“Have you ever seen the Wolf? Talked to him? The man’s got a bad light in his eyes. You look at his face for half a minute, you see he’s been ripped apart and sewn back together more times than anyone ought to have been.”
—Interrogation of an unnamed Red Crown defector, preceding execution
Simon brought them to a Red Crown safe house deep in a pine wood at the base of a cliff—a small log cabin, draped in moss and cloaked by a tangled thicket of trees.
As soon as Eliana stepped inside, she heard a soft cry and looked around in time to see Remy jump off a chair by a tiny stove. When she knelt to catch him, his hug nearly knocked her over.
“Stop leaving me behind,” he whispered into her hair. “El, I woke up, and you were gone.”
She closed her eyes, pressed her palms against the delicate bones of his back. He’d grown thinner since leaving Orline.
Then, as he wiped his cheeks on her shirt, she remembered Zahra’s words: The woman you think is your mother but truly is not.
The boy she thought was her brother but—
Remy pulled away from her, face splotchy and tear-streaked, and gave her a brave smile. “Hob taught me how to use the stove. I’ll make you some supper.”
And Eliana decided at once that Zahra was wrong, even if the wraith had been speaking the truth. Even if Ioseph, Rozen, and Remy Ferracora were not hers through blood, they were hers at heart, always, and if anyone tried to tell her differently, she would send them crashing to their knees at her feet.
She dried Remy’s cheeks with her thumbs. “Only if you make some for yourself too.”
As he hurried away toward the stove, Eliana found Hob himself at the far side of the room, settling Navi into a small bed.
“Is Camille safe?” she asked.
“When we left her, she and her people were alive and well,” Hob replied. “Simon sent that Invictus assassin limping off into the night.”
Eliana’s stomach dropped. “Rahzavel. Simon didn’t kill him?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
She closed her eyes. “He won’t rest until he finds me.”
“Well, at least he’s not here now. You can thank Simon for that.”
Eliana refused to acknowledge that or the man in question. “Why are you here? What about Patrik?”
“Simon took some blows in that fight. I wanted to help him get the boy to safety.” Hob smiled at Remy. “He’s good company, your brother.”
On her cot, Navi shifted with a moan. Hob wrung out a rag in a pail of water and draped it over Navi’s forehead.
“Have you seen this before?” Eliana asked her. “What’s been done to her?”
Hob’s face was tight with anger. “No. I don’t know what this is, and I’m not sure I care to.” He drew a quilt up to Navi’s chin, tucked it around her body. “Camille requested I ask after Laenys. The girl, her missing attendant. She was taken by Fidelia as well?”
Laenys. She had completely forgotten to look for the girl.
Eliana shook her head, hoping Hob couldn’t see the truth on her face. “There wasn’t time to look for her. I’m sorry.”
“Do you know what they were doing there? Fidelia. Did you find out why they steal girls?”
“I don’t, but the sounds I heard while in my cell—”
“It’s all right. You don’t need to tell me, Dread.” The word had no venom in it, only a heavy sadness. “You should rest. When Simon returns, you’ll be leaving soon after.”
Simon.
Eliana turned, searching the room for him—but he was gone.
She barely restrained herself from flinging Arabeth at the wall. “Where did he go?”
“To meet a contact at the border who will help you across the Narrow Sea to Astavar,” Hob said.
Eliana began unstrapping the knives from her body. “Do you have clothes for me? Something other than prison garb.”
“You’re not leaving again?” Remy asked quickly.
She gave him a small smile. “Not leaving. I just want to sit outside, get some air after being cooped up in a cell for a week.”
And so she could see Simon before the others—and not let him past until she’d gotten the answers she deserved.
• • •
Zahra arrived two hours later, appearing without warning at Eliana’s side.
Eliana spat out a curse and jumped up from the tree stump she’d been sitting on.
The wraith’s black smile was barely visible in the shadowed trees. “Hello, my queen. I mean…Eliana.”
“Next time,” Eliana hissed, returning to her seat, “give me some warning before you just pop into the air like that.”
“I am overjoyed to see you as well, especially since we parted in such a dire moment.”
Eliana sighed sharply. “Yes. Thank you for that.”
“For what?”
Despite her irritation, Eliana smirked. “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”
“I did risk much by engaging Semyaza,” Zahra pointed out. “Though I would do it again, and happily, to serve you.”
“Thank you, Zahra,” said Eliana with a sweep of her hand, “for battling Semyaza so Navi and I could escape. Your loyalty and bravery are to be commended.”
Zahra’s form shimmered with pleasure. “You sounded very regal just then, Eliana. Blood will out, as they say.”
“I don’t want to talk about my blood,” Eliana snapped.
“As you wish.” Zahra paused. “It will, however, have to be discussed eventually.”
Eliana looked away into the trees. “And if I don’t believe what you claim?”
“You forget I was in your mind, back in your cell,” Zahra said gently. “I think you’ve known for some time that something was misaligned in your past. That you aren’t like those around you. There is the matter of your body’s ability to heal itself, for one.”
Eliana whirled on her. “Listen to me right now, wraith. You may have the power to enter my mind, but you will not do so again unless at some point in the future I demand it of you. And until then, you will not even once mention the Blood Queen or the Lightbringer or whatever person it is you think I am. Is that understood?”
Zahra bowed her head. “Of course, Eliana. I will respect your wishes.”
“Thank you.”
They sat in silence for a long time, the woods quiet and dark around them.
“Do you know what they did to Navi?” Eliana asked at last.
“I wish I didn’t,” Zahra replied. “Throughout the long years since the Blood Queen’s Fall, the Emperor has undertaken many experiments in an attempt to achieve resurrection without her. Medicines, drugs, surgical procedures, manipulation of what he calls genetics.”
“What is that?”
“Put simply, it is the basic life structure of any living creature. Not the empirium—not even the Emperor can touch that, much to his despair—but it is effective nonetheless.”
Eliana shook her head. “And he uses it for…what?”
“He is creating things,” Zahra murmured, “with the help of healers who exchange their skills for their families’ safety. He is creating creatures that aren’t quite human or animal. They are called crawlers. They are monsters, Eliana. Mutations is the word I’ve heard used by the Empire physicians. And an army of them is bound for Astavar.”
Eliana stared at Zahra, her mouth gone dry. “I don’t understand. They have a whole army of adatrox, an army that’s devoured the world. Why this too?”
“There are many ways to strike fear into the hearts of those you have conquered,” Zahra said gravely. “The continued existence of Red Crown eats away at the Emperor, as does the resistance of Astavar. He is creative. He will think up new horrors for every day that any human walks free, until there is no fight left in you.”
“And only women, only girls?” Eliana’s stomach turned. “Why? If it’s an army he wants, why not abduct a bunch of hulking men?”
“That, I don’t know.”
“And that was what happened to Navi? She was being turned into…?” She couldn’t finish the question.
“By the state of her, it looks to me as if she has only gone through the early stages. Not transformation, but that will come soon—”
Zahra fell silent, then whispered, “Simon is near.”
“Yes.” The air around Zahra suddenly felt charged. “He has run afoul of angels.”
Eliana drew Arabeth and surged to her feet. “You said he was alone.”
“He is. But…” And then Zahra closed her eyes, shuddered, and made a low sound of pain. “How does he bear it? I never knew…”
“How does he bear what?” Eliana scanned the trees.
“His mind bears many scars,” Zahra whispered, her eyes still closed. “Deep ones. How they must hurt him.”
“What kind of scars? Explain to me, with real, ordinary words.”
“Someone has hurt him. Badly. Again and again. I can feel it as he approaches. I’m not trying to invade his thoughts, Eliana. But when someone’s mind has been abused so thoroughly, a wraith cannot help but feel it.”
Zahra zipped around to hover behind Eliana.
“Beware of him,” she whispered. “He is almost here. I can hide you if you wish. I’ve regained enough strength for a few seconds.”
“Beware of him why?”
“A man with such scars cannot be fully trusted, for those wounds hide his full truth, even from a creature such as I am.”
Eliana narrowed her eyes. “You mean, you can’t read his thoughts?”
Zahra shook her head. “I know he’s near, that he lives in pain he shares with no one. But I can see no more than that. Eliana, I’d no idea Simon was such a man. I would never have trusted his word… Oh, please, let me hide you from him.”
“No.” Eliana caught a flicker of movement in the trees. Her heart kicked wildly. “I will speak to him.”
“He won’t be able to see me,” Zahra whispered. “You are the only human who can.”
“No one else has enough power for it. Since the Fall, all your eyes have been shut to the empirium—”
“What are you doing out here?” Simon emerged from the trees, lowered his hood, and removed his mask. “You should be resting.”
Shaking her nerves free of Zahra’s hovering fear, Eliana stalked toward him. “I was waiting for you.”
He stopped, watching her approach. “Oh? To what do I owe the pleasure of a private meeting with the Dread of Orline?”
She marched past him into the trees. When her shoulder brushed his arm, the touch shot through her, shoulder to belly, like a hot arrow. “Come with me.”
“An illicit encounter in the dark, dark woods,” he murmured, following her. “My most secret dreams have come to life.”
She kept silent until they had gone a few hundred yards from the safe house. Then she stopped, facing away from him, arms rigid at her sides.
“The building where I was held captive by Fidelia,” she began, her voice tight. “What was it?”
“Laboratories,” he answered at once.
She turned, steeling herself. “For experimentation on the captured women.”
“Yes.”
“Where they are turned into crawlers, thanks to the Emperor’s study of genetics.”
A flicker of surprise moved across Simon’s face. “You have spoken to someone. Who?”
Beside Eliana, Zahra muttered low, “Someone who will protect her at all costs.”
Simon unsheathed the sword at his belt. “Who’s there? Step away from her, or I’ll gut you.”
So Zahra was right. He couldn’t see the wraith, but he could hear her.
“I did speak with someone,” Eliana replied. “Someone who told me you knew about Fidelia all along. You knew who they were, what they were doing. You knew they took my mother, and you knew where to look for her. She wasn’t in the laboratories where I was kept, but she is somewhere else—and I’m sure you know, being the mighty Wolf, exactly where across the country Fidelia can be found. And yet instead of telling me any of this, you dragged me through the wild and kept me in the dark, knowing all the while what was happening to her.”
Simon stood frozen, his sword still in the air.
“Your silence,” Eliana said, fury rising fast in her chest, “is all the confirmation I need.”
“I did what I was ordered to do,” he said, his voice made of stone.
She let out a scornful sound. “The mighty Prophet’s orders, I suppose.”
“The Prophet sees much and guides my every step.”
She turned away, too angry to speak.
“If you slice at him,” Zahra said quietly, “I won’t try to stop you. I’ll make sure to hide the noise from the others.”
“I don’t want to hurt him,” Eliana said. “Not yet.”
Simon’s voice was tight with frustration. “Who are you talking to?”
Zahra rounded on him, an eight-foot tall echo of the woman she had once been. “If you continue to upset my queen,” she boomed, vibrating with anger, “I will strike you down where you stand.”
“Who is this?” Simon spat. “Show yourself.”
“Your eyes are not worthy of me, Wolf.”
Simon stilled, his expression clearing. “Zahra. The wraith who’s been spying for us.”
Zahra let out a sharp laugh. “I spy not for you but for my queen.”
“She keeps calling me that,” Eliana whispered. “She says…” She let out a shaky burst of laughter.
Behind her, Simon sheathed his sword. She heard him approach her, slowly.
“She says you are the Sun Queen,” he said, his voice very low.
She looked back at him. The shadows drew new scars across his face, but his eyes were clear and sharp, even in the dim light, and in them, she saw a spark of something—pity, she thought, and a burning conviction.
“She says you are the One Who Rises,” he continued, “the Furyborn Child. She says you are the daughter of the Lightbringer and that she will do anything to protect you.” He hesitated, the muscles in his jaw working. “She isn’t the only one.”
“Tell me the truth, then, if you care so much about me.” Eliana’s voice came out a hard whisper. “Tell me no more lies.”
“A few months ago,” he said, moving through the trees, “I heard of a bounty hunter called the Dread of Orline. A girl, the rumors said, who had racked up an impressive number of kills. One of the highest in the Empire, in fact.” He stopped, turned back to Eliana. “A girl who was invincible.”
Eliana watched him, waiting. Her body felt so tense she feared it might snap.
“A silly enough rumor to dismiss, at first,” he continued, “but I kept hearing it, again and again, and when I told the Prophet, I was ordered to investigate. I would go to Orline, find this Dread, and observe her. And if it was nothing, I would bring Princess Navana north, as was my original mission. But the rumors were indeed true. I knew you, Eliana, as soon as I saw your face.”
His voice took on a rough quality that filled Eliana with a slow-creeping fear. What he was saying…whether it was madness or not, he believed it.
“How could you have possibly known me for anyone?” she asked. “We’d never met before that night in Orline, and—”
“I knew your parents,” Simon interrupted quietly. “I see them on your face as clearly as I see the sun rise at dawn.”
She stepped away from him, the truth settling slowly in her mind. “It was never about me helping you bring Navi to Astavar. You didn’t need me for that.”
“No. When I found you, my mission to bring Navi home became secondary to keeping you safe. Everything,” he said, moving urgently toward her, “is secondary to keeping you safe. Navi’s life. My life. Red Crown.”
She stared at him in horror. Zahra murmured close to her ear, “He isn’t wrong in this, Eliana. We may not trust him altogether, but this, at least, is the real truth.”
Simon shot an irritated glance Zahra’s way.
“It’s not my fault your human eyes aren’t strong enough to see me,” Zahra said archly. “There’s no need to scowl.”
“I don’t understand,” Eliana whispered. “This is ludicrous.”
Simon stopped just short of touching her. “Why do you think your body can do what it does? You’ve been lying to yourself about it for years, and I understand why, but it’s time to face the truth.”
She lifted her chin, fumbling for speech. “I’ve just been lucky is all.”
“You don’t believe that.” He did reach for her then, his touch on her cheek so gentle it was a mere whisper of warmth. “It’s your power, Eliana. The power you inherited from your mother. It’s fighting to awaken at last. And when it does—”
A scream pierced the night, followed by Remy’s voice: “El, he’s here!”
Glass crashed against stone.
A brilliant orange light flared to life through the trees, illuminating the awful truth:
The safe house was on fire.
A familiar figure stood before it, staring out into the trees with a flaming torch in one hand.
Simon swore.
“Tick, tock, tick, tock!” crowed Rahzavel. “We’re all waiting for you, Dread! Come out and play!”
