Page 17 of Witchlight
But of course, people also meant potential enemies. Potential danger.
“I’ll move to the front,” she inserted after several moments of careful listening. She snuffed out her torch. “You take up the rear, Cam, and have your blade ready.”
“Hye, Majesty,” Cam agreed, squeezing himself against the stone so Vivia could pass. Vaness did the same, her eyes holding Vivia’s. She was cast almost fully in shadow. It softened her.
Vivia handed Vaness the unlit torch.
“Be careful,” the Empress murmured, her fingers sliding around the grip.
“I always am,” Vivia replied.
Which earned her a quiet scoff that was unexpectedly bright in all the darkness. It made Vivia think of all she and Vaness had faced and fought together. And it gave her heart iron when she needed it most.
Ahead, the hole in the floor was just as jagged as the “path” they’d taken through the mountain. It too must have opened in the quake. Vivia crept closer; the voices pitched louder. Two people. A man, a woman, and speaking with an urgency that suggested panic.
“No,” the man said, his voice a warm, rounded thing. “I swear that’s the way we came. It just looks different after the quake.”
“Naw, naw,” the woman replied, her voice harsher. Less polished. “You’ve gotten twisted around. That rock hit you hard—”
“Notthathard.”
“—and if we head down the steps, we’ll hit the big cavern again. See, look. There’s a tunnel on this map.”
A map.Vivia’s excitement tripped higher. She hurried to the hole’s lip, craning her neck—inch by careful inch—until she could see the edge of a boot. Then a black-clad leg. Then a sheathed weapon and buckler with a double-headed eagle stamped upon it. Which meant these were Cartorran soldiers.
She yanked out of sight. The Cartorrans were in the midst of upheaval. And while Vaness swore the new leader, Safiya fon Hasstrel, would help the Marstoki cause and Vivia’s too, Vivia had yet to receive any actual confirmation of this.
“I wish the commander were here for this mission.”
“He’s a captain now, Lev, remember?”
“He’ll always be a commander to me.”
“Don’t let him hear that.” A snort. “And also don’t be so hard on yourself. I think you’re doing well for your first command.”
“Yeah, yeah. The prince wouldn’t have appointed me if he didn’t think I could do it. You keep tellin’ me that.”
“Because you keep doubting it.”
Noise rustled behind Vivia, the faintest shift of fabric and scrape of shoe. Then suddenly it was not Cam behind Vivia, but the Empress again. Her eyes were even bigger now. “I know those voices,” she whispered. “They’re Hell-Bards.”
Vivia scrabbled farther from the hole. “And that’s good because?” She was so quiet, she more mouthed these words than uttered them.
“Because these are the Hell-Bards who were with the Truthwitch when we were imprisoned in Saldonica. I could not have escaped without them—nor escaped Azmir during the coup, either.”
“But why would they be here?” Cam now thrust in, his voice as hushed as Vivia’s. “That seems like a real coincidence.”
There are no coincidences,Vivia thought.Except when there are.She cleared her throat. The hairs on her neck pricked tall.
“I will go first,” Vaness said.
“No, wait.” Vivia grasped at her shoulder. “We should be cautious.”
“Of course. But we also have no reason to hold back. Especially since”—here she smiled and her eyes turned murderous—“they have iron on their bucklers and armor. So if I do not like what they say, I need not listen.”
She tugged free from Vivia, and with her usual grace, she droppedthrough the hole. Her feet landed a half heartbeat later. “Hello, Hell-Bards.”
Vivia didn’t hear what came next. She had reached the hole and was climbing through. Her pack scraped on stone. Her landing was decidedly ungraceful, and jolted through her ankles, her knees, all the way up to her teeth. By the time she’d wobbled to standing, Cam had plopped down beside her.
