It took almost all the time they had, but by the time Gabriel and Jadren emerged from the workshop, they had three swords, five daggers, and a full quiver of arrows that they hoped would work against the hunters. It had turned out to be easiest to work with the weapons Gabriel had brought out of the arcanium, as—according to Jadren—made of moonlight or not, they’d been primed to accept enchantments.

“I wish we had a way to test them before we actually confront the hunters,” Jadren commented, uncharacteristically sober. “Unless you want to try one on Asa’s traitorous familiar? She qualifies as an enemy, no doubt. Though she’d be easy to kill, regardless.”

“Her name is Laryn,” Gabriel said, irritated by Jadren’s continued habit of speaking of her as something less than human.

Jadren shrugged that off. “I really don’t care what that duplicitous bitch’s name is.”

Gabriel gave the man a sidelong speculative glance. “For a spy planted in my house by my enemy, you certainly have strong opinions about loyalty.”

Jadren stared stonily ahead. “I may be a tool of my mother’s, but I’m not one of her automatons. I’m capable of having my own moral code.” He flicked a glance at Gabriel and away. “You’ve treated me fairly, Lord Phel. Far more so than I expected or likely deserve. So has Lady Phel, for that matter, though I gave her plenty of cause not to.”

Aha. As he’d suspected—something unpleasant had passed between them, something Nic hadn’t wanted him to know about. Always protecting him. He missed her presence with a sudden, fierce need. Worse, he mourned her with an agonizing grief, as if she were already lost to him.

“We’ll get her back,” Jadren said, divining the direction of Gabriel’s thoughts. “We just need to melt some hunters first. I only wish we could test these things,” he repeated, holding up the long sword he’d selected, scrutinizing it.

A thought occurred to Gabriel. “I actually do know of a hunter we can test it on.”

Jadren made a face at the trunk Gabriel magically raised from the marsh. Dripping with mud and thick algae, the thing did look unprepossessing. “Explain this to me again,” Jadren said. “You locked a hunter in the trunk and buried it in a swamp?”

“It showed up here and tried to attack Nic,” Gabriel replied, setting the trunk down with an ungainly thump, as the water he’d used to mentally manipulate it had mostly dripped away. The silver chains he’d wrapped around the trunk as a safety measure unwound rapidly. “I didn’t have my enchanted blade at that point, so I chopped the thing up into pieces, sealed it in this trunk, and sank it in the marsh.”

“And that wasn’t a tiny bit of overkill?” Jadren asked dubiously.

“I’d lay coin that, when we open this trunk, the hunter will be alive and whole—and ready to kill.”