66
“Morath,” Manon said, wondering if she’d heard right. “For battle?”
Her grandmother turned from the desk, eyes flashing. “To serve the duke, just as the king ordered. He wants the Wing Leader in Morath with half the host ready to fly at a moment’s notice. The others are to stay -here under Iskra’s command to monitor the north.”
“And you—-where will you be?”
Her grandmother hissed, rising. “So many questions now that you’re Wing Leader.”
Manon bowed her head. They had not spoken of the Crochan. Manon had gotten the message: next time, it would be one of the Thirteen on her knees. So she kept her head down as she said, “I only ask because I would not be parted with you, Grandmother.”
“Liar. And a pathetic one.” Her grandmother turned back to the desk. “I shall remain -here, but come to you in Morath during the summer. We have work to finish -here.”
Manon lifted her chin, her new red cloak pooling around her, and asked, “And when shall we fly to Morath?”
Her grandmother smiled, iron teeth shining. “Tomorrow.”
?
Even under the cover of darkness, the warm spring breeze was full of new grass and snow--melted rivers, only disrupted by the booming of wings as Manon led the host south along the Fangs.
They kept to the shadows of the mountains, shifting ranks and dipping out of sight to prevent anyone from getting an accurate count of their numbers. Manon sighed through her nose, and the wind ripped the sound away, just as it streamed her long red cloak behind her.
Asterin and Sorrel flanked her, silent like the rest of the covens for the long hours they’d flown down the mountains. They would cross Oakwald where Morath’s mountains -were closest, then rise above the cover of the cloud line for the rest of the journey. Unseen and as quiet as possible—-that was how the king wanted them to arrive at the duke’s mountain fortress. They flew all night down the Fangs, swift and sleek as shadows, and the earth below quivered in their wake.
Sorrel was stone--faced, monitoring the skies around them, but Asterin was smiling faintly. It was not a wild grin, or one that promised death, but a calm smile. To be aloft and skimming the clouds. Where every Blackbeak belonged. Where Manon belonged.
Asterin caught her stare and smiled wider, as if there -wasn’t a host of witches flying behind them and Morath lying ahead. Her cousin turned her face into the wind, breathing it in, exultant.
Manon did not let herself savor that beautiful breeze or open herself to that joy. She had work to do; they all did. Despite what the Crochan had said, Manon had not been born with a heart, or a soul. She did not need them.
Once they fought the king’s war, when his enemies -were bleeding out around them . . . only then would they -ride to reclaim their broken kingdom.
And she would go home at last.
67
The rising sun was staining the Avery River with gold as the cloaked man strode onto a rickety dock in the slums. Fishermen -were heading out for the day, revelers -were stumbling in for the night, and Rifthold was still asleep—-unaware of what had happened the night before.
The man pulled out a lovely blade, its ea-gle pommel glinting in the first light of dawn. For a long moment, he stared at the sword, thinking of all that it had once embodied. But there was a new sword at his side—-an ancient king’s blade, from a time when good men had served noble rulers and the world had prospered for it.
He would see that world reborn, even if it took his last breath. Even if he had no name now, no position or title save Oath--Breaker, Traitor, Liar.
No one noticed when the sword was jettisoned over the river, its pommel catching the sun and burning like golden fire, a flash of light before it was swallowed by the dark water, never to be seen again.