Her story held at least a grain of truth. “Is that why there are risers penned near the river bend?”
She winced. “Yes and no.”
The tension returned to my shoulders, and my wings twitched to be given direction.
“We found the risers following the river. By this time, Maven Sikyakookyang knew of what we had been doing. My sister had hired her husband to investigate the plague, and he stumbled across us one night.” She rolled her eyes. “They refused to let us kill the risers, so they built a pen far from the city to contain them. As more arrive, they’re added to the pit, where they ultimately kill and eat one another. Why they think it’s more acceptable to let them kill each other brutally than put them out of their misery, I don’t pretend to know. But wait—how did you know about the pen? Were you there?”
“Asher took me hunting, and we stumbled across the risers. I heard the guards talking about using them to lure harbingers, and I thought…” I buried my face in my hands. “It’s my fault Asher left. I thought that meant I was in danger.”
“You did what anyone in your position would have done.” Pascale reached for me but withdrew her hand when I flinched. “Please. Asher said there’s still hope of saving Edan. Let us help you.”
“You can’t.” Asher approached us. “Marne is the only one of us who can walk the crossroads.”
Pascale frowned. “What are the crossroads?”
Once Lleu joined us, Asher and I told them all we knew of the crossroads. Since Pascale hadn’t waited for a group discussion, she and Lleu then filled Asher in on the particulars of their exploits. It hadn’t occurred to me that harbingers—Idra in particular—might attack the city with the sole reason being to destroy the flowers that presented the best chance Araneaeans had for surviving the plague.
Lleu scowled. “How do we search for a place we can’t see?”
“You can’t.” I had crossed the campsite to stand by Asher. “I appreciate your offer, but I see no way you can help.” I braced myself for his anger. “The next opportunity I get, I’m going after Edan.”
“It’s a trap, it’s got to be.” Lleu rubbed his jaw. “There must be a way.”
“There’s a slim chance I can find him and escape. I don’t see four of us going in and all coming out again. No offense, but harbingers are fast and deadly. You may be a skilled fighter, Lleu, but you aren’t a match for their speed or their venom. Pascale…” I hesitated to say she was even less useful.
“Before you say something I regret…” she held up a hand, “…let me enlighten you as to what I can do.” She drew her skirt up her thigh and revealed a thick leather guard wrapped around each leg.
Asher glanced aside, but Lleu’s lips parted. I half-expected him to drool.
Pascale lifted a small vial. “I wasn’t lying when I said my spinning skills were pathetic. I had to find other ways to distinguish myself.” Her expression darkened. “This is a poison I mixed from my venom. My father was born Theridiidae before marrying into Mother’s clan. I don’t need to tell you how potent the mixture was undiluted, but it was unable to take down a harbinger on its own. I had to mix it with equal parts valerian root, a powerful sedative, and crushed hemlock, which causes temporary paralysis.” She pulled a blowpipe from the leather holster, then a slender dart. “If you tip a dart with this mixture, whatever you hit isn’t going to get back up. We’ve tested it.”
“Knocked a harbinger right out of the air,” Lleu bragged. “It works on risers too.”
I glanced between them. “Just so I understand, you’re offering to come with us?”
“We are,” they said together.
“Idra is at the heart of the Necrita movement.” Pascale carefully repacked her weapons. “Lailah might have led the march on Erania, but Idra put her to the task. Idra must be put down, and if you’re saying the reason we have yet to discover a harbinger’s covey is because they hide themselves in the veil, then I’m yours to command. I won’t hinder you. This is the best chance I’m likely to get.”
“Much as I hate agreeing with Pascale, she’s right. I’ve been training her, and her father taught her a few tricks as well. That poison of hers…” He whistled. “I would hate to be on the receiving end of it.”
Pascale sounded grim. “I vowed to never mix again, and yet here I am, back to old habits.”
Lleu slung his arm around her shoulders and bent his head to hers. “You’ve paid your debt.”
“No. I haven’t.” Her smile was bitter when she ducked from under his arm. “I never can.”
Asher and I shared a glance. I got the feeling he could guess what they meant. The best I figured was they were referencing the circumstances that brought her here, and those were not my business.
Pascale cleared her throat. “I do have an idea.”
“Oh gods,” Lleu swore.
Her eyes narrowed on him before she addressed me. “Sikya passed a decree several days ago stating her entire clan must take the preventative Henri created. Since we’re living among them, we were included in their precautions. From what Henri said in his letter, the success of his test cases went very well and that no one given the preventative contracted the plague. Therefore, I propose we let Marne infect us, giving us the ability to enter the crossroads, and let the preventative do its work.”
“Every time her mouth opens…” Lleu rubbed his eyes. “If the preventative works, we won’t get sick in the first place. Besides the fact, if Vaughn ever found out I let you do something so ridiculous, he would have me whipped within an inch of my life for endangering his alliance with your clan.”
Her chin shot up. “I can handle Vaughn.”
“There’s your proof of sanity right there.” He barked laughter. “Or the lack of it. No one handles Vaughn. Well, his wife might, but I hardly want to know that, do I? You will be doing no handling.”
I rubbed a finger alongside my nose. “You were covert agents, and you behaved like this?” No wonder Paladin Chinedu had caught them in their harbinger stalking. They were so loud.
She turned on me. “What better cover is there?”
Lleu shrugged. “No one would suspect me of working with that little tyrant. That’s for sure.”
“Your idea is interesting,” Asher said, bringing their attention back to us. “But there is another flaw. Marne can’t infect you. She isn’t a full harbinger, and she has only a fraction of their abilities.”
“Oh.” Pascale studied me. “I hadn’t considered that.”
“Or the fact I might not want to infect you.” I yelled, “I don’t want to become what Idra is.”
“She’s only trying to help.” Asher smoothed hairs from my forehead. “Four heads are still better than two.”
I wasn’t so sure. The way those two argued, my head felt ready to split open.
“She doesn’t look so good.” Pascale came to my side. “When was the last time she ate?”
“Last night we had dried berries and nuts.” Asher blew out a harsh breath. “It was all I had.”
“Lleu, bring our supplies.” Pascale led me back to the pallet and sat me down. “You need to eat before you make any decisions. Hunger makes me snappish, and you’re under so much more stress.”
Minutes later, Lleu tossed a packet into my lap. “That ought to tide you over.”
I unfolded the oiled paper, and inside were strips of dried meat. The rich scent made me salivate. I shoved one into my mouth, forcing myself to chew so I wouldn’t choke. In a rush, the horrible hunger that rode me every second of every day since my change burst into the forefront of my mind, and my body trembled. It was a testament of my grief over Edan that I had blocked it this long, but now that I had meat in my hands, my stomach roared. I was licking my fingers clean after having eaten seven meat strips before I thought to offer Asher the last piece. I held the packet out to him, but he passed.
/> “You need it more than I do.” He dug through his supplies until he found his waterskin. “Here.”
I accepted it and drank it dry. Thank the gods this was river country and water was plentiful.
“There’s more where that came from.” Lleu passed around packets of meat. “Dried it myself.”
When he offered me a second packet, I meekly accepted, but I chewed it more thoughtfully.
“His whole pack is dried meat.” Pascale snorted. “He can afford to share.”
He curled his lip at her. “Hands to yourself, tyrant.”
She laughed until she choked, and he deigned to reach across and pat her on the back.
“So…” she continued to cough, “…how do we find and enter the crossroads?”
“Marne and I have both had harbinger venom in us.” Asher frowned. “Mine came direct from a harbinger. Hers came direct from her sigil. I have difficulty seeing the crossroads and can’t enter the city. She can see the crossroads well and can enter the city, but she puts herself at great risk to do it.”
“It sounds like a sigil is what we need.” Pascale picked at her meal. “Or its venom at least.”
Lleu lifted a waterskin. “They don’t just leave those lying around.”
“Or do they?” I stood and made my way to the ursus’s corpse.
After hours spent under the southland sun, the stench made my eyes water. I bent to examine the spot on her shoulder where the sigils had been, but there were no lumps. I tried the other side in case my memory was skewed, but I found no sign of them there, either. I pressed my fingers into the skin across her sides and back, which meant they had burrowed deeper either to avoid the heat or to get at her innards. I had two options, and neither appealed to me. Either I waited them out, or I cut them out.
Asher knelt beside me. “What are you thinking?”
I continued testing her hide for clues. “There are two sigils in there somewhere.”
He drew a knife, ever ready to follow my lead. “If we found them, what good can they do us?”
“If your touch is enough to pull me from the crossroads, then if you held a sigil, could it work an opposite effect? What if holding it allowed you to cross with me? There would still be one more, for either Lleu or for Pascale, but I doubt it would work since they have taken Henri’s preventative.”
A smile bent his lips. “Are you suggesting we enter the veil together then leave them behind?”
I bumped my arm against his. “You must have been thinking the same thing.”
“They are loud and unpredictable,” he agreed. “It might be the safest option for them.”
I lowered my voice. “I am interested in Pascale’s poison darts. They would make things easier.”
He nodded. “How can we get them off her?”
“You can’t.” Pascale strolled into view. “I do apologize. Generally, I pretend I can’t hear others’ conversations out of politeness, but considering I was the topic, well, I felt justified in barging in.”
I met her gaze squarely. “Then you heard our argument as to why you can’t go.”
“I did, and your theory might be valid.” She paused. “All I’m asking is for a chance to prove it.”
“Why does this matter so much to you? You might die, and then where would your family be?”
“Better off,” she said. “I said before I want justice for my clan, and I meant it.”
“Maven Lourdes would hold the Salticidae responsible for your death,” Asher warned.
“She can hardly lay waste to her husband’s people.” She wrinkled her nose at the smell. “They’re as safe as they ever were. Don’t let their humble surroundings fool you. They have stores of wealth you would not believe. I think they try too hard to tread the line between their tradition and their means.”
“Fair enough.” I understood being indebted to someone you loved. “What about Lleu?”
“You said you have two sigils. Asher gets one, and let me have the other.” She glanced past her shoulder. “Lleu has a destiny that I don’t. He has a chance to—” She stopped herself. “He can’t die.”
Asher canted his head. “No matter how noble your intentions, he won’t sit by and let you go.”
“I know.” She patted her thigh, above the leather holster for her poisons. “I can handle him.”
“Lleu is a friend of mine,” Asher began. “Maven’s sister or not, I won’t let you harm him.”
“You think I would?” She scoffed. “You have no idea. None.”
“Let us try it her way.” Dangerous hope welled in my chest. “With her help, this might work.”
“All right.” Asher put the knife in my hand. “I trust you.”
I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
His smile dazzled me. “I would have given you that knife much sooner if I had known—”
I kissed him on the mouth.
If we found another way in and he could follow me, especially if Pascale came too, I would have my hands full of people to protect. There was so slim a chance for all three of us making it back, it seemed to me the thing to do was to thank him as well as I knew how for all his kindness.
Surprise sweetened his reaction.
When his lips parted, I felt the moment his fangs distended. They almost pierced my tongue. My stomach tightened at the scrape of them over my lips, the flavor of his venom tempering our kiss.
His breathing shallowed. “What was that for?”
I tasted his pleased smile. “Does it have to be for a reason?”
“I would prefer if it were.” He nipped me. “How else can I replicate the circumstances?”
I shook my head at him. Impossible male.
The speed at which his moods switched from infuriating to charming made my head spin.
Pascale gasped. “Are you two mad?” She pried us apart. “Think of your husband.” She jabbed a fingernail into Asher’s shoulder. “As for you—well, I’m honestly not surprised after all the mooning you’ve done over her.” She thumped the back of my head. “Edan’s not dead yet. Gods be merciful.”
Asher caught her wrist before she thumped me again and twisted her arm behind her back.
“Thanks for ruining that,” he growled.
“Let her go.” Lleu walked into view. “You want to make out with another’s wife, that’s not my problem. Keeping Pascale safe, even from herself, is.” He waved his hand. “Come on. Back to me.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and tried not to laugh. I ended up snorting.
“You mean out of all the secrets Henri chose to tell you, he neglected that one?”
“What do you mean?” Lleu gave up waiting on Pascale to flounce to him and fetched her.
“Edan is my brother.” I held up my ringless hand and wiggled my fingers. “We aren’t married.”
“Oh?” Lleu’s grip on Pascale slipped as he paused to rake his gaze over me. “Is that so?”
“You should have told us the truth.” She stared down her nose at me. “It’s still inappropriate to carry on the way you were.”
“You live through what I have, and then you can judge me.” I carried enough guilt as it was. “Unless, do you want to make an exchange? What is it Lleu’s so afraid you know about him?”
“Marne.” She hissed at me. “Let’s not toss me in front of a rampaging ursus, shall we?”
His nostrils flared. “You’ve made your point.”
I gripped the knife’s handle tighter in my fist. “Are we all in agreement?”
All but Lleu nodded. His pinched expression darkened even further upon realizing we had made a plan without consulting him. When I plunged the blade in the carcass and sawed, his eyes widened. His forehead creased. “This is what we all agreed to?”
“Yes,” I said, and regretted it when the taste
of death settled in my mouth.
“All right then.” He drew a knife from his belt and tossed one to Asher. “Let’s get it done.”
And so we did.
Chapter Fourteen
Covered in gore and smelling of things I would rather have never smelled in the first place, I sat back on my heels with a sigil on each palm. My hands shook. My muscles tensed, ready to fling the horrid things if they so much as batted a wing at me. Except neither had them. They were plump and sleek, like grubs, and white film covered their bodies as though someone had wrapped them in paper.
Sigils were the color of burnished copper. Their shapes were wasp-like, and they were heavy as stones. While each one varied, most were the size of my balled fist. These were more robust, though.
Henri had wondered at first if they were mechanical constructs, but nothing made with gears and pins consumed the flesh of the living. Machines lacked the ability to experience hunger as sigils did.
Even in slumber, they exuded menace. Without their stingers or wings, they still repulsed me.
I tried holding them, I did, but I couldn’t stand to touch them. I all but threw them on the ground and scrambled away from them, trying to draw air into my lungs. It was all too easy to remember the prick of their nasty stingers, the drugging sickness they pumped in me, the horrid voice in my head.
“This won’t hurt but a moment,” Idra promised. “Just a tiny prick and you’ll be mine.”
“Edan…” I mumbled, fever crazed and burning. “Please. My brother… I can’t stay.”
“You must.” She kissed my forehead. “No one will accept what you are but me.”
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