He ran for the door. The serenes moved to bar his way in a swirl of black silk. The eldest led the way, the younger pair matching her graceful stride in strict unison. The cultivated innocence of moments before turned stony and bleak.

“Hush, my lord archimandrite.” Dark eyes glittered beneath gossamer veils. “Have dignity in your last moments.”

With a garbled scream, he hurled the nearest serene aside. She struck the balustrade and vanished into the rainswept evening without a sound. The two who remained stood voicelessly aside as the door burst outward beneath the mob. Grasping hands closed about flailing scarlet robes.

“Shaisan! Help me! I order you to . . .”

Makrov’s impassioned cry gave way to dull wet thuds. Screams subsided to whimpers and fell silent. His killers straightened. Coal-black eyes bored into Yanda’s.

Her hand fell from her sword. What was the point?

“Who are you?” Her breath stuttered in her throat, but the terrible, paralysing fear had gone. Fear was born of possibility. It held no sway against the inevitable. “What are you?”

The youngest serene wiped a bloody hand on her black dress. “You know my name. Will you join them in the Dark? You are not hated as he was hated. If you ask, I will permit it.”

Yanda stared skyward. She’d have given anything for a glint of sunshine. “Lumestra is my light.”

The serene cocked her head. “Then you die a fool.”

Kurkas lumbered wearily into the dell. Halvor, upright when he’d left her, sat between the roots of a mournful-looking birch. Her chin rested on her chest.

He swore under his breath. “Don’t you do this to me. Not now.”

He let the crutch fall. Torn muscles screamed in protest as he fell to his knees beside her. “Come on, Halvor. You better not have upped and died.”

He pressed a hand to her neck. A pulse throbbed beneath his fingers.

“That’s what I thought,” he lied. “You’re a tough old bird.”

Kurkas caught the dagger’s glint out of his peripheral vision. He threw himself aside. Steel arced past his belly. He landed heavily in the mud. Felt a hot rush as a wound in his gut tore open anew.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Shouldn’t have crept up on her like that.

“Raven’s Eyes,” he gasped. “You trying to kill me?”

Halvor rose to her feet. Glittering black eyes gazed into his. “I told you to leave.”

Yes. Yes she was.

Kurkas couldn’t even begin to tally everything wrong with that moment. He didn’t even try. He’d been too long a soldier not to know death when it beckoned.

He shoved. She went backwards with a hollow cry and fell face-first into the mud. The dagger skidded away. Kurkas grabbed for his crutch and hobbled away, redoubling his pace as a shout rang out behind.