Hands grabbed her shoulders, pulling her back. She screamed at the top of her lungs. She thrashed against that grip. If she could escape this carriage, she might be able to disappear into the darkness.
The grip tightened, and Malon pulled her back against his chest. One strong hand grasped her jaw, his elbow pinning her against him. With his other hand, he lifted a vial of red liquid and lifted it to her nose. The bloodflower extraction wouldn’t knock her out for long, but if they kept dosing her, she’d be asleep all the way to the Helshone. She had to escape. She had to—
Her eyes fluttered shut. The grip on her jaw became less painful.
“You will understand in time, Saida,” Malon’s voice was soft in her ear. “You will understand that I never meant to harm you. You will be our people’s savior, Saida. The crown of Cindra is meant to rest upon your brow.”
Blackness took her, and the carriage continued on, carrying her far away from anything she had ever known, and everything she had ever loved.
Elmerah
Morning had come. With the help of Elmerah’s fire, the townsfolk had piled and burned the demon corpses. No one else had a better idea of what to do with them. They couldn’t leave them to rot in the streets. Mostly Ayperos had been killed, but the few dead massive boars stunk more than twenty spiders. The rays of dawn over Skaristead barely pushed through the smoke.
Elmerah hadn’t wanted to stay to help. She’d wanted to drown her failure in ale, but there hadn’t been time. After a fruitless search for Saida, she, Alluin, and Vessa sought the missing Valeroot clans, while Rissine searched for where the demons had gone.
Rissine had come back with no further information. Elmerah wished it had been the same for her. Fifteen elves had been killed by the passing demons. They’d found the rest of the traveling clans preparing the bodies for burial rites. Alluin had sent those still living on ahead to Faerune, assuring them he’d see to the bodies. Those dead had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, directly in the path of the charging demons.
Elmerah, Alluin, and Vessa had piled the bodies and burned them, just like they’d been doing with the demons all morning. Good and evil, all going back to the earth and sky in the same way.
Exhausted, she flicked her flaming blade at the last of the spiders that had been dragged far off from the settlement in horse-drawn wagons. She wrinkled her nose at the acrid scent, commingling with wet soil and wood from last night’s rain. How was she going to face Ivran? She knew it was upon her to tell him. She was the one who was supposed to protect Saida.
Well her, and the elf now standing at her side. Alluin looked even more tired than she felt. His face when they’d found his slaughtered kin . . . she could have sworn they were back in Galterra on that rainy night where he’d found her, his hands stained with the blood of fallen elves. Even finding the rest alive had not chased the shadows from his eyes.
Those haunted green eyes landed on the burning pile of spiders. “What do we do now?” he muttered. “How do we find her?”
She let the flame die from her blade. “We don’t. She could be anywhere.”
He blinked at her. His tunic was still damp from the night before. “We at least have to try.”
She turned to fully face him. “What we have to do is kill Egrin Dinoba and his pompous little cousin.” She flourished her cutlass with her words. “We have to end this, Alluin. We can only hope that end will return Saida to us.”
He shook his head. “She was taken by Malon. She might not be with the emperor when we find him.”
Ice shot through her heart. Malon. They should have never trusted him. She didn’t think for a second he would give Saida to the Akkeri. He was too proud an elf to stoop so low, but he might give her to Egrin. The question was, why? The only reason Egrin had wanted her was to give her to the Akkeri, and he’d already used them as much as he needed. He might want her gift of seeing through illusions and magic, but he already had Thera for that . . .
Unless Thera was dead. A death for which she’d not spare even a heartbeat of mourning.
Alluin watched her, waiting for her to speak, but there were no words. She felt in her heart that Malon wanted Saida for himself, she just didn’t understand why.
Her shoulders slumped as her anger leaked away, replaced by fear. “We don’t know him at all. Malon might as well be a stranger to us. There is no telling where he would take Saida, and the tracks we followed ended at a stream not far off, so we don’t even know which direction to search. All we can say is that he is unlikely to kill her. He wants her alive, so for now, she is safe. Perhaps safer than any of the rest of us.”
Alluin glanced over his shoulder at the sound of voices. Rissine and Vessa were approaching from the direction of town, leading their four horses. With Saida gone, there was now a mount for Vessa. It was time to return to Faerune. “You’re right,” Alluin breathed. “I hate it, but you’re right. We need to focus on Egrin, but we can hardly call our gathering in Faerune an army. If we march on Galterra, we’ll be slaughtered.”
She glanced back toward Rissine, now not far off, and lowered her voice. “That’s why just you and I will find him. We’ll bring Isara, and that’s it. We will not tell any of the others we’re leaving. We cannot risk that there are yet spies within Faerune, and we cannot risk that the High Council will keep us locked within the city.”
Rissine and Vessa reached them before Alluin could reply. Rissine looked at her like she knew exactly what Elmerah was hiding, but said, “They won’t sell me any grain. They want us out of their town.”
Elmerah sheathed her cutlass, slamming it hard enough to make a thud. “We saved their lives! What do you mean they want us to leave?” No grain meant Rissine could delay her journey even longer.
Rissine narrowed her dark eyes, tugging the two horses she led into submission as they strained against their leads for a chance at dry grass. Her black hair had dried into a curly mass, the waves brought out by the moisture. “You should be used to this treatment by now, sister. They will always hate us.”
Bloody stupid elves. How many times did she have to prove herself? Would she always be a monster in their eyes? She accepted the set of offered reins from her sister. “Let’s get out of this rotten hole of a town.” She glanced at the spiders, some half-burned, some little more than ash. “The elves can finish cleaning up the mess on their own.”
Rissine nodded sharply in agreement. Alluin stood silently by Vessa, each now holding their own reins, not making eye contact. Would they speak about their fallen kin when they were alone, or did they not have that kind of relationship? She thought it likely Alluin had not yet spoken of his uncle or the others slain back in Galterra to anyone, at least not beyond relaying the tangible details of the event.
She squeezed her reins, then climbed atop her saddle as the others did the same. Part of her wanted to ride away from her companions, far away from Faerune and the burdens on her heart. But she did not. She did not give in to her fear. She would charge right toward her challenges. She would defeat Egrin Dinoba, and she would find Saida, even if it killed her.
Saida