Kael did not waste a single second on words; he pushed his boots against the gravel and lunged forward across the stone floor. He kept the golden fire hidden, aiming the flat of his hunting knife straight at Malakor's shoulder to pin him alive.Malakor did not flinch, his thin lips curling into a mocking smile as Kael closed the distance between them. The old alchemist raised his left sleeve, smashing a small glass sphere filled with dark fluid against the flagstones.A blinding cloud of smoke erupted with a violent hiss, burning Kael's throat and stinging his eyes like needles. Kael threw his arm over his face, swinging his blade through the thick fog, but his steel met only empty air."Kael, watch the western wall!" Kira screamed through the swirling fumes, her hunting bow drawn tight as she stepped forward. "The stone seam opened behind the shelf!"Kael blinked away the burning mist, catching sight of a narrow opening cut into the solid granite rock face. Malakor's long gray robes

Kael kicked his horse into a dead gallop through the snowy gorge, his heart slamming against his ribs. Kira rode right beside him, her eyes wide with panic as they crested the final ridge above the hidden valley.They expected to see smoke, broken timber gates, and the red cloaks of royal soldiers marching through the camp. Instead, the wooden stockade stood intact, and the valley was completely silent under the sky."There is no fire, Kael," Kira whispered, slowing her mount to a trot as they approached the timber gatehouse. "There are no tracks in the snow, and the outer ditch has not been crossed.""That is what terrifies me," Kael replied, leaping down from his saddle before the horse even stopped moving. "Malakor does not swing iron swords; he strikes where you are completely blind."The timber gates were unbarred, swinging loosely in the freezing wind without a single sentry on the walkway. Kael drew his hunting knife and pushed the gate open, stepping into the muddy courtyard w

"He wants me to become addicted to saving people," Kael said, rising slowly from the wooden crate in the dim storage shed. The freezing wind blew through the wall cracks, but his eyes remained steady and calm."That is the sickest game I have ever heard an alchemist play," Brand growled, crossing his arms in the shadows. "He poisons twenty good fighters just to watch you run around like a dog.""He is not playing a simple game, Brand," Kira said softly, stepping closer to Kael with her hand resting on her unstrung bow. "He is mapping Kael's mind; he wants to find the exact point where his mercy breaks his reason."Kael looked down at his calloused hands, his jaw hardening as he pushed the rising storm of fury deep into his chest. He refused to give Malakor the weeping, panicked boy the old court poisoner expected to see."I will not let his games dictate my steps," Kael said, his clear voice turning cold and steady as iron. "If he thinks my compassion is a leash he can pull, I will sho

"We have two bags of dry grain left in the lower storehouse," Brand said, tossing an empty burlap sack onto the table. "And the firewood in the yard is soaked with freezing sleet.""What about the merchant carts from Mill Creek?" Kael asked, looking up from the map of the northern valleys. "Did the flour wagons reach the lower bridge?""There are no wagons coming, boy," Brand answered, his rough voice tight with bitter grief. "Alden locked every road between here and the capital with iron checkpoints.""The northern trade routes are completely dead, Kael," Kira said, stepping into the lodge and shaking the snow from her hood. "I watched from the high ridge; the king's lancers put iron spikes across the mountain pass.""There are two hundred refugees sleeping in those cold caves," Jared murmured from his bench by the iron stove. "If food does not enter this valley within four days, the children will not survive the frost.""We cannot fight four hundred armored cavalry on the open road,"

"We ride through the high gorge path, Envoy Borgan," Kael said, pulling his leather gloves tight as their horses trotted into the deep mountain snow. "We will not take the eastern river trail.""The eastern trail is wider and flat, young man," Borgan replied, glancing back from his black warhorse. "Why force our beasts through three leagues of waist-deep drifts along the granite cliffs?""Because the eastern trail passes within sight of our camp's outer ridge," Kira spoke, her eyes cold as she rode close to Kael. "We promised you a parley, not a tour of our front doors.""You guard your secrets well, girl," Borgan muttered, turning his mount into the narrow gorge without another complaint. "A prudent commander never shows his grain stores to a foreign neighbor."Ren rode at the rear of their small delegation, his heavy wood axe strapped tight across his broad back. He kept his hand resting on the hilt, watching the four Draevorn lancers with constant suspicion."If those foreign guard