Page 255 of Mother of Death and Dawn

I gave him a wry smile. “When I promised you I would fight for our future, I knew I would have to do it soon.”

“Noble of you.” His voice lowered, a shade more serious. “I forbid you from dying on me, Tisaanah. I would make a pathetic widower.”

“I won’t if you won’t.”

The corner of his mouth quirked. “Deal.”

“Deal.”

His smile faded, and I watched his face morph from that of my friend, my lover—my husband—to that of Ara’s leader. I wonder if he saw the same transformation in me, too.

Nura sent a falcon to the shore requesting an audience with Max. Iya relayed this information as if it was a ridiculous proposition, but before the words even had left his lips, Max said, “Yes. We’ll go.”

Sammerin’s brows lowered in concern. “There will be no reasoning with her. We all know that. Are we sure we want to do this?”

“There is always something we can learn from a conversation,” I said.

Max lowered his chin in agreement. “I don’t know how she managed to get an army this big, but judging by this fleet, we are outnumbered. We owe it to the Arans who are about to die for this to take any possible chance, however small, at avoiding more bloodshed.”

To call that chance “small” was an overstatement. Nothing short of a miracle would stop Nura. But at least if we faced her, we would have an idea of what we were about to come up against. Maybe we could learn something.

Max extended his hand to me. He did not bother trying to tell me to stay behind.

“Tisaanah and I will go. And give me any Syrizen we have left. I need people who can get out of there fast if we need to.”

* * *

We metNura on a naval base, a tiny island about half a mile away from the shore. The first thing I noticed when we landed was the smell—it hit me like a wall, so thick I nearly gagged at my first breath. The noxious sensation weighing on my magic was so much stronger here. Max clearly felt it, too, as did the Syrizen to a lesser extent.

Nura was waiting for us. A gangway had been laid from her ship to the docks. When she approached, I had to fight hard to keep the shock from my face.

She looked nearly as bad as Zeryth had when he died. Black veins surrounded her eyes, sickly dark against her Valtain-pale skin. Her irises seemed so light in contrast that they looked like the milky glazed-over eyes of a corpse. She wore white, bloodstained trousers tucked into tall boots, and a sleeveless jacket that she left open to her sternum. She no longer hid her burn scars. Nor did she hide the darkness on her hands, crawling up her burnt flesh to her elbows.

Light fell over the faces of the soldiers that accompanied her—and this time, I couldn’t choke down my gasp. One of the Syrizen pressed the back of her hand to her mouth. Max’s nose wrinkled with disgust.

Now I understood how she had populated this armada.

The soldiers behind her were not human. They were not Fey. They were not even alive.

No, Nura’s soldiers were corpses—living death with empty faces, every part of them a little bit wrong, eerie light emanating from beneath their skin. Unlike the versions of Nura’s creatures that I had seen before, these were not decomposing or spiraling out of control. They stood, soullessly and obediently, behind her.

I realized that this was what Nura’s success looked like. This was what she had been trying to create all along.

Nura stepped onto the docks and gave us a chilling smile that did not reach her eyes.

Something is wrong with her,I thought.Like Zeryth. She has lost control.

“Hello Max. Tisaanah.” Her voice was smooth and melodic. “What anhonor, to be greeted by people of your elevated station.”

“Nura… what did you do?” Max could not look away from the corpses.

“I succeeded where you failed. The Fey had something important, and I took it from them.” Her smile faded. “And from what I hear, you thank me for this by trying to turn my own country against me.”

Max stepped forward—I had to resist the urge to grab him and pull him away from her.

“Look at yourself,” he murmured. “Look at what you’re doing.”

Her lip twitched. “I see you must be your old self again. Back to your moral judgements.Youlook.” She gestured behind her. “I’m waging a bloodless war. Just like you and your bleeding heart always wanted.”

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