“Why would they want the Third? Talk,” Nicolas told their prisoner.

“I was a junior officer. I wasn’t told every—” Val managed.

“Talk.”

“I believe… it’s just a theory, but I believe they want to use him to kill the Second.”

Nicolas tried to swallow and found he couldn’t. Dark Saints had been killed in the past; Aleja had recently taken one down herself. Still, trying to kill the Second would be like trying to kill a storm, to kill a mountain, to kill the sky. When the world was new, the First of Living Things appeared, followed by the Second, who gave all beings the ability to think, desire, and know. Finally came the Third—Death, who took those gifts away.

“The Astraelis know they cannot win for good without wiping every Otherlander out. If the Second dies, the Hiding Place dies, as does everyone who exists via the grace of its magic. No more Second, no more Knowing One, no more Dark Saints,” Val went on, voice wobbly, as though he understood his thirty seconds had long passed.

“And they believe the Third has this power?” Taddeas asked.

“Yes,” Val said.

“Why would you tell us this?” Nicolas asked.

“Because I don’t agree,” Val said with such intensity that his mask went askew. “I don’t think the Second should teach our secrets, but I also don’t think he and his followers deserve to die for doing so. The Astraelis could combat him by divulging their own magic and philosophy to the humans. It’s not worth a war.”

“Who are you? Be truthful,” Taddeas said.

“I told you; I was a junior officer. After my first briefing about the Astraelis’s plans, I came here,” Val said.

“Is he telling the truth?” Nicolas asked Red.

“That is beyond the scope of my books,” the librarian said, mouth moving behind the thick cowl.

Nicolas looked at their captive. Val seemed nothing like the Principalities Nicolas had met before, who were usually self-assured and arrogant, with the magic to back it up. But they were just as capable of treachery as the Otherlanders. “Fine,” Nicolas said, after a long moment of consideration. “Let’s say you’re telling the truth. What would be their first move?”

Val took a breath. “They’re focusing their efforts on building a mechanism to hold the Third. To trap Death, you might say.”

“How?” Taddeas asked.

“That was beyond my clearance level. I was a scholar before I joined the army, studying energetic resonance and how it could be used in combat.”

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