“The second part, at least, is true,” said Elda. “The Dark is power. It is the foundation of everything. Lumestra and her siblings indulged their fancy. They created worlds over which to rule, and laws to govern every facet of life, from the first breath to last gasp. Evermoon. Astarria. Vaalon. Eventide. So many more. They sought a new order to replace the one they’d destroyed. But the gods too had been changed by the light. Now they had names, faces, forms – things they’d never needed in the Dark – and they grew every bit as jealous and divided as their worshippers. Such is the burden of light. Only in the Dark is there order. Only in the Dark is there peace.”

“Shadowthorn!”

The shield ring clashed tight. Three knights peeled from the road and spurred into the trees. Melanna stood stock still, ignoring the voice in her head that screamed at her to run, to draw a blade. She’d taken the light in the sky as a sign from Ashana. Too late, she realised it wasn’t so.

“Wait!”

The knights slowed at Josiri’s shout.

“I’m alone,” said Melanna, the unfamiliar Tressian falling harshly on her ears. “I’m not here as an enemy, but to discharge my debt.”

The horsewoman exchanged a glance with Josiri and nodded. “Test her words!”

The knights closing on Melanna spurred away east into trees where darkness yet held sway. Hands raised, Melanna drew closer to the road.

“I swear by the goddess and my father’s life, I come as a . . . friend.”

Only now did she recognise the knights’ leader – the same woman she’d laboured to save all those nights ago. But Melanna dared not rely on the woman’s memory of that time.

“Josiri.” She offered a bow of equals. One warrior to another. “I offer my help.”

Within the shield ring, the one-eyed man stirred. “Reckon your lot have done enough.”

“Enough, captain,” said Josiri.

Encouraged, Melanna stepped closer. The horsewoman’s eyes never strayed from her. Nor did the peculiar hollow-eyed mask of the woman at Josiri’s side.

“You’ve seen Lord Akadra?” asked Josiri.

“In the grounds of a ruined temple, out to the east. He had a woman with him.”

“Calenne?” Josiri started forward, restrained only by a tattered black glove on his arm. “Calenne was with him?”

The missing sister? “Perhaps. I didn’t see her. I only heard their conversation.”

Urgency overtook his voice. “Take me.”

Melanna shook her head. “There’d be no point. He entered the tunnels.”

He nodded. “I know them. So he’s inside Eskavord?”

[[He’s confronting Malatriant.]]

The hollow voice dragged Melanna’s attention to the woman at Josiri’s side. If she was a woman. She was cloaked in light as Akadra was cloaked in shadow. It clung to her.

“Always the show-off,” muttered the one-eyed man. “Can’t leave him alone for five bloody minutes.”