Page 65 of With Wing And Claw

‘It’s theBargainer,’someone breathed behind her, and the unmistakable shuffling of footsteps suggested that more than mere surprise had halted their attack.

Silas didn’t move. Didn’t attack. Just swept his gaze over the battlefield once, lingering briefly on the corpses strewn about, then calmly said, ‘Bereas?’

Through the haze of agonising pain, Thysandra suddenly understood why the bastard had paled so abruptly.

‘I’m calling in the first of the favours you owe me,’ her uncle continued in that same flat, low voice. ‘If anyone hasn’t left this corridor before one minute is over, you will kill them. If anyone attacks my niece in the meantime, you will kill them. Thank you.’

There was a single moment of paralysed deadlock.

Then Bereas’s voice, suddenly shrill, shouted, ‘Getout, you fools!’

Footsteps thundered around her. She tried to turn her head and found her vision swimming so violently she almost collapsed where she half-stood, half-sagged against the wall. Fuck.Blue for healing– she needed to find a coloured surface, right now, before she bled out on the floor …

A firm hand gripped her shoulder, and the pain in her left side softened.

‘Steady, Thys.’ This time she saw the flash of bright azure before it hit; the mind-numbing agony in her wing dulled to a faint, manageable ache. Silas didn’t release her as he grimly added, ‘Don’t move. Keep breathing. You’re not going anywhere until I have you stitched up.’

She would have made some retort if her tongue hadn’t felt so impossibly heavy, and if a door hadn’t slammed open in the same moment.

Naxi’s voice cried, ‘Sashka!’

So much for the public illusion of respect.

But Bereas was no longer anywhere near, and none of the others spilling out of the archive doors seemed to care what anyone called her. Nicanor’s face was as pale as his silver braid. A handful of other mages followed in his wake, all blue drawn from their wings and clothes. And Naxi –Naxi– who shouldn’t care about anyone but herself, who shouldn’t be involved in any fights but those for her own sake, came flitting towards her in an endless stream of questions – ‘Wherewereyou, whathappened, what did youdo—’

‘Fuck’s sake,’ Nicanor muttered in the same moment, striding from the doorway with his hands still on his knife. ‘Silas?’

A curt nod was the only greeting he received in return. ‘Commander.’

‘Lord Protector, these days,’ Nicanor wryly corrected, casting a glance at the twenty, thirty bodies of the fae Thysandra had taken down. ‘Not that the current situation is a glowing recommendation of my skills, admittedly, but—’

‘Wherewereyou?’ Naxi squealed again, her voice twice as high as usual.

‘Finding some family,’ Thysandra managed, making a valiant attempt to drag herself back to her feet. Silas’s hand on her shoulder didn’t loosen. ‘Where the hell did any of these people get the idea we’re planning to force fae out of their homes?’

‘Not a bloody clue.’ Nicanor threw a swift glance over his damask-covered shoulder. ‘Need me to find a couple of them and have a word?’

She almost collapsed in relief. ‘Yes, please.’

He gave half a salute, finger to temple, then snapped around on his heel and swept out in a flash of icy blue wings. The remaining fae seemed to doubt for a heartbeat, then hurriedly followed him through the open windows – looking, more than anything, relieved to have an excuse to get out of Naxi’s vicinity.

Naxi herself had gone alarmingly quiet.

‘Alright,’ Thysandra ground out as she made another attempt to stand. This time she succeeded, even managing not to stumble over the nearest fae corpse as she took two cautious steps forward. ‘Now would anyone care to tell me what in the worldhappened?’

***

It turned out nobody else quite knew what in the world had happened, either.

The most recent events were clear enough. Someone had heard Bereas preach bloody revenge on the training fields. The archives, with their sizeable human staff, had presumably seemed a good first target. Nicanor had tried to dispel the mob, and when a considerable part of his army refused to come to the humans’ aid, he had pivoted todefensive measures instead; Naxi, who had also run afoul of the group, had been left little choice but to join him.

But what no one could tell her was the most important part: how the so-called news had spread in the first place.

News that had only been discussed in an explicitly private meeting. News that had not just leaked to the worst possible ears but had leakedincorrectly, too – so much so that the source had to have known what the consequences would be. One of the humans? Bereas had mentioned that the servants seemed to think something was going to happen, and Inga had been the only one at that meeting who hadn’t made a bargain … but then, what did any of them have to gain by enflaming the fae populace against themselves?

Thysandra didn’t want to think anymore.

She just wanted to hide, hide, hide.

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