I slip my way through the flower bushes and forest and follow the trickling brook, half wary that there’s someone else up here and half enamored at the size of the enchanted space. The creek leads us a good many paces toward a waterfall that is taller than three of me put together.
Myles’s footsteps might be silent on the soft grass, but his whisper sounds loud. “This way.” He leads me through the small forest to the side of the roof nearest the door through which we came. We stop at a low wall that overlooks the main portion of the city, and when I look down on it, the spindle streets are lit up, making the place a giant glowing button.
“Mother of a bolcrane.”
“Hmm. Rather nice at night, isn’t it?”
But I don’t mean the city. I mean what’s caught my eye beyond the city. I point over the great wall encircling the capital to where the incessant hissing is coming from. To the soot hovering in the air in a gray dust cloud over that mass of black, crawling darkness. It’s interspersed with fires flickering in sparks like a thousand separate stars on a tar canvas. They are surrounding the city as far as my eyes can see.
That sickening feeling that invaded my gut when the wraiths entered the War Room earlier tears through me now full force. I stare at the army. No wonder Myles’s ability couldn’t work on the entirety. How can there be that many? The guilt slips up my chest again. Perhaps Rasha and I should’ve killed Draewulf when we had the chance.
“Where did he get them all?” I whisper.
Myles doesn’t answer. He doesn’t have to. Something niggles in my memory, suggesting I already know. The voice of that terrified soldier who’d had too much to drink at the common house I visited with Colin and Breck. “Draewulf’s plagues turned men unearthly. Into monsters.”
“Did you know about them when you came here years ago?” I can taste the bitterness in my tone.
“Only through rumorsss. The difference between Bron and Faelen’s views on it at the time was that Bron actually knew Draewulf still existed. After Eogan’sss father and Draewulf had a falling out, it was thought he’d gone into hiding and let Lady Isobel take leadership over their dying land. Now, it seemsss, we know why they were dying.”
“He was using them for experiments.” I shudder and recall Eogan telling Colin and me as much a few weeks ago. “He made his own monsters.”
I let the horror of that settle into my bones, and with it comes a deep, soul-wrenching sorrow. “Why now?”
Myles frowns.
“Why is he doing this now? Why’d he come to Faelen at all when he could’ve just taken Bron with this army at any time?”
He shrugs. “Maybe he needed something from Faelen. Or someone,” he adds, staring at me meaningfully. Then turns away. “Or maybe he simply needed more men to turn into wraith soldiersss.”
“So he took some of our Faelen army for this? That doesn’t make sense. Why not just take them from Bron?”
“You forget Bron’s forces were incredibly powerful until you demolished half of them. I’m surprised Draewulf hasn’t thanked you for that yet. And as far as his beasts . . .”
Something in his tone drags my gaze up to his face.
What I see there makes my stomach turn. He actually looks like he admires them.
“Considering he couldn’t force allegiance on a large scale, and he couldn’t reproduce naturally, beyond bequeathing the world with Lady Isobel, of course . . . Really it’s an ingenious idea when you think about it.”
My gut twists. “You’re despicable.”
I turn toward the forest only to pause as something hatches in my mind. Something he said. Something I’ve never thought of before. I frown and flip around. “How is Isobel his daughter? He’s a wolf and she’s human.”
He waves a hand. “He wasn’t always a wolf. Nor is he always, seeing as he does in fact have his own body. Rumor is, up until ten or so years ago, he could still switch into his own human form. And believe it or not, despicable men can and frequently do tend to marry.” His smile appears, but I swear there’s a hint of sadness underneath. “Never to normal women, mind you.”
I study him. Study that sadness.
Until he covers it up with a smooth smirk. “The story goesss Draewulf was smitten and tried to change his ways for a Mortisfaire who bore him Isobel. But like all men who have vision for the bigger things in life, he couldn’t be swayed from his purpose. He returned to his wolf form and pursued it.”
“And what was his purpose?”
“Ah, that’s the silver question, isn’t it? With the new developmentsss . . .” He waves a hand at the surrounding army. “I think we can safely assume it’s still of the world-dominion sort. How he plansss to do that though is what I suggest we figure out before it’s too late.”
Before it’s too late.
“You mean how he plans to use us to make that happen.” I stare out at the crawling mass. “Do you think he’s going to make us all . . . like them?”
“Hulls, let’s hope not. Those rags . . .” He adjusts his limp cravat at his neck. “Ssso unbecoming.”