That grin still plastered on her lips, she returned to the sleeping quarters and settled into bed. For some reason, she slept better than she had in a while.

Twenty-Four

Bryony

The Oath, Finfalla

Bryony stared at the parts of her body she’d thought she’d lost to the wraithlike demons. In her mind’s eye, she could almost see what it would look like if she had been dismembered. Such a vivid imagining wasn’t difficult for one who’d lost a leg once before.

Still, she shivered at the thought and kept walking, feeling Aria’s breath too close for comfort behind her. The return journey to the hall of mirrors couldn’t pass by quickly enough, but eventually she spilled out of the tunnel, careful to avert her eyes to the mirrors and not directly at Allegro, who stood in the center of the space, unmoving, her eyes closed. Had she been standing there like that the entire time, as still as a statue? “Where’s Ludo?” Bryony asked.

No response. Which made her want to scream just a little. She wondered how many rocks it would take to break every mirror in this cursed place.

Aria moved to stand beside Allegro, slinking one long, slender arm over her shoulder. Rather than closing her eyes, however, she stared right at Bryony in the mirror, a small, mischievous smile curling her perfect lips. “We had a grand time, didn’t we?” she said.

“Not the word I would choose. Maybe next time you can enter the Vast Reaches of Despair while I watch.”

“I would like that very much,” Aria said, eyes still fixed on her. If there were ever a staring contest, Bryony suspected the creepy woman would win it easily. Bryony closed her own eyes, preferring the darkness to being assaulted by someone’s stare. Silence drew itself out for seconds that turned to minutes, the monotony finally ended when the echo of footsteps arose, coming closer.

As she opened her eyes, Ludo’s reflection appeared in the mirror with Crescendo behind him, and only then did Bryony allow herself a full breath, though she didn’t realize she’d been holding herself back until that very moment. Ludo flashed her a smile, but she could tell there was something different about it, an uneasiness that wasn’t usually there. What horrors had he experienced during his augury? Nothing good, that was for damn sure.

At last, Allegro moved, her eyes opening slowly, her body seeming to unlock itself from whatever frozen fugue it had been in. “Your auguries are now complete. You may leave,” she said.

“Wait,” Bryony said, hearing the disbelief in her own voice. “That’s it? You speak a bunch of cryptic words, march us down tunnels where we fight monsters and get chopped into pieces, and then give us the proverbial boot? Do I have that right?”

“You’re oversimplifying things, but that is the gist, yes. Did your augury not give you what you thought it would?”

“It gave me pain and horror, so no, sorry if I wasn’t expecting that.”