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Chapters (61)
  1. Dedication
  2. Prologue
  3. Ashyn: One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Moria: Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Ashyn: Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Moria: Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-one
  24. Twenty-two
  25. Ashyn: Twenty-three
  26. Twenty-four
  27. Twenty-five
  28. Twenty-six
  29. Twenty-seven
  30. Twenty-eight
  31. Twenty-nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Moria: Thirty-one
  34. Thirty-two
  35. Thirty-three
  36. Thirty-four
  37. Thirty-five
  38. Thirty-six
  39. Thirty-seven
  40. Ashyn: Thirty-eight
  41. Thirty-nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-one
  44. Forty-two
  45. Forty-three
  46. Forty-four
  47. Forty-five
  48. Forty-six
  49. Forty-seven
  50. Forty-eight
  51. Forty-nine
  52. Moria: Fifty
  53. Fifty-one
  54. Fifty-two
  55. Fifty-three
  56. Fifty-four
  57. Fifty-five
  58. About the Author
  59. Back Ad
  60. Credits
  61. About the Publisher

Ashyn turned to the others. “You saw none of that?”

“There was a commotion,” Beatrix said. “I heard it. But my eyes are not good. Nor his.” She gestured at Quintin.

“And yours?” Ashyn turned to the guard, Gregor.

“I had gone back to the barracks, looking for more survivors.”

“After you saw riders stealing our children?”

Gregor squared his shoulders. “There were many riders. Only a fool would chase them.”

Only a coward would not try, Ashyn thought. Her sister was not a coward. Moria wouldn’t be foolhardy enough to engage the entire party, but she would have tried to follow them. That’s how she’d been spotted and taken.

“Which way did they go?” she asked.

“Following the road across the Wastes,” Beatrix said.

“Then so will we. I’ll need you to gather what you can while I conduct a quick ritual for the dead. They deserve more than that, but it’s all the time we can afford.”

As they left the barn, Ashyn remembered she needed to warn them about Ronan. When Gregor saw that she’d brought the exile, armed, he would—

Before she could explain, she saw paper pinned to the barn wall. A note? Ashyn hurried over and pulled it down.

The characters were written in a neat, precise hand, almost as good as her own. Not Ronan’s, then. Most of the empire was illiterate, leaving books and writing for the priests and scholars. She read the note. Blunt and simple, despite the perfect calligraphy.

Follow the road. Take care.

It was signed Ronan. She read it twice, to be sure, as if there were any mistaking his intent. There was not. She’d freed him. He’d repaid her by helping her find other survivors. Then he’d left.

Ashyn crumpled the note. As she did, though, it made her think of something she should do before they left the village.

Moria: Seventeen

Moria

Seventeen

Moria ran into the forest chasing her sister. She could still make out Ashyn’s and Tova’s forms, but they were getting fainter.

Blast it, how could they be pulling away? Ashyn wasn’t nearly as sure-footed as Moria, and Tova was as graceful as a newborn calf.

Daigo glanced back, his yellow eyes glowing. Then he let out an unearthly wildcat scream.

“Well, they ought to hear that,” Moria murmured.

“Stay there,” she called, as loudly as she dared. “I’m coming.”

Her sister seemed to stop. With every few steps, Moria would lose sight of Ashyn, and her heart would pound, but then she’d catch sight of her again.

Then, without warning, she plowed into something. Her hands hit soft, sleek fur.

“Daigo? Blast it! Don’t do that.”

He didn’t chirp an apology. Moria moved up beside him as he stared at the pale forms of Ashyn and Tova.

“Ashyn?” Moria called softly.

No reply.

A little louder. “Ashyn?”

The figures just stood there.