Kaldar screamed out a warning.
Audrey turned. A huge clawed shape fell at them from the sky. Audrey caught a flash of furry hide, massive claws, a dark cavernous mouth on the serpentine neck, and a single rider on the beast’s back.
Cerise spun, but it was too late. The creature’s claws smashed into Kaldar’s cousin. The impact knocked her off the wall. For a moment, Audrey saw Cerise falling as if in slow motion, her dark hair flaring about her, her mouth open in surprise and anger, and then she vanished behind the parapet. The world snapped back to its normal pace. The rope attaching Audrey to Cerise yanked and pulled Audrey toward the edge after Cerise. Before she could escape, the rider dropped off the beast, severing the rope with a cut of his knife.
Sebastian.
Audrey backed away from the edge. He came toward her, his eyes fixed on her face with predatory glee. Helena emerged from the door leading back into the castle. Blood stained her uniform.
On the other balcony, Kaldar cut the rope between him and George and pushed the boy into the open air.
“Go!” Audrey screamed at him. “Go!”
She sprinted to the edge. Helena and Sebastian dashed to intercept.
The railing loomed before her. Almost safe.
Helena’s kick smashed into her. The impact spun her around, and Audrey crashed to the stone floor. A hand grasped her neck. Sebastian yanked her up.
Her throat closed, blocked by pain.
Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. Audrey tried to kick, but her feet found only air.
The world swam.
“A trade,” she heard Helena’s cold voice saying. “Your life for hers.”
No, she wanted to yell, but her throat refused to obey. No, you idiot!
Through the watery haze in her eyes she saw Kaldar a few feet away. His face was so calm.
“A good trade,” he said.
“No!” she yelled, but the word came out as a weak croak.
Kaldar took off his harness, dropped it on the ground, and raised his hands to the back of his head.
“Let her go,” Helena said.
The pressure ground her throat.
“Sebastian! Let her go.”
Sebastian hurled her over the balcony railing. She fell, plummeting downward. The trees rushed at her. Her wings snapped open, but the ground came too fast. Audrey crashed into a tree. The branches snapped under her as she fell from limb to limb, her wings a torn shroud around her, and then the ground punched her, and all was still.
Audrey staggered to her feet. Her knees shook. A piercing, sharp pain fractured her ribs.
Far above, the castle jutted out of the mountain. When they had approached the castle for the first time, their wyvern had landed to the north of it. Judging by the sun, she had landed to the west. Getting to the wyvern was her only hope.
She had to get moving. She had to find the boys and Gaston, and then she had to rescue Kaldar.
Audrey wiped the blood from her face and started walking north.
FIFTEEN
KALDAR sat in a chair. Belts restrained his arms and legs. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move an inch.
The room was dimly lit, but he could see Helena d’Amry with perfect clarity. She approached him with a syringe in her hand. Cold wet gauze touched his arm, then he felt the prick of the needle and watched the syringe fill with red.
“You lost the diffusers,” he said.
“It stopped being about the diffusers the moment I found out you were involved.” Helena examined the syringe and squirted a little of his blood into a long test tube.
Why? The question was on the tip of his tongue, but he wouldn’t ask it. She would enjoy it too much.
Helena opened a vial, rolled the top of it along the rim of the test tube, allowing a few granules of pale powder to fall into the blood, and shook the test tube carefully. She turned to the table, set the tube into a wooden holder, and sat by him, leaning her arms on the back of the chair.
“My mother is a fool,” Helena said. “She has no head for business or for service. She doesn’t pursue a science or an art. She simply is, and my father believes the world is better for it. I never liked either of them. But I always looked up to my uncle.”
“Spider,” Kaldar said.
Helena nodded. “He’s a great man. He taught me the meaning of dedication. Discipline. Honor. He didn’t wish me to become a member of the Hand. In fact, he blacklisted me.” She smiled. “He said it was a difficult life. He wanted me to pursue other paths. I tried, but not very hard. Since he wouldn’t let me join the Hand, I crossed the ocean and became a Hound instead.”
“Why bother?”
“Because it’s my calling. A life should be lived to benefit others, not for the selfish pursuit of pleasures granted to one by an accident of birth. Being born into a bloodline carries certain responsibilities. We all have a duty to our name and to our country.”
“Admirable,” Kaldar said. “Do you usually tell this to yourself before or after you slaughter helpless people?”
“I’m a Hound of the Golden Throne. I don’t slaughter the helpless. They are below my pay grade. My opponents are usually highly skilled.”
“Like Alex Callahan, the master of combat, who was so high he could barely recall his own name?”
“A necessary casualty. He was human trash, and, once in a while, the trash has to be taken out. Are you truly in love with his sister?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think she loves you back?”
“Yes.”
“What about your cousin? She loves you too, no?”
He didn’t answer.
“Sadly, she got away. Had I known she was in the castle, things would’ve gone differently.”
“What is it you want?” Kaldar had finally had it.
“My uncle is confined to a wheelchair. I’d like to help him out of it.”
“Your uncle is a fucking bastard who tortures defenseless women and murders children. He deserves everything that he got.”