“You’re hoping to lure the demon away.” It wasn’t a question.
At last, Kell’s steps dragged to a stop. “Osaron wants, Tieren. It is his nature. Holland was right about that. He wants change. He wants power. He wants whatever isn’t. We made an offering, and he scorned it, tried to claim my life instead. He doesn’t want what he has, he wants to take what he doesn’t.”
“And if he chooses not to follow you?”
“Then you put the city to sleep.” Kell set off again, determined. “Deprive him of every puppet, every person, so that when we return with the Inheritor, he has no choice but to face us.”
“Very well….” said Tieren.
“Is this where you tell me to be safe?”
“Oh,” said the priest, “I think the time for that is gone.”
They walked together, Kell stopping only when he reached the door that led down into the prison. He brought his hand to the wood, fingers splayed across the surface.
“I keep wondering,” he said softly, “if all of it is my fault. Where does it start, Tieren?” He looked up. “With Holland’s choice, or with mine?”
The priest looked at him, eyes bright within his tired face, and shook his head. For once, the old man didn’t seem to have the answer.
II
Delilah Bard did not like horses.
She’d never liked them, not when she only knew them for their snapping teeth, and their flicking tails, and their stomping hooves, and not when she found herself on the back of one, the night racing past so fast it blurred around her, and not now as she watched a pair of silver-scarred guards saddle up three for their ride to the port.
As far as she was concerned, nothing with so little brain should have so much force.
Then again, she could say the same about half the tournament magicians.
“If you look at animals like that,” said Alucard, clapping her on the shoulder, “it’s no wonder they hate you.”
“Yes, well, then the feeling is mutual.” She glanced around. “No Esa?”
“My cat dislikes horses almost as much as you do,” he said. “I left her in the palace.”
“God help them all.”
“Chatter chatter,” said Jasta in Arnesian, her mane of hair pulled back beneath a traveling hood. “Do you always prattle on in that high tongue?”
“Like a songbird,” preened Alucard, looking around. “Where’s His Highness?”
“I’m right here,” said Kell, without rising to the jab. And when Lila turned toward him, she saw why. He wasn’t alone.
“No,” she snarled.
Holland stood a step behind Kell, flanked by two guards, his hands bound in iron beneath a grey half cloak. His eyes met hers, one a dazzling green, the other black. “Delilah,” he said by way of greeting.
Beside her, Jasta went still as stone.
Lenos turned white.
Even Alucard looked uncomfortable.
“Kers la?” growled Jasta.
“What is he doing here?” echoed Lila.
Kell’s brow furrowed. “I can’t leave him in the palace.”
“Of course you can.”
“I won’t.” And with those two words, she realized it wasn’t only the palace’s safety he was worried about. “He comes with us.”
“He’s not a pet,” she snapped.
“See, Kell,” said Holland evenly. “I told you she wouldn’t like it.”
“She’s not the only one,” muttered Alucard.
Jasta snarled something too low and slurred for her to hear.
“We’re wasting time,” said Kell, moving to unlock Holland’s manacles.
Lila had a knife out before key touched iron. “He stays chained.”
Holland held up his cuffed hands. “You do realize, Delilah, that these won’t stop me.”
“Of course not,” she said with a feral grin. “But they’ll slow you down long enough that I can.”
Holland sighed. “As you wish,” he said, just before Jasta slammed her fist into his cheek. His head snapped sideways and his boots slid back a step, but he didn’t fall.
“Jasta!” called Kell as the other Antari flexed his jaw and spit a mouthful of blood into the dirt.
“Anyone else?” asked Holland darkly.
“I wouldn’t mind a go—” started Alucard, but Kell cut him off.
“Enough,” he snapped, the ground rumbling faintly with the order. “Alucard, since you volunteered, Holland can ride with you.”
The captain sulked at the assignment, even as he hauled the chained Antari up onto the horse.
“Try anything …” he growled.
“And you’ll kill me?” finished Holland dryly.
“No,” said Alucard with a vicious smile. “I’ll let Bard have you.”
Lenos saddled up with Jasta, this pairing just as comical, her massive frame making the sailor seem even smaller and more skeletal. He hinged forward and patted the horse’s flank as Kell swung up into his own saddle. He was infuriatingly elegant on horseback, with the regal posture that only came, Lila expected, from years of practice. It was one of those moments that reminded her—as if she could ever forget—that Kell was in so many ways a prince. She made a mental note to tell him sometime, when she was next particularly cross.
“Come on,” he said, holding out his hand. And this time, when he pulled her up, he seated her before him instead of behind, one arm wrapping protectively around her waist.