Prologue
Late at night, Kenton walked into Castle Peldenar wearing his Sevairnese officer’s uniform, his sword sheathed. The gate guards saluted him, noting only the insignia on his lapel, showing no recognition of his face. Kenton didn’t remember so many guards patrolling the halls the last time he’d been here, after the second battle of Berlaith. He’d been summoned to Diamis’ throne, given a commendation and an opportunity to drink beside some of the finest soldiers in the Lord General’s army. It had been nearly a year, but Kenton still remembered the black cherry wine swirling in his glass, darker than blood.
There would be no honors bestowed on him tonight. Lord General Diamis had stepped up security of late, and in a flash of pure hubris, Kenton wanted to believe this was because the man was expecting him. Kenton moved through the halls with purpose, past the handbills with the wood-cut stamp picture of his own face—a poor likeness, thankfully—and beneath it, the single word: Drim. A death sentence, by Sevairnese law.
Kenton fully expected to die tonight. And when he did, he was going to take the Lord General with him.
Kenton quickened his stride as he moved toward the center of the castle, to the chamber where the Lord General’s daughter—the Lady Daniella—liked to read by the fire before her father required her ladies-in-waiting to escort her to bed.
There were no light charms in the austere stone hallways, no extravagance in the service of the Lord General. Two of Diamis’ officers passed by, laughing to one another. They both outranked Kenton, though neither had been his direct commander. Kenton felt his heart beat faster. He’d lightened his hair with lye to alter his appearance, and he didn’t allow his face to betray even the slightest flicker of uncertainty or fear. Kenton thought he caught the glimmer of recognition on one man’s face, a twitch of his graying mustache after Kenton performed the proper salute. But if so, the officer must not have been able to place him, because they saluted back and continued on.
Kenton turned another corner and counted the doorways. Two. Three. Four. The next should be the sitting room with the large hearth, where Calida said that Daniella took her evening tea and read, sometimes far into the night. Kenton would have preferred to take her as his hostage somewhere decidedly less secure, but Daniella was always kept behind fortified walls, hardly even allowed into the city under escort. Years ago, there had been a rumor that a blood mage had gotten hold of her blood, and no one saw a trace of the girl for over a year.
He approached the doorway, pausing at the edge to peer in.
There she was. A teenage girl in a white nightdress, stretched out on a chaise with a thick book open on her lap. She had no lantern, only the firelight from the hearth.
Kenton couldn’t see her face, but backlit by the fire, her red hair glowed as if wreathed in flames.
After this, there would be no going back.
He stepped into the room, taking steady strides until he reached the chaise. Daniella looked up at him, startled, and then seemed to wilt onto her cushion. “Excuse me, soldier,” she said. “May I help you?”
He couldn’t see her face well, backlit as she was by the fire, but she seemed oddly tense, as if she sensed danger. Kenton could work with that. “Your father bids you come to him,” he said, keeping his voice as low as he could without arousing her suspicion. “I will escort you.”
Her fingers shook slightly, and she looked downright terrified. “My father?”
Gods, was she afraid of Diamis, or did she recognize Kenton from the wood-cut images? If she did, she might scream at any moment.
“Now, my lady,” he said. And though she was a princess and he only a soldier, she shut her book and stood, smoothing her nightdress and moving toward the door.
Kenton didn’t waste a moment. In one step, he closed the distance between them, drawing his dagger and bringing it to her throat, bracing her against him with his other arm. He turned, looking down at her. “Silence,” he said. “Draw attention, and I’ll kill you.”
Daniella let out a small whimper, her whole body trembling.
“I’m going to pull the knife away,” he said. “It’ll be behind your back, between us, ready to cut you in an instant. Do you understand?”
Daniella nodded, her breath coming in quick gasps. He drew the knife away and pressed it lightly against the back of her gauzy nightdress, for effect. He needed her afraid, but he wasn’t planning to hurt her. There would be no benefit in it.
“All right,” he said. “Now take me to your father.” Kenton couldn’t get closer to the Lord General with his uniform alone, but a blade to Daniella’s throat should help. The Lord General had no prize greater than his darling daughter.
To Daniella’s credit, she didn’t seem surprised by this instruction. She cast one glance back at him, her eyes welling with tears—
Eyes he recognized.
Gods, it couldn’t be. Kenton’s memories were only fragments. Soldiers in Sevairnese livery cutting down his mother, his brothers, his sister. Kenton hiding cramped in the cupboard beneath the stairs, hugging his knees.
Then, clearest of all, through the thin slice of light from the cupboard door, his father being made to kneel, the little girl with the blood-red hair toddling forward on unsteady legs, placing her hand on his father’s forehead. Blood bursting from his father’s body in a swirling cloud, collecting in the air. Kenton burying his head in his arms, unable to watch, desperately holding in a scream. And then his father’s body crumpled on the floor, still and lifeless.
Kenton shivered. All these years, he hadn’t been sure she was real, and yet here he was, standing face to face with his father’s killer, the little red-haired girl who could kill with only a touch.
No wonder Diamis kept her so close. Kenton had never even heard of a power like that, blood magic or otherwise, but if she had it, why wouldn’t she touch him and end it all here? Kenton’s own hand began to shake, but Daniella made no move to hurt him.
He directed her forward before she could see the blade quivering in the firelight. “Now, Princess.”
Daniella nodded and started forward into the empty hall. Kenton followed close enough behind to reach for her if she refused to do as he asked, but not so close that one of Diamis’ staff might think anything was amiss. Daniella turned a corner just ahead of him, toward the stairwell that would lead to Diamis’ own chambers.
Then, with no warning, she broke into a run.
Kenton swore under his breath. Now she was going to attract attention, bring the guard down on him before he could even—
Daniella turned another corner and slipped into an alcove, and Kenton checked up and down the corridor, ensuring that no one had seen them. Idiot girl. She’d holed up in a corner when she should have screamed for help. Kenton advanced on the alcove, his blade at the ready—