The dead valley did not stay quiet for long.
Something moved beneath the mist.
Kaelen raised his sword.
Lyra nocked an arrow and turned toward the black cliffs on our left. Seris pressed two fingers against the ground, feeling the vibrations through the stone.
I watched the fog.
Pale shapes moved inside it.
One became three.
Three became ten.
The creatures crawled out of the mist on six thin limbs. Their bodies were covered in gray plates, and their heads split open like flowers when they smelled blood.
Kaelen took a step forward.
The red scar beneath his shirt flashed.
His body stiffened.
I caught his shoulder.
"Wait."
He pulled away. "I can fight."
"I didn’t say you couldn’t."
The nearest creature opened its mouth.
Rows of black teeth unfolded from inside its skull.
Seris drew a thin line across her palm.
"Those are grave hounds."
"Do they bite?" Lyra asked.
"They dissolve armor."
Lyra raised her bow again.
"That was not the answer I wanted."
The first hound rushed through the mist.
Kaelen met it with a downward strike.
His sword cut through one of its front limbs, but the creature twisted around the blade and snapped at his chest. Red energy burst from the scar on his body before the jaws could close.
Kaelen’s sword moved faster.
The hound’s head fell into the mist.
A second creature attacked from behind.
I stepped into its path and drove my sword through the gap between its plates. The blade stopped halfway. The hound screamed and slammed its body against me.
Its claws tore through my coat.
I released Cinder Vein.
The first burst broke its armor.
The second burned through the inside of its body.
The creature collapsed at my feet.
A third came from the right.
Lyra’s arrow struck its eye, but the hound kept moving.
Kaelen reached it first.
His sword split the creature from shoulder to stomach.
Black fluid sprayed across the rocks.
Kaelen stood over the corpse, breathing hard.
The red light around his scar faded.
He looked at his sword.
"That power moved before I did."
"Then learn to control it," I said.
"I am trying."
"Try faster."
The mist behind us exploded.
Two hounds leaped from the fog at the same time.
Seris raised both hands.
Blood threads burst from her palms and wrapped around their necks. She pulled them together in midair and slammed their skulls against each other.
The impact killed one.
The other landed on its feet.
I drove my blade into its open mouth.
The remaining creatures stopped attacking.
They watched us from the fog.
There were too many.
At least thirty.
Lyra looked at the black fluid spreading through the mist.
"We cannot kill all of them."
"No," Seris said. "We only need to make them believe we can."
She pointed toward the valley floor.
A narrow stone bridge crossed a deep crack in the earth. The old road continued beyond it, but the bridge was barely wide enough for one person.
"If we reach the other side, they cannot surround us."
The hounds began moving again.
"Run," I said.
We moved toward the bridge.
The creatures followed.
Lyra ran first, firing over her shoulder. Her arrows slowed the hounds but did not stop them. Seris kept close to the edge of the group, using blood threads to pull any creature that came too near into the path of the others.
Kaelen stayed behind us.
He did not complain.
That worried me more than his usual arguments.
We reached the bridge.
A hound lunged at Lyra.
Kaelen crossed the distance in one step and cut it down.
The red power beneath his skin flared.
He staggered after the strike.
The hounds were nearly on him.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him onto the bridge.
"Move."
His boots slipped on the wet stone.
"I’m fine."
"You keep saying that while falling."
He glared at me but continued.
We reached the center of the bridge.
The hounds crowded onto the near side.
Their weight shook the old stones.
Seris looked over the edge.
"Veyr."
"I see it."
The bridge had been damaged by age. A thick support chain ran beneath the stones, already split in two places.
I turned to Kaelen.
He understood before I spoke.
"No."
"We need to break the bridge."
"There are still creatures on it."
"Then move faster."
He looked at the hounds, then at the gap beneath us.
For the first time since I had met him, he did not argue because he had a better idea.
He simply ran.
We reached the other side.
Seris sliced the remaining chain with a blood blade.
I struck the nearest support with Cinder Vein.
The first burst cracked the stone.
The second broke it apart.
The bridge dropped.
The hounds fell with it, vanishing into the white mist below.
Some caught the edge.
Lyra fired at their claws.
Kaelen joined her.
The last hound pulled itself onto the broken stone.
I stepped forward and drove my sword into its skull.
Then I kicked the body into the valley.
The mist swallowed it.
For a few seconds, we listened to the creatures screaming below.
The sound continued long after the valley became still.
Kaelen leaned against a tree.
His face was pale again.
Seris removed the bandage around his chest.
The red scar had spread farther, branching over his ribs like thin cracks in glass.
"It is getting worse," she said.
Kaelen looked down.
"Can you stop it?"
"I can slow it."
"That was not my question."
"It is the answer."
He turned to me.
"You knew this would happen."
"I knew something might happen."
"You tied that thing to my body and hid the cost."
"I used the only method that worked."
"You used me."
"Yes."
The word settled between us.
Lyra looked at me.
Kaelen’s hand tightened around his sword.
For a moment, I thought he might attack.
He did not.
Perhaps he was too tired.
Perhaps some part of the link was holding him back.
That thought made my stomach turn.
Seris wrapped a fresh bandage over his chest.
"If you lose control again, I will cut the fragment out."
Kaelen looked at her.
"And kill me?"
"If necessary."
He nodded once.
"That is fair."
I looked toward the northern road.
A line of smoke rose beyond the trees.
Not from the city.
From the road ahead.
Someone had set fire to a wagon.
We moved carefully.
The road led out of the dead valley and climbed toward the northern hills. Broken carts blocked the path, their wheels burned and their cargo scattered across the dirt.
Bodies lay beside them.
Royal soldiers.
A few still moved.
Kaelen reached the closest survivor first and turned him onto his back.
The soldier’s armor was marked with the royal sunburst. His throat had been cut, but the wound had not killed him yet.
"Who did this?" Kaelen asked.
The soldier’s eyes opened.
"Black cloaks..."
"Church?"
The soldier gripped Kaelen’s sleeve.
"Ordan... they attacked the house..."
His hand fell.
Kaelen looked at me.
I crouched beside the dead soldier and searched his belt. I found a folded document sealed with black wax.
The royal decree was short.
**House Ordan is declared traitorous. All members, servants, and associates are to be arrested. Anyone resisting will be executed.**
At the bottom was Prince Alric’s seal.
The date was from that morning.
"They moved quickly," Lyra said.
"They were waiting for an excuse."
Kaelen stood.
"Maera is still in the house."
"She knew the risk."
"That does not mean we leave her."
"We already did."
He stepped toward me.
I felt the blood link tighten.
His anger traveled through it like heat.
"You are very calm about abandoning people who helped us."
"I am calm because panic will not bring them back."
"Then we go back."
Lyra caught his arm.
"The army is between us and Blackmere."
"I can get through them."
"No," I said. "You cannot."
His eyes hardened.
"I just killed thirty soldiers in a cathedral."
"You killed one group while the Heart controlled half your body. The royal army has thousands of men."
"Then help me break through them."
"That is not a plan."
"It is better than leaving Maera to die."
He was right.
That was the irritating part.
I unfolded the decree again.
The royal army had not declared House Ordan guilty because of the cathedral.
They had declared them guilty because the house had protected Veyr.
If Maera stayed, she would lose everything.
If we returned, we might lose everyone.
I looked toward the smoking road.
A rider emerged from the trees.
He wore the dark gray coat of House Ordan.
His horse was bleeding from one leg.
The man nearly fell before reaching us.
Kaelen caught him.
"Where is Maera?"
The servant tried to speak, but blood filled his mouth.
Seris pressed a hand against his wound.
"Slowly."
"The house..." He coughed. "The army came before dawn."
"What happened?"
"The lady burned the records. All of them."
"What records?" Lyra asked.
"Draven debts. Names. Payments. Everything that could prove she helped the march."
He gripped Kaelen’s coat.
"She told us to escape through the eastern kitchens."
"How did you get here?" I asked.
The servant looked at me.
"Maera sent me after you."
"Why?"
"To warn you. The prince knows about the monastery."
That was expected.
The man’s eyes moved toward Lyra.
"The soldiers captured three servants."
Lyra’s expression changed.
"Who?"
"I do not know their names."
"Did they speak?"
The servant swallowed.
"One of them broke under questioning."
The air seemed to tighten.
"What did he tell them?" I asked.
The servant looked at Lyra again.
"He gave them her name."
Lyra’s hand moved toward her bow.
Kaelen turned toward the road.
"They will send people after her."
"They already have," I said.
A horn sounded in the distance.
Another answered from the forest behind us.
The royal soldiers had found the trail.
The servant grabbed my arm.
"Lady Maera said not to return."
Kaelen looked at me.
I could feel the question through the link before he asked it.
"Are we going back?" he said.
I looked at Lyra.
She was standing beside the wounded servant, one hand pressed against the strap of her bow.
Her name had been given to the army.
House Ordan was under arrest.
And Maera had burned the only records that could protect her family.
The sensible choice was to continue north.
The Red Monastery held the remaining truth about the Heart. Prince Alric was already moving toward it. Every hour mattered.
Returning to Blackmere would cost us the road, the advantage, and possibly our lives.
It was also the choice Maera expected me to avoid.
I folded the decree and placed it inside my coat.
"We are not going back to the city."
Kaelen stared at me.
"You heard him."
"I heard him."
"Then what are you going to do?"
I looked at the royal banners appearing between the trees.
The first soldiers had entered the road.
"Make the army think we did."
Seris’s eyes narrowed.
"You have a plan?"
"I have part of one."
That was the truth.
I pointed toward the smoking wagons.
"Burn the northern road. Leave the horses. Make it look like we continued toward the monastery."
Lyra understood.
"And the real path?"
I looked toward the hills on our right.
An old hunting trail climbed through the rocks and disappeared toward the western forest.
"The river road."
Seris glanced at the wounded servant.
"He cannot travel fast."
I looked at the man.
He was barely conscious.
"He will not."
Kaelen frowned.
"What does that mean?"
I drew my sword.
The royal soldiers were close enough for us to hear their orders.
"Leave him with the evidence."
The servant’s eyes opened.
He understood before the others did.
"You promised to help Lady Maera."
"I promised nothing."
Kaelen stepped in front of me.
"You are not killing him."
"He is already dying."
"He knows where we are."
"He also knows the city."
Kaelen’s hand tightened around his sword.
The red scar on his chest glowed.
"You are becoming exactly what they say you are."
The words struck harder than they should have.
I looked past him at the approaching soldiers.
Then I looked down at the servant.
He had risked his life to bring us a warning.
Killing him would be simple.
Useful.
And wrong.
I lowered my sword.
"Seris, take him."
She blinked once.
"To where?"
"Anywhere the army will not search."
She pressed her palm against the servant’s wound and lifted him over her shoulder.
Kaelen watched me.
I could feel the anger leaving his body through the blood link.
Not trust.
Not yet.
Just a little less hatred.
I turned toward the western trail.
"Move."
We reached the trees just as the royal soldiers entered the road.
Behind us, Lyra set the wagons on fire.
Flames climbed the dry wood.
The army shouted and formed ranks.
A royal officer pointed toward the burning road.
"They went north!"
The soldiers followed the false trail.
Our group disappeared into the western forest.
For the first time since leaving Blackmere, we were not running toward the Red Monastery.
We were running away from the road entirely.
Kaelen walked beside me in silence.
After several minutes, he spoke.
"You almost killed that man."
"Yes."
"You wanted to."
"Yes."
He looked at me.
"Why didn’t you?"
I stepped over a fallen branch.
"Because you were watching."
Kaelen stopped.
The blood link tightened between us.
He heard the answer for what it was.
I had not spared the servant because it was right.
I had spared him because Kaelen was there.
Ahead, beyond the trees, the western forest opened into a wide valley filled with blue grass and broken stone towers.
An old road crossed the valley.
At its far end stood a ruined fortress built into the mountain.
Seris looked toward it.
"That is not the river road."
"No," I said.
Lyra studied the fortress.
"What is it?"
I unfolded the map Maera had given us.
A faded name was written beside the ruins.
**The Black Gate.**
The only passage through the western mountains.
And between us and it, something enormous moved beneath the blue grass.