Page 4 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“But this is my home too.” The young girl knelt next to Tiernan. Her thin fingers brushed hair from the dead woman’s ashen face. “Where will I go?”
“The Second Sentinel,” Ferrin asserted.
“Who’s the Second Sentinel?” I asked.
Ferrin looked at me with a brow knit in confusion.
“It’s a where, not a who. Galahad, your Nightmare, she—”
“The Second Sentinel is out of the question,” the old man cut him off.
“It’s the safest place.” Ferrin leaned on Orla, but the steel in his one open eye said he’d been expecting this fight.
“It’s too close to the Frozen God,” the old man said. “You may as well deliver the Sovereign to his doorstep.”
“The Second Sentinel is protected! And the Grimguards don’t know it’s there! What does proximity matter when they’ve come this far south, anyway?”
“It’s clear across the continent.” Galahad remained resolute.
“Then where?” Ferrin asked. “Tulyr?”
Galahad’s wrinkled face darkened.
“You’ve made your point. But if the Second Sentinel goes the way of Tulyr by the end of this, it’ll be your doing.”
“And the Nightmare?” Ferrin asked, his face glowing green in the light of Orla’s flame. “She’s defective, but now she knows where we’re going.”
“Feed her to a rotsbane,” Tiernan spat from where he still knelt with Caitria’s body. I recoiled away, stumbling to my feet. I didn’t know what a rotsbane was, but I was sure I didn’t want to be eaten by one.
Every face in the room turned towards me.
“Oh,” I said, my voice too high. “No, actually, if someone could just point me in the direction of Keel Watch Harbor. I’m supposed to be at my Gams’s house, but—”
“Orla, where did you say you picked this one up, again?” Galahad strode forward, studying me, and I backpedaled until I found the edge of the room.
“She was on the parapet,” Orla chirped. “The other Grimguard was about to ash her, but I thought it’d be handy to have a Nightmare with us.”
Galahad cocked his head at me, and I stepped back, bumping up against the cavern wall.
“Girl, do you have a name?”
“Wren.” Finally, we were getting somewhere. Someone was going to help me. “Wren Warrender.”
A stunned silence buzzed around the room.
“She knows her name,” Ferrin hissed.
“She’s lucid.” Galahad’s face turned stony, as if every wrinkle had been carved there on purpose. “I know.”
“But Nightmares aren’t supposed—”
“Iknow.” He pulled a vial of glowing liquid from his belt and downed the contents in a single gulp. He slipped his goggles down over his eyes with one hand as silver firelight sparked in the other. “Tiernan, cover Fana’s eyes.”
“Oh, Galahad.” Disgust laced Ferrin’s tone. “Not here.”
The firelight at Galahad’s fingers lengthened into a blade. I pressed against the cold, ungiving stones at my back.
“She’s a liability, Ferrin,” Galahad growled. “She’s lucid, and she’s heard too much. Tiernan’s right. She’ll only slow us down, but if the other Grimguard finds her and interrogates her—”
