Page 166 of Ash and Feather

A bolt of lightning flashed, its brilliance reflecting in the silver-domed tower that reached high from the palace’s center. It was such an arresting sight that at first, I didn’t notice anything else on the road we were trotting along.

When I finally did pry my eyes from the palace, I still took note of little that directly surrounded us…because there was nothingworthnoticing.

No sound. No movement. No signs of any life, at all. The street and its houses were clearly inhabited—clothes hung to dry on lines, chickens pecked in yards, dogs barked.

Yet not a single person walked among any of it.

My skin crawled with warning.

Then, a flash of movement: Someone darted across an upstairs window. Someone who didn’t want to be seen, I thought. Someone who had the high ground. A vantage point.

A shiver rippled through my horse. I absently rubbed its neck, whispering calming words while my gaze darted to all the places where threats could be lurking. A few more flashesof movement caught my eye—all too quick for me to make out much more than vague shapes as they snuck past doors and windows. They all appeared to be dressed from head to toe in black, and they were clearly following our movements. Flashing signals to other figures in other houses.

We passed a wide balcony draped with Galithian flags. Aside from wind chimes clinking lightly in the breeze, there was no movement here.

There was only a horrifyingly still shape stretched across the boards, halfway in the house and halfway outside—a lifeless body. Its bare feet pushed between the balcony railings. Small feet.

A child, maybe.

Bile rose up, acrid and stinging in the back of my throat.

Something told me there were more bodies tucked away out of sight.

Dravyn pulled his horse up beside mine, inhaling deeply, scenting the air. I didn’t have to ask what he smelled. I smelled it too.

Elves.

And blood.

“The houses…” I began.

“They’ve been infiltrated.”

Arrows flew from several different balconies in the next breath, striking the ground all around us.

A massivebang!sounded in the same instant, spooking our horses and making it impossible to steer them away from the second deluge of arrows that quickly followed the first.

I spotted the nearest masked assailant and started to summon fire into my palm. My horse panicked even further at the surge of magical energy. I leapt from the saddle before the beast’s panicked bucking got us both impaled, wings flaring from my back and lifting me higher, slowing my descent so Icould twist in mid-air and take aim at the masked attacker I’d spotted.

This all happened in the span of a few heartbeats—yet Dravyn was still faster; before I touched the ground, he was in front of me and my horse, summoning magic of his own. A wall of fire sprang up, dazzling and bright, thick enough that no arrow could have passed through—

An unnecessary wall, I quickly realized.

Because most of our attackers weren’t even aiming for us.

They were aiming for my sister.

Savna had gotten separated from us. She was some twenty feet back, crouched beside her horse, which was kneeling in an awkward, crumpled heap on the dusty road. Arrows protruded from the creature’s neck. Savna was distracted, frantically trying to assess the damage, so busy trying to soothe the horse that she was oblivious to the full extent of the danger taking shape around her.

I screamed her name.

She looked up just in time to see the arrowheads glinting before they were released. She hit the ground and rolled, narrowly avoiding three different shots. Springing back to her feet with a lethal grace, she quickly assessed the area, searching for cover.

I raced toward her, wings tucking behind me, the fiery concentration of their power propelling me forward with a reckless, inhuman speed.

Savna took cover in a narrow gap between two houses as I crashed to a stop in front of her.

I looked up again, finding more attackers drawing their arrows and pointing them in our direction.

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