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Chapters (95)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright
  3. Dedication
  4. Map
  5. Dramatis Personae
  6. Fifteen Years Ago
  7. Endas, 25th day of Wellmarch
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Maladas, 26th day of Wellmarch
  13. Five
  14. Six
  15. Seven
  16. Eight
  17. Nine
  18. Ten
  19. Lumendas, 1st day of Radiance
  20. Eleven
  21. Twelve
  22. Thirteen
  23. Fourteen
  24. Astridas, 2nd day of Radiance
  25. Fifteen
  26. Sixteen
  27. Seventeen
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Jeradas, 3rd day of Radiance
  31. Twenty
  32. Twenty-One
  33. Twenty-Two
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Twenty-Five
  37. Endas, 4th day of Radiance
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Twenty-Eight
  41. Twenty-Nine
  42. Thirty
  43. Thirty-One
  44. Maladas, 5th day of Radiance
  45. Thirty-Two
  46. Thirty-Three
  47. Thirty-Four
  48. Thirty-Five
  49. Tzadas, 6th day of Radiance
  50. Thirty-Six
  51. Thirty-Seven
  52. Thirty-Eight
  53. Thirty-Nine
  54. Forty
  55. Forty-One
  56. Forty-Two
  57. Forty-Three
  58. Lunandas, 7th day of Radiance
  59. Forty-Four
  60. Jeradas, 10th day of Radiance
  61. Forty-Five
  62. Forty-Six
  63. Forty-Seven
  64. Endas, 11th day of Radiance
  65. Forty-Eight
  66. Forty-Nine
  67. Fifty
  68. Fifty-One
  69. Fifty-Two
  70. Fifty-Three
  71. Fifty-Four
  72. Fifty-Five
  73. Maladas, 12th day of Radiance
  74. Fifty-Six
  75. Fifty-Seven
  76. Fifty-Eight
  77. Fifty-Nine
  78. Sixty
  79. Sixty-One
  80. Sixty-Two
  81. Tzadas, 13th day of Radiance
  82. Sixty-Three
  83. Sixty-Four
  84. Lunandas, 14th day of Radiance
  85. Sixty-Five
  86. Sixty-Six
  87. Lumendas, 15th day of Radiance
  88. Sixty-Seven
  89. Sixty-Eight
  90. Tzadas, 20th day of Radiance
  91. Sixty-Nine
  92. Acknowledgements
  93. Discover More
  94. Extras
  95. Meet the Author

She shot him a confused look and beat a hasty retreat.

Malachi pursed his lips, his expression teetering on the brink of despair. He crouched beside his son. “Constans. I need you to do something very important. Take your mother and sister through the gardens and out into Strazyn Abbey. Along that briar-path you think I don’t know about. Can you do that?”

His son frowned. Then he nodded earnestly. “Yes, Father.”

Malachi hugged him, then Sidara and finally kissed his wife. “Go. And remember always that I love you.”

Lilyana’s eyes narrowed. “Malachi . . .”

“I’ll give Horden part of what he wants and buy you time to escape. Sevaka and Josiri will go with you.” He turned to Josiri. “Get them clear of the grounds, then head south. Find your sister. I’m afraid we north-wealders have lived down to your every expectation, haven’t we?”

Josiri nodded. “Close enough.”

He’d no reason to stay. He’d come north for his own safety, and to save his people. Neither goal any longer held hope. But he couldn’t entirely set aside how his mother, bereft of reasons to live, had instead chosen to die. All for want of someone to share her burdens. Malachi deserved better.

“I’m staying.” He met Sevaka’s gaze. “You owe Sidara your life. Remember that. Keep them safe.”

She nodded. Malachi kissed his wife again. Slowly, reluctantly, she shepherded the children into the kitchen. Sevaka and Braxov followed, the former already limping.

As soon as they were out of sight, Malachi slumped. “I’d talk you out of this, but I find I really don’t want to.”

“I know,” said Josiri. “Let’s get it over with.”

Fifty-Seven

Fifty-Seven

The distant drumbeat kept Rosa awake more than the pain. Suffocating black notes against a red sky. Her heartbeat. Why a heartbeat if no blood coursed through her veins? She hid in that bleak humour, a shield against the metal slicing her flesh and joints bent out of shape. At least someone had removed the silvered sword, for whatever that was worth.

Gusting wind turned sweat cold. Rosa’s eyelids fluttered. Red sky turned blue. The thump of her heart gave way to angry, broken voices. The Hayadra Grove stretched away before her, alabaster trees yielding to crowds cordoned behind soldiers’ tabards and unmoving kraikons.

Far beneath her dangling feet, another kraikon toiled, fashioning a pyre of white logs about her gibbet’s base. The cloying scent of fresh sap sweetened what shallow breaths the mooring spikes allowed.

“How easily tradition fades.” The man in the feathered domino mask and battered velvet jacket was less a physical presence than a stain upon the grass. Neither kraikons nor crowd paid him any heed. “These trees were a gift to Lumestra. Now they’ll birth the flames to swallow you whole. I doubt the goddess would have approved.”