Page 266 of Kingdom of Ash

In her cloak pocket, as a field mouse, Dorian kept still and listened.

“After all that fuss last night,” Erawan was saying, “you turned away what I sent you.”

Indeed, not fifteen minutes after they’d returned to Maeve’s tower, a knock had sounded. A blank-faced young man had stood there, beautiful and cold. Not a prince—not with the ring he wore. Just an enslaved human. Maeve had sent him away, though not from any kindness.

No, Dorian knew the man had been spared his duties because of his presence, and nothing more. Maeve had told him as much before falling asleep.

“I had hoped for wine,” Maeve said smoothly, “not watered-down ale.”

Erawan chuckled, and paper rustled. “I have been considering further details of this alliance, sister.” The title was a barb, a taunt of last night’s rejection. “And I have been wondering: what else shall you bring to it? You stand to gain more than I do, after all. And offering up six of your spiders is relatively little, even if they have been receptive hosts to the princesses.”

Dorian’s ears strained as he waited for Maeve’s reply. She said quietly, more tensely than he’d heard her speak before, “What is it that you want, brother?”

“Bring the rest of thekharankui. Open a portal and transport them here.”

“Not all will be such willing hosts.”

“Not hosts. Soldiers. I do not intend to take chances. There will be no second phase.”

Dorian’s stomach twisted. Maeve hesitated. “There is a chance, you know, that even with all of this, even if I summon thekharankui, you might face Aelin Galathynius and fail.” A pause. “Anielle has confirmed your darkest fears. I heard what occurred. The power she summoned to halt that river.” Maeve hummed. “That was meant for me, you know. The blast. But should she summon it again, let’s say against you on a field of battle … Would you be able to walk away, brother?”

“That is why this press northward with your spiders shall be vital,” was Erawan’s only reply.

“Perhaps,” Maeve countered. “But do not forget that you and I together could win. Without the spiders. Without the princesses. Even Aelin Galathynius could not stand against us both. We can go to the North, and obliterate her. Keep the spiders in reserve for other kingdoms. Other times.”

She did not wish to sacrifice them. As if she held some fondness for the beings who had remained loyal for millennia.

“And beyond that,” Maeve went on, “You know much about walking between worlds. But not everything.” Her hand slid into the pocket, andDorian braced himself as her fingers ran over his back. As if telling him to listen.

“And I suppose I will only find out when you and I have won this war,” Erawan said at last.

“Yes, though I am willing to give you a display. Tomorrow, once I have prepared.” Again, that horrible silence. Maeve said, “They are too strong, too mighty, for me to open a portal between realms to allow them through. They would destabilize my magic too greatly in the effort to bring all that they are into this world. But I could show them to you—just for a moment. I could show you your brothers. Orcus and Mantyx.”

CHAPTER 75

Darrow and the other Terrasen lords had spent their time wisely these past few months, thank the gods, and Orynth was well stocked against the siege marching closer with each passing hour.

Food, weapons, healing supplies, plans for where the citizens might sleep should they flee into the castle, reinforcements at the places along the city and castle walls where the ancient stone had weakened—Aedion had found little at fault.

Yet after a fitful night’s sleep in his old room in the castle—awful and strange and cold—he was prowling one of the lower turrets as dawn broke. Up here, the wind was so much wilder, icier.

Stalking, steady footsteps sounded from the archway behind him. “I spotted you up here on the way down to breakfast,” Ren said by way of greeting. The Allsbrook court’s quarters had always been in the tower adjacent to Aedion’s—when they’d been boys, they’d once spent a summer devising a signaling system to each other’s rooms using a lantern.

It was the last summer they had spent in friendship, once it had startedto become clear to Ren’s father that Aedion was favored to take the blood oath. And then the rivalry had begun.

One summer: thick as thieves and as wild. The next: endless pissing contests, everything from footraces through the courtyards to shoving in the stairwells to outright brawling in the Great Hall. Rhoe had tried to defuse it, but Rhoe had never been a comfortable liar. Had refused to deny to Ren’s father that Aedion was the one who’d swear that oath. And by the end of that summer, even the Crown Prince had begun to look the other way when the two boys launched into yet another fight in the dirt. Not that it mattered now.

Would his own father, would Gavriel, have encouraged the rivalry? He supposed it didn’t matter, either. But for a heartbeat, Aedion tried to picture it—Gavriel here, presiding over his training. His father and Rhoe, teaching him together. And he knew that Gavriel would have found some way to calm the competition, much in the way he held the peace in the cadre. What manner of man would he have become, had the Lion been here? Gavriel likely would have been butchered with the rest of the court, but … he would have been here.

A fool’s path, to wander down that road. Aedion was who he was, and most of the time, didn’t mind that one bit. Rhoe had been his father in the ways that counted. Even if there had been times when Aedion had looked at Rhoe and Evalin and Aelin and still felt like a guest.

Aedion shook the thought from his head. Being here, in this castle, had addled him. Dragged him into a realm of ghosts.

“Don’t expect Darrow to put out a breakfast spread like the ones we used to have,” Aedion said. Not that he expected or wanted one. He ate only because his body demanded he do so, ate because it was strength, and he would need it, his people would need it, before long.

Ren surveyed the city, then the Plain of Theralis beyond. The still-empty horizon. “I’ll get the archers sorted today. And ensure the soldiers at the gates know how to wield that boiling oil.”

“Doyouknow how to wield it?” Aedion arched a brow.

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