Page 118 of A Fate Unwoven
“Even if we could get into the city without being arrested first, we don’t stand a chance of getting the church to hear us out. Not without Brother Dunstan’s or General Alræn’s backing.”
Dimas tried not to look in the direction of the two bodies laid beneath cloaks a few feet from the cave mouth. Tried not to think of General Alræn and her fallen soldiers, whose bodies they’d beenunable to retrieve, now buried inside the fallen cavern. Because if he did, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep it together.
Instead, he turned to Casimir. “Korvus.” The smuggler was sitting beside the small campfire Yana and Ioseph had built, his gaze every so often flicking to Lenora when he thought she wasn’t looking. “Does the offer of an alliance with your queen still stand?”
Casimir didn’t bother getting to his feet. He simply shrugged, folded his arms across his chest, and said, “That depends.”
“On?”
“On if you’re willing to betray your church and reveal the truth of the Fateweavers’ origins to the world.”
Silence followed the smuggler’s words. Everyone, from Lenora to Yana, was watching him. Waiting to see if he’d back down. But Dimas had made his choice.
He would make sure the people of Wyrecia knew the truth. For all the royal guards who’d lost their lives fighting theHæsta.For Finæn. For Mirena and Brother Dunstan.
For his mother.
“I am.”
Ioseph came to him the morning they were due to leave for the Frozen Wastes.
The guard had been avoiding him ever since he’d agreed to go to Verlond, using any excuse to be wherever Dimas wasn’t. But this morning, when Dimas had woken early and crept out of the cave to stand over Brother Dunstan’s body, Ioseph had trailed after him.
“I’m not coming with you.”
The words landed like a blow Dimas had no defense for. He tore his gaze away from Brother Dunstan’s body, hoping,praying,that he’d find evidence on Ioseph’s face that this was some kind of sick joke.
But Ioseph’s jaw was clenched, his eyes limned with silver. It was the most serious Dimas had ever seen him look.
“ ’Seph, I—”
“My family is here. I can’t leave them, not when I know theHæstahave infiltrated the church.”
“Then bring them with us.” Dimas’s voice was tight, his words desperate. “Casimir can sneak into the city and get them out—”
“My mother won’t survive the journey. You know she won’t.” Ioseph shook his head, a tear slipping down his dirtied cheek. “I spoke to Yana; we’re going to get our families out of the imperial city. Once they’re safe, we’re going to do what we can to spread doubt on Milos’s claims and seek out any who still worship the Lost Sisters. You’re going to need supporters when you return. And youwillreturn,” Ioseph said, cupping his cheek.
Dimas leaned into the touch. “I don’t think I can do this without you,” he whispered, voice hoarse.
Ioseph closed the space between them to press their foreheads together. “You can. Youwill.And when you return, when you make this empire everything it has the potential to be, I will be by your side.”
It was a promise to hold on to. A future to look toward.
And it was one Dimas was going to fight for with everything he had.
FIFTY-THREE
LENA
Three nights after the battle, they burned Finæn’s and Brother Dunstan’s bodies beneath the stars.
It was a simple ceremony. Lena and Maia whispered an old funeral song as Ioseph and Dimas carried the bodies, wrapped tightly in Lena’s and the emperor’s cloaks, to the small pyre they’d built atop a secluded hilltop a few miles outside of Rosvayle. Dimas had lit Brother Dunstan’s pyre first, his cheeks wet with tears, and Maia’s voice had wobbled when Dimas handed her the torch. But she never stopped singing. She held the song on her lips as she walked up to the pyre. As, with tears glistening on her cheeks, she set fire to the wood and watched her brother burn.
Lena had cried when Maia had awoken the morning after they’d fled the cultist’s cavern, her words barely discernable as she’d told Maia that her brother hadn’t survived. They’d spent hours huddled together after that, barely moving until Maia, her tears dried, asked Lena to tell her everything.
So Lena had.
She’d recounted how Venysa had come to her that night in the Frozen Wastes, how she had made a deal with Casimir and worked with him to get into the acolyte’s hidden chamber. And finally, how she had lured Dimas into Næbya’s Church and severed the bond between them.
