“I am certain of one thing only,” Darius said, leaning forward, his dark eyes gleaming in the torchlight. “That my nephew, a boy I watched grow up in my own halls, has just destroyed an army that I considered unbeatable. He has found allies who have been hiding from us for decades. He has awakened a power that has no precedent in any record I have studied. And he is sitting on an island with the Binding Shard at this very moment, growing stronger by the day.” He struck the table once with the flat of his hand, and every goblet on it shivered. “I do not intend to lose this war over the price of a sorceress. If it costs two hundred thousand, then it costs two hundred thousand. If it costs three, then three. Wealth is only useful when it is spent on something that matters, and nothing matters more than the end of Thorne Valtor.”Nobody dared to argue. After a long silence, the old elder inclined his head slightly, though his expression remained unconvinced.“Then the question becomes how

“Because I have no better option,” Darius said simply, and the honesty of the admission seemed to startle Varek more than any show of anger would have. “We tried force. Force failed. We tried numbers. Numbers failed. Now we try the one thing the boy cannot easily counter — a power older and subtler than anything he has faced. If Melissa is half of what Elvyn claims, she may be the missing piece.”“And if she is not?”“Then we will have lost two hundred thousand coins and a day,” Darius said, “and we will try something else. But we must keep trying, Varek. The moment we stop believing a solution exists, the boy has already won.”Varek said nothing for a long moment, watching the empty gate through which the cart had vanished. “The elders of the Hand will not be pleased,” he said at last.“The elders of the Hand will be pleased when the Binding Shard sits in their hands and my nephew’s head sits on a spike above this gate,” Darius said. “Until then, they may complain as much as they lik

“That the Valley of Skulls is where the Frozen Court once buried a dozen of its fallen champions, long ago, after some great battle. And that your sister keeps them there still, as guardians.”Elvyn’s lips twitched, something almost like amusement crossing her tired face. “Your lad is more informed than he ought to be,” she said. “Yes. That is true. Melissa has a collection. Warriors who died in the Court’s ancient wars, whose bodies were laid to rest in the valley and who never entirely departed. She calls them her wardens. They are more loyal than any living soldier, and considerably harder to kill.”“They are already dead,” Brannock said slowly. “How does one kill the dead?”“You do not,” Elvyn said. “That is rather the point.” She folded the map and tucked it into her sleeve. “Which is why, soldier, I will remind you once more — be quiet, be respectful, and let me do the talking. If this goes well, you will return home with a story to tell your grandchildren. If it goes badly, you

“I am telling you—”“Both of you,” Elvyn said, without turning around, “be silent. That skeleton has been in that position since before our grandfathers were born. It is not the one you should be worried about.”“Then which one should we be worried about?” Tavish asked, forgetting himself entirely.Elvyn stopped.The whole column stopped behind her, every man holding his breath.She turned, slowly, and looked at Tavish with an expression that made the blood drain from his face. “Do you know,” she said, in a voice so soft that the nearest soldiers had to lean in to hear it, “that of all the things my sister dislikes, the sound of a frightened man’s voice is the worst? She hears it as an insult. A man who talks when he is afraid is a man who has not decided whether to respect her.”“My lady, I—”“I told you to be silent. I was not asking.”“Yes, my lady,” Tavish whispered, and this time he clamped his lips shut so hard that they went white.She held his gaze for a heartbeat longer, then

“I have come to—”“No,” Melissa repeated, softly. “You have not come to speak with me. You have come to ask me for something. There is a difference, and I am surprised that after all these years you still do not understand it.”Elvyn’s jaw tightened. “Then let me ask.”“You are not welcome here,” Melissa said, and the words fell like stones into still water. “I do not know how I can make that clearer. You are not welcome in my valley. You are not welcome in my home. You are not welcome in my sight. You gave up that right a very long time ago.”“Melissa—”“Do not speak my name as though we are friends.” The grey eyes flashed, and for a moment, the green glow in the tower window flared brighter, as if responding to her anger. “We are not friends. We are not family. We have not been family since the day you walked away from our parents and left them to drown in the boiling river.”A deathly silence fell across the hollow. The soldiers, who had been staring at the ground, felt their stoma