Page 106 of In the Ravenous Dark
Ivrilos drops my hand, vanishing from anyone’s view but mine. This time, before I can react, the door is kicked in…
… to reveal Penelope, bristling with armor and weapons. She stares at Tumarq—along with Crisea, Japha, Lydea, me, and Bethea—and her jaw drops. To her credit, she doesn’t drop the sword in her hand.
She levels the blade at me. “Out. Get away from the general and my daughter. And Princess Lydea,” she adds belatedly.
“Your priorities, as ever, are painfully clear,” I snarl. Lydea shoots me a wry look.
“Penelope,” Tumarq says slowly. “You might want to hear them out.”
Hope flares in my chest.
“We can talk when she’s in chains! This girl is a traitor! She murdered our nephew and is supposed to be dead. What is Crisea doing here?”
“You still might want to listen to what Rovan has to say, as well as Lydea and Japha.”
“Then they’re with her?” Penelope shakes her head. “I won’t ask why you slipped out in the middle of the night without telling me, Tumarq, but I imagine it has something to do withthem.” She tosses her head at Japha. “Missing, presumed dead or to have played some role in the assassination of the crown prince.”
“Mother, Japha would never have,” Crisea says, and for a moment I appreciate her presence more than I thought possible.
Tumarq’s jaw hardens as he faces off with Penelope. “Don’t make Japha… or me… your enemy in this.”
“I thought I was rescuing you from an assassination attempt!” she hisses. “I didn’t know I would find you with a secret…cabal.” She whistles sharply, and I hear the distant scrape and clank of armor out in the square.
“Soldiers,” I say.
Turmarq curses. “Stand down, Penelope.”
“Stand down?”
Crisea looks desperately back and forth between her parents. Japha is grim-faced, and Lydea furious. Bethea is like a shadow. Ivrilosisa shadow, already heading through the wall outside.
“That’s an order,” Tumarq says. “I outrank you.”
“As a general,” Penelope snaps. “I outrank you as aprincess.”
“Oh, so now you want to be a princess, when it suits you,” Japha says.
“I outrank you all,” Lydea bursts out. “For the goddess’s sake, Aunt, the king isn’t your brother. He’s a monster who’s lived for centuries, and he needs to be put down.”
“What?”
Before anyone can explain, I hear it—the sound of hooves. More than a few sets. It doesn’t take long for the rest of the group to hear them, too.
“You ordered in the cavalry?” Tumarq exclaims.
Penelope curses. “No. No one mounted.” She rushes outside.
We all look at one another and follow, making a rather jumbled exit from the storeroom. I seize Lydea’s arm and drag her back.
“Stay here,” I say. “You’re too important.”
She grimaces. “To Thanopolis or Skyllea?”
“To me.” That makes her freeze. “Please stay and hide.” Saying that dredges up a distant memory of my father once telling me the same thing. I hadn’t listened to him. Before I can dwell on that, I draw the shadows around me and conceal myself in darkness. Invisible, I head outside.
Out in the square, it’s like a military drill has been ordered in the middle of the night. Dozens upon dozens of soldiers are gathering, torches flaring and steel flashing, apparently in preparation for whatever assassination attempt or treason Penelope thought she might find brewing.
And now come the bloodmages on horseback. It’s not every bloodline in the Hall of the Wards, but as many as could be assembled at this late hour, led by Lady Acantha… and the king. The two of them are nestled in a phalanx of mounted bloodmages cloaked in black and red, silver helms glinting in the night. Acantha is swathed in crimson, the king in midnight, his true face hiddenbehind that mask of stony middle age, iron eyes, and salt-and-pepper hair crowned in golden laurels.
