Page 55 of Fate Unchained

Finn scanned the woods. “Since the city isn’t in a panic, the leshak must be hiding.”

Kyril and Zann nodded. “The sewers are a good bet.” The three vulk switched to their language and stepped a few paces farther into the forest, leaving Lilah and Hazel standing together.

Lilah glanced at Hazel. She avoided magicwielders. They were haughty and had little time for humans. When they entered the human side of the city, they acted as if everything they saw was beneath them.

“There are a few people I can visit to see if anything funny is going on,” Hazel said. “If I find anything out, where will you be?”

“I’ll be at Nihova Library.”

Hazel nodded, her lips twisting into a grimace as she stared at the front gate. “I get to spend time in the city. What a pleasure.”

“You don’t like Coromesto?”

“My parents live here.” As if that answered Lilah’s question. Hazel glanced at her. “How’d you get stuck with a vulk?”

“Just lucky I guess.”

“You’re human, right?”

Lilah nodded. Maybe it wasn’t exactly true since she had lightwielder blood, but she still considered herself mostly a human.

Hazel’s gaze flicked to the vulk. “Odd you’d be paired with one of them.”

Lilah bristled. “Just as odd as a magicwielder.”

Hazel’s lips twitched. “True. What I meant was vulk, and humans don’t really get along.”

Lilah raised her brows. “And the vulk and magicwielders have a cozier relationship?”

Hazel laughed, and it transformed her. She was probably around Lilah’s age, but she wore her ferocity around her like a cloak, making her formidable and untouchable. It added a solemnity to her features, not as if she were older, but it made her seem … timeless. When she laughed, that all fell away.

“You’re right,” Hazel said, “It’s the vulk, they can’t get along with anyone.” She stared for a long moment at Zann. “He’s almost tolerable today, though. Must have slashed at a lot of things earlier. He likes that.”

Lilah grinned. “They did have a big battle last night.”

Hazel shook her head. “There you go.”

She wanted to ask Hazel about the link between her and Zann, but she’d just met the spellcaster, and for the first time, Hazel seemed relaxed.

Lilah turned back toward the gate and frowned. “I think I can help with gathering information about Morana. My friend Brooke works for the Ulterran Chronicle. She was investigating Morana and her influence on the king. She might know what Morana’s been up to.”

Hazel nodded slowly. “The Chronicle … I didn’t think of them. Not all of their staff is under the Ten’s thumb.”

“They try to control the paper?” Back in the cave, Kyril asked her about the top ten sorcerer families who ruled Coromesto. He thought someone in one of the Ten had the grimoire and was possibly in the Dark Cabal, but he hadn’t brought it up again.

Hazel’s lips tightened. “They control everything.”

“Not on the human side, and the paper is run by humans.”

Hazel studied her a long moment. “You’re right. ‘Become unseen, learn to tread unheard. Then you will hold the fate of your enemy in your hands.’”

Lilah froze. “What?”

“It’s a quote from—”

“I know what it is. It’s from the Chronicles of P.W. Nihova.”

Nihova’s name on the library was the only remnant that P.W. Nihova had ever lived, and helped run, Coromesto back in Herskala’s time. It was etched into the stone with magic so powerful none could remove it, although many had tried. Well, it was supposed to be all that was left of him. He’d written a series of chronicles, which Lilah had uncovered. They’d been hidden in her library within a series of metallurgical texts. If a magicwielder, like Hazel, had found them they would have destroyed them.

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