“The Army of the North is the kenarang’s army,” Valyn growled. “When we kill the kenarang we can bring it back under control. Kaden can appoint a new commander.”

“If Kaden is alive,” Talal said, meeting Valyn’s eye as he spoke. “Adare didn’t mention him.”

Valyn drew a deep, ragged breath. Worry for his brother had gnawed at him since the two groups were separated back in the Bone Mountains. Their whole scheme seemed like madness now, a plan with a hundred possible holes. The gate itself could have killed Kaden, or the Ishien on the other side of it. He could have returned to Annur and run afoul of il Tornja’s men, could have avoided the conspiracy altogether only to end up dead in a canal with some footpad’s blade in his back. The old monk, Rampuri Tan, had seemed capable with that strange spear of his, but there wasn’t any telling how far even he could be trusted. Looking back on it, Valyn wished he’d done more to stay at Kaden’s side. At the time, there hadn’t seemed to be any choice.

It had been a long time since he’d felt as though he had a true choice. Abandoning the Islands, losing Kaden, fighting the Flea, landing on the steppe, leaving half his Wing in Long Fist’s clutches—each decision looked like the wrong one now, but at the time they hadn’t seemed like decisions at all. Instead of contemplating a series of forking paths, Valyn felt as though he’d been racing down a single treacherous track, just a half step ahead of his foes, no time to look either back or forward.

He stared out over the dark water toward the small town. Maybe this was a mistake, too. He could still turn back, try to find that invisible fork, try to take a better path, but the other paths all looked even worse than the one he was on. Leave il Tornja to his triumph? With a crucial military victory tucked tight in his belt, the man would be even more difficult to unseat. Continue north in hope of freeing Gwenna and Annick from the Urghul? The odds of success looked worse than pathetic, and if he died in the rescue attempt, he couldn’t kill il Tornja or help Kaden. Return to the Islands and lay the information about the plot before Daveen Shaleel and the rest of Eyrie Command? They reported to il Tornja; for all Valyn knew, they were complicit in the plot.

There were dozens of variables, none of which he could control—Long Fist, the Ishien, Rampuri Tan—but about Ran il Tornja, at least, he could do something. He could try to do something.