Page 280 of Kingdom of Ash

“It’s beautiful in the spring,” Vernon said.

Aelin smiled. “Again, tell me something interesting, and perhaps you’ll live to see it.”

“Do you swear it? On your throne? That you shall not kill me?” A glance toward Fenrys and Gavriel, stone-faced behind her. “Nor any of your companions?”

Aelin snorted. “I was hoping you’d hold out longer before showing your hand.” She drained the rest of her ale. “But yes. I swear that neither me nor any of my companions will kill you if you tell us what you know.”

Fenrys started. All the confirmation Vernon needed that she meant it—that they had not planned it.

Vernon drank deeply from his ale. Then said, “Maeve has come to Morath.”

Aelin was glad she was sitting. She kept her face bored, bland. “To see Erawan?”

“To unite with him.”

CHAPTER 80

The room was spinning slightly. Even the droplet of her mother’s magic couldn’t steady her.

Worse. Worse than anything Aelin had imagined hearing from Vernon’s lips.

“Did Maeve bring her army?” Her cool, unruffled voice sounded far, far away.

“She brought no one but herself.”

“No army—none at all?”

Vernon drank again. “Not that I saw before Erawan packed me off on a wyvern in the dead of night. Claimed I had asked too many questions and I wasbetter suitedto be stationed here.”

Erawan or Maeve had to have known. Somehow. That they’d wind up here, and planted Vernon in their path. To tell them this.

“Did she say where her army was?” Not Terrasen—if it had gone ahead to Terrasen …

“She did not, but I assumed her forces had been left near the coast, to await orders on where to sail.”

Aelin shoved aside her rising nausea. “Did you learn what Maeve and Erawan plan to do?”

“Face you, I’d wager.”

She made herself lean back in her seat, her face bored, casual. “Do you know where Erawan keeps the third Wyrdkey?”

“What’s that?”

Not a misleading question. “A sliver of black stone—like the one planted in Kaltain Rompier’s arm.”

Vernon’s eyes shuttered. “She had the fire gift, too, you know. I tremble to think what might happen if Erawan put the stone withinyourarm.”

She ignored him. “Well?”

Vernon finished his ale. “I don’t know if he had another beyond what was in Kaltain’s arm.”

“He did. He does.”

“Then I don’t know where it is, do I? I only knew of the one my cunning little niece stole.”

Aelin refrained from grinding her teeth. Maeve and Erawan—united. And not a whisper of where Dorian and Manon were with the two other keys.

She didn’t acknowledge the walls that began pressing in, the cold sweat again sliding down her back. “Why did Maeve ally with Erawan?”

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