Page 21 of While the Dark Remains

“I’m sorry, Saga,” I whisper into her hair. “I’m so very sorry. If I could bring him back to you, I would. You know I would.”

I hold her until she grows still, my heart cracked in two.

She blows out the lantern, and we both crawl into our bedrolls, Indridi still not joining us.

Saga’s breathing evens out. I think she’s asleep, but then she says: “I’m so scared to go back to the mountain, Brynja. So scared Kallias will put me back in my cage. Slit my throat. Throw my corpse into the Sea of Bones.”

My throat works as I fight to breathe. I find her hand in the dark, and I squeeze it tight. “I’m afraid of that, too.”

“I know.” She takes a shaky breath. “We’re both of us just learning to be normal again. Maybe this was a mistake.”

“Maybe,” I say. “But we can’t let him go unchecked any longer. Someone has to stand up to him. Someone has to stop him doing to anyone else what he did to us.”

“You’re right,” says Saga. “Of course you’re right.”

Silence flows between us and I stare into the dark, trying to understand something,anything. “I kissed Vil,” I confess at last.

Saga squawks. “When were you going to tell methis?”

“It was weeks ago. After the river crossing. But Idon’tknow how I feel. And it wouldn’t be fair to him to promise him my heart when I don’t understand it.”

She’s quiet a moment. “You need to figure it out, Bryn.”

I count the beats of my heart. “I know.”

She falls asleep after that, but I’m still awake hours later when Pala bursts into the shelter, lantern swinging from one hand.

“Brynja!” she says, “Saga! Your Highness!”

I’m on my feet in an instant and Saga the next. We stare at Pala in the lantern light.

“What is it?” Saga asks, voice rough with sleep.

Pala’s face is all hard lines. “Indridi is gone, Your Highness.”

Saga blinks at her. “What?”

“She’s fled. Taken a horse and gone in the night.”

Saga rubs her forehead, confused. “Why would she do that? Where is she going?”

“East, Your Highness. Toward Iljaria.”

My stomach twists. I’m going to be sick.

“Butwhy?” says Saga, voice high and frantic.

Pala looks grim. “Because she’s an Iljaria spy.”

Nine Years Ago

Year4191, Month of the Blue Goddess

Daeros—Tenebris

Slowly, I explore the mountain palace, every night when the king and all his courtiers are sleeping. I squeeze through heating vents and creep across wood ceilings, learning the layout of the rooms, making a map of them in my head. Now there is hope, beyond my despair.

I know where the king’s council chamber is, the warren of rooms where his wives live, and the connecting warren that houses his children. I have found a library, a treasury, a dining hall. There’s a laundry, of course, a kitchen, a wine cellar. There is an endless maze of corridors, the arched hall that boasts the main entrance. Side doors lead to gardens that thrive even in winter. Huge lamps keep the plants growing and the gardens illuminated. They’re mechanical, the product of some genius like my sister, but they stillseemlike magic.

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