Page 36 of Trial of Three
By the time Tye and I reach the hidden room, bodies face off in the dim light with grunts and clashes of swords, and the floor vibrates with River’s magic. I gasp as that too stirs in my blood, the coupling clearly having enhanced my ability to feel River’s power. Fortunately, he stops before the new sensation overwhelms me completely, and I can once more pay mind to my surroundings.
We are in a large room, its walls stone, its floor made of packed dirt soaked with blood and piss. Tiny slits along the ceiling provide slivers of light, showing Kora’s four quint mates chained to the wall. I stare at a fifth, empty set of shackles, my guts twisting as I turn to find Kora held in one of the qoru’s arms, the thing’s sharp teeth buried in a spot at the back of her neck, seemingly oblivious to the mayhem around it.
Coal is already moving toward it, a sword he obtained somewhere taking the feeding qoru’s head cleanly off its shoulders. Even as the detached body falls away, the qoru’s teeth cling to the back of Kora’s neck.
The female falls to her knees and pulls the qoru’s head off her with a panicked gasp, the skin around the wound a bloodless white-gray blotch.
River and Shade, the latter still in wolf form, square off against the two remaining qoru, while Tye turns to cover the door in case we’ve more visitors. I rush to Kora, sliding an arm around her quivering shoulders, brushing her ice-cold skin. Her green uniform is tattered, stained, barely recognizable. Her normally bright-blue eyes are dazed and bloodshot. “It’s all right. Look at me, Kora. You’re safe now.”
The clashing bodies and swords, the cries of pain and fury, are a blur around me. I focus only on helping Kora, fueled by Autumn’s wide gray eyes and panicked voice. We must not fail.
“You wouldn’t happen to have keys, would you?” Tye calls, darting a glance at Kora over his shoulder. “We need to free the others.”
Kora grabs my hand, her grip soul-wrenchingly weak. “You need to leave,” she says, her words coming raspily from a throat that’s clearly been screaming. “You need to leave. You can’t be here.”
I put my hands on either side of Kora’s face, forcing her blue eyes to meet mine. “You are safe now,” I repeat, the words tightening my chest. Despite everything, I’mgladto be here. To be doing something worthwhile. My voice strengthens. “We are going to get you and your quint out of here, Kora. We’re going home.”
Kora jerks away from me, reaching a pale arm toward River—who, having disposed of his opponent, now examines the prisoners’ shackles. “You need to leave, River—now. You are too valuable. If they capture you...” Now that she says it, I see the echo of her words reflected in all the females’ flesh. They weren’t kept here only as an afternoon snack; they were questioned.
“Not now, Kora,” River says soothingly, still examining the others’ shackles. “We’re going to get you out of here, and then you can tell us everything.”
Kora groans, panic in the whites of her eyes. “You’re not listening to me. There are several dozen qoru here,” she says, speaking quickly. “I don’t know how they got into Lunos, but something has been breached. They spoke of a gate. Something opened fromLunos’sside, not Mors’s. The Citadel needs to know. Between the qoru and the Night Guard, they’ve killed what’s left of the village in the Light. They—”
“They control the Light and the Gloom, both,” an unfamiliar voice says. My stomach turns. Around us, fifteen fae warriors—three quints of the Night Guard—step out of thin air. All of them, males dressed in black with blood-red accents, are grinning and armed.
Swords and crossbows pointing at us, the fifteen warriors herd us into the center of the room, just as a small pack of qoru stride in behind them.
The middle of the qoru looks larger than the others, his lidless eyes a deep shade of red with specks of rust. Unlike his scantily dressed entourage, this qoru wears a sash across his shoulder, the supple leather decorated with jewels so fine they manage to sparkle even in the Gloom. He turns to Coal. “Well, what a reunion.” His voice is like the low creak of a rusty gate opening in the dead of night. “Have you nothing to say to your emperor, buck?”
Emperor?My blood freezes.EmperorJawrar.
The qoru’s attention shifts to River, his round mouth widening slowly into what must pass for a smile. “Jik.” Emperor Jawrar snaps his fingers at one of the Night Guard males. “Fetch Griorgi. Tell him his son has come for dinner.”
25
Lera
Son?King Griorgi—River’s father—is here. Working with... with Emperor Jawrar? Is that how the qoru are here, beyond the wards meant to keep them in Mors?
Lies. Qoru lies. They have to be. I look at River, my throat closing as I see Jawrar’s words drain all the blood from the commander’s beautiful face. Not a lie. Truth. Stars. I long to reach out to the warrior. But there is no reaching out. There is nothing.
I am too dry-mouthed to scream as two sets of Night Guard hands grab me, dropping me hard to my knees. My bones yell at the abuse and my body fights to react, Tye’s power still bubbling in my veins. Fire. I could—
I catch Tye’s head-shake as he too is forced to the ground. An order to stay put.
He’s right. I would only set the cellar aflame and cook us all like so much steamed meat. Plus, he’d have already done something if he thought it would work. Instead, Tye kneels on the ground just as River and Coal do. Shade’s wolf is held at bay with a crossbow, a guard’s belt wrapped around his black muzzle. I draw a ragged breath, the sight of my males not fighting sending the coldest chill yet down my spine.
The emperor turns to the pair of guards holding Coal. “Chain that one up. I’ve a few who would be pleased to reunite with the buck... personally.”
The deafening sound of shackles closing around Coal’s wrists echoes through the room. Coal’s face is stone, his blue eyes an unbreakable mask that gives away nothing of the nightmare he’s living through.
Jawrar surveys our quint, hesitating on me and stepping closer. Bile rises up my throat as he approaches, filling my mouth. A hand so gray it reeks of rot reaches for my face, and I pull uselessly against the night guardsmen holding me in place. No.No.
“No!” Coal roars. Not at Jawrar, I realize, but at River.
Too late. A shock of power booms through the room, shaking the ground so hard that it’s a wonder the walls still stand.
Jawrar pulls back from my face, a shield as black as darkest night flashing around him. Whatever burst of power River launched is swallowed silently into darkness.
