Varek sat. He lowered himself stiffly into a high-backed chair beside the hearth, his spine straight, his chin raised. The firelight played over his face, deepening the hollows beneath his cheekbones. He looked, in that moment, like a man carved from stone, and the stone was cracking.For a long time, neither of them spoke. Darius stared into the fire. Varek stared at nothing. The silence stretched between them, thick and heavy and charged with twenty years of loyalty and ambition and quiet, unspoken resentment.“You humiliated me,” Varek said at last.“I protected you.”“You struck me.”“I struck you so that she would not.”“She would not have.”“She would have done worse.” Darius rubbed his face with both hands. “You did not see her, Varek. You were not in that hall when she killed Bastian. You were not there when she threw the guard through the glass. She is not like us. She does not play our games. She has no ambition we can bribe, no fear we can exploit. She is a force, and a for

“I was very close.” She exhaled. “But Darius slapped him first. And I thought, well. Perhaps the lesson is enough.”“You were being merciful.”“I was being strategic.” Melissa’s eyes glinted. “A dead Varek is a martyr. A humiliated Varek is a debtor. He will remember tonight. He will hate me for it. And hatred, properly managed, is a very useful tool.”“He will try to kill you.”“He will try many things.”“That is not comforting.”“It was not intended to be.” She leaned her head back against the chair. “He is clever, sister. More than Darius realizes. He plays a deeper game than any of them suspect. But he is also a man who has never been truly afraid, and tonight, for the first time in twenty years, I made him afraid. That changes him.”“Changes him how?”“It makes him careful. Careless men make mistakes. Careful men make plans.” A faint, grim smile. “I would prefer him careless.”“Then why not kill him?”“Because I want to know who he reports to.” Her eyes narrowed. “Did you notice?

“A path through the earth, a hand’s breadth beneath the grass, worn smooth by ten thousand dead footsteps. It runs in straight lines from battlefield to battlefield, and the dead can walk it as fast as a man can fall.” Her voice had dropped, almost reverent. “I have walked it myself, once. It takes a day to cross a kingdom.”“And my army?” Elvyn said. “Your wardens. They are in the valley. Three days away.”“They were in the valley. They are not in the valley now.” Melissa’s grey eyes were calm. “I sent for them the moment I arrived in the palace. A hundred and sixty of them, my finest. They have been walking the Road since the afternoon. By midnight, they will have reached the old battlefield at Harrowmere, forty miles from the island. By dawn, they will be at the river.”“You summoned them without telling me.”“I told you I would bring some.”“You said you needed weeks to study the defenses.”“I said I needed time to prepare. I prepared. Quietly.” Melissa’s lips twitched. “I am not

Melissa’s mouth tightened. She turned away and began to gather the parchment, rolling it with quick, precise movements. When she spoke again, her voice was brisk.“I will leave within the hour. You will remain here.”“I will not.”“Elvyn.”“I said I would stand with you. I will.”“You are wounded.”“I am healed. You healed me.” Elvyn rose, wincing slightly. “And I know that island better than anyone alive. I have walked its shore. I have seen the old men fight. I will be more use at your side than in a palace bedchamber.”“You will be killed.”“Perhaps. But I will be killed beside you.” Her chin lifted. “That is a better ending than the one I deserved.”Melissa looked at her for a long time. Then, slowly, she nodded.“Dress,” she said. “Warmly. And bring your frost-staff.”“I will.”“And Elvyn.”“Yes?”“If the boy offers you mercy, take it.”Elvyn paused in the doorway of her small chamber, one hand on the frame. “Why do you say that?”“Because I think he will.” Melissa’s voice was al

“On the north shore, my lord.” The lean scout’s voice came from the shadows. “I have been watching since midnight. The river is calm. Too calm. And there is a mist, though the night is clear.”“What color?”“Grey. Almost white.”“Bone-white.”“Perhaps.”Williams drew a slow breath. “Then it begins.”He stepped to the center of the lawn, and the others gathered around him in a rough circle, their faces pale in the shifting light. Thorne stood at the edge, the Aegis of the Thirteenth strapped to his left arm, its silver leaves glowing faintly. Sablen was beside him, her blade bare. He could feel her tension like a bowstring.“I will be brief,” Williams said. “We have perhaps an hour. What comes across that river will not be a conventional army. Elvyn’s sister is a necromancer of considerable power, and she will bring the dead.”“The dead,” Breck repeated, quietly.“Wardens. Skeletal soldiers, animated by bound souls. They do not feel pain. They do not tire. They can be destroyed only by