Page 26 of Path of the Dark
“Shadows, Lilia,” Ryana gasped. “What are you two doing here?”
Lilia pulled back, her smile fading. “Didn’t you get my letters?”
“I did … I just hoped you’d stay where it’s safe.”
“You know us.” Lilia’s companion stepped up next to her. “We like a bit of trouble.”
Ryana cut him a withering look. “Life in the Port Guard too dull for you, Dain?”
He grinned back. “Mind-numbing. You have no idea.”
“Welcome back, you two.” Asher stepped up next to Ryana, smiling. “I take it, the king called for reinforcements?”
Dain nodded. “Two hundred men from the Port Guard. We arrived this afternoon.” He grinned then. “However, from the talk that’s going around town, it sounds like we’ve made a wasted trip. What’s this about peace talks?”
“Elias of Anthor is here,” Asher confirmed. “And it looks like Rithmar and Anthor might come to some agreement.”
“That’s great news,” Lilia replied, relief suffusing her face. “I don’t care if we’ve had a wasted trip. I’ve missed you all.”
Ryana grinned back. “And I you.”
“Are you going to introduce me to your friends?” Mira appeared beside Asher, her gaze surveying the pair with interest.
Asher drew Mira against him, glancing back at the newcomers. “Lilia and Dain, meet Mira … formerly of the Swallow Guard.”
Lilia’s eyes grew wide as she watched the couple. “What—?”
“It’s a long tale,” Mira interjected, her mouth quirking. “One that’ll take all night. However, Asher has already told me about you two … and about what you did.”
Mira’s gaze focused on Lilia, her expression curious. Ryana realized then that Asher had confided in his lover about their friend. The young woman was a shape-shifter—an identity that she wisely kept secret from most folk. Since the reign of The Shadow King centuries earlier, when her kind had aided Valgarth, they had been hunted to near extinction.
However, Lilia’s ability to be able to shift into a small, russet-colored fox had saved them all a year earlier.
Dain grinned. “I hope he made us sound heroic.”
Seated in the booth once more, Ryana caught up with her friends properly. They ordered platters of roast mutton, braised onion, and rye bread, and shared a large jug of rough wine. For the first time in days, Ryana felt almost back to her old self. And when the lyrist started playing, she’d almost forgotten Elias of Anthor breathed.
“He’s playing the Lay of Morwen,” Lilia said, her eyes gleaming. “I love that song.”
Indeed, the lyrist was. It was a melancholy, heart-wrenching tune. However, it was one that took Ryana back to a time she’d rather have forgotten. She’d last sung the lay on the night she and Gael had met years earlier.
Lilia met her eye. “Do you know it?”
Ryana reluctantly nodded.
“Can you sing it for us?”
Ryana rolled her eyes. “A bit depressing, isn’t it? Why don’t we wait for another, more cheerful, song?”
“Maybe you don’t remember the words?” Mira suggested from across the table.
“Of course I do,” Ryana replied, irritated. A heartbeat later she realized she’d walked straight into a trap.
Mira’s eyes lit up. “Sing it then.”
Lilia gave a soft laugh. “Come on … indulge us.”
Heaving in a deep breath, Ryana pushed herself up from the table. “Alright then.”
