“Kaden is going to have to look after himself for now,” he said. “But we can do our vicious bloody best to make sure that if he’s alive, when he does return to Annur, that a backstabbing traitor isn’t sitting on his seat.” He wasn’t sure if he was talking about il Tornja or Adare. Possibly both.

Laith raised his hands in surrender, let out a snort half weariness, half disgust. “The whole thing is above my pay grade. I trained to fly birds, and now we don’t even have a ’Kent-kissing bird.”

“Speaking of which,” Talal said, raising the long lens toward the town once more, “how do you plan to get to that tower? Without ’Ra, it looks a little tricky.”

The sun had set, but Valyn could see well enough in the gray-green darkness. Dozens of lanterns and fires blazed on the two islands—the extravagance of wood and oil speaking eloquently to the fear in the streets. The loggers’ preparations, though, would face east, toward the approaching Urghul. No one would be looking south over the water, and if they were, well, the Kettral wore blacks and worshipped Hull for a reason.

“We swim,” he said. “Exit at the cliff. Climb straight up to the top of the tower.”

“A half-mile swim in glacial runoff followed by a seventy-foot climb,” Laith grumbled. “Just what I was hoping for.”

Valyn fought down a sudden and powerful urge to seize the flier by the neck. There was a time, not so long ago, when Valyn had trusted Laith more than any other member of his Wing, but combat had changed both of them, changed them for the worse. Laith’s jocularity had crumbled into a series of snipes and complaints, and Valyn could feel his own tolerance fraying like a worn rope. No one wanted to swim the fucking lake. No one wanted to climb a tall stone tower in the middle of the night with cold hands and wet blacks, but they were Kettral.

“This is what we do,” Valyn said, leashing his voice, keeping it low, holding back the shouting that snarled and prowled inside. “This is what we are for.”

“Come on,” Talal said, sensing the tension and stepping between them. “Let’s just get it over with.”

Over. Valyn almost laughed at the word. Once they swam the lake, they’d have to climb the cliff. Once up the cliff, they’d face the tower. Once on the tower, he’d need to kill il Tornja, and if he managed that, he needed to find a way to free Gwenna and Annick. One fight just led to the next, on and on and on. It wasn’t really over, none of it. Not until you were dead.