“What?” she asked. But he was already disappearing, melting into the dirt and the water, taking a small piece of her with him.
Even as her lungs threatened to burst, she remembered his warning and surfaced slowly, careful not to make any noise, sticking only enough of her face above the water so that she could see and breathe. The sun was going down and at first, she couldn't see anything, but then the dull light of a sinking winter sun fell across two figures walking along the riverbank. Instead of calling out, Rayne sliced through the water as quiet as a sea serpent, her toes sinking into the silt and pushing her forward. Her progress was painfully slow, but when she got close enough to see who it was, she was glad she hadn't been noticed.
Wido and Imeyna walked side-by-side. He was tall, even taller than Imeyna, and his wide eyes stood out in his face like two round moons. He had long, lanky limbs and held his hands clasped behind his back with his black cloak formally buttoned to his neck. He was Imeyna but more somehow—taller, bigger, darker, sharper. He was the face of the rebellion, the president of Shade who had kept Rayne's father at bay for the past twenty years.
“It was not as easy as you had perhaps anticipated, then?” Wido was saying.
Imeyna's voice was no less confident than usual. “The crown princess is guarded by an elemental wielder, not just a spellwielder, and the Ashsky prince, no less.”
Wido held up a hand to silence her. “His heritage is of no concern to me,” Wido said without taking his eyes from Imeyna. Even out of his line of sight, Rayne felt the intensity of his gaze, though of course, Imeyna held strong. “What I want to know is, can it still be done? You assured me she was ready—”
“We hadn't trained—”
“I don't want excuses,” Wido interrupted. Their rapid back and forth stretched the tension so tight that Rayne fought the urge to submerge herself again to avoid the recoil when it snapped. Wido was the leader, but Imeyna was the one in the trenches. This was her home, her plan. “I want results.”
“We all do,” Imeyna snapped back. “And we'll get them, now that we know what we're dealing with.” They were moving as they walked and Rayne was trailing along behind them, aware that beneath the water, she wore no clothes. What would be worse? Being found out as an eavesdropper, or meeting the rebel leader naked as the day she was born?
“Even though the Crows now know what they're dealing with, too?” Wido stopped walking and gripped his daughter's shoulders. “How much did they see? Did she give herself away?”
“No,” Imeyna answered, shaking her head. “I do not think so.”
“Are you sure that the lost are dead?”
Imeyna dropped her eyes from his for the first time. “Yes,” she answered. “They cannot betray us.”
“But they know we have someone who can get past the barriers. They'll know we have a weapon.”
“Perhaps they'll think her dead in the collapse,” Imeyna said.
Wido paused, his face softening and his grip loosening into something resembling a hug. “If I could go back and change anything,” he said, “it would be to go back in time and more fiercely protect my daughters.” His words immediately brought Madlin to the front of Rayne's mind. Her laugh that sounded like the clinking of silver coins. The way that her hugs always left the recipient breathless.
But Madlin didn’t belong just to her. Madlin was Wido’s youngest daughter, stolen from them when she was just five and taken to Flagend, where King Innis had bought her on a whim and given her to the royal children as a gift. It was strange to Rayne that Wido and Imeyna would have different memories of the same girl. Memories of a cooing baby, maybe, and a stumbling toddler. Of a curious and smiling child.
“Innis has lost one daughter,” Wido continued, “he will not lose another.”
“You mean he won't let his guard down on a simple perhaps,” Imeyna said thoughtfully.
“And I will not risk exposure because of a maybe.”
He meant Rayne. He would not let the fate of the Shadderns lie with Rayne. During her first year training with the Knights of Shade, death had loomed over her as a constant threat. What could be scarier to a twelve-year-old girl, after all? Imeyna had used it as a weapon, a tool to instill fear in her and make her obedient. But she had slowly become one of them, part of the group—of the family. She had thought the time for those threats had passed, but she was still just a piece of the larger puzzle. If she did not fit, she would be thrown away. Alone, she was nobody. It was only with the rebels that she had a place, a purpose. This was the only place she belonged, and even they didn't want her.
“You raised me,” Imeyna said, her voice stern. “And I raised her. I raised her up from a weakling princess into a rebel, an assassin.” Imeyna put a hand on her own chest, letting Wido's arms fall back to his sides. This was the woman who had saved her. Together, they had risen up out of grief to find solace in each other, peace in the middle of a rebellion. “She will complete her mission, no matter the cost.”
They resumed their walk but Rayne stayed behind, her stomach roiling. They had all paid so much already, and now, Rayne was expected to pay the ultimate price. It was why she had come to Shade, wasn't it? For revenge? They wanted her to be a rebel and nothing else. They didn't want her to be a sister or a daughter, and especially not a Crowheart.
But when she had been face-to-face with her sister, she hadn't felt the anger she had expected. Of the three Crowheart children, Rayne had been closest to Edlyn. Their brother, Rinnan, was the heir, the princeling, the future king of Dusk, and because of it, had never fit in with his sisters. He spent his days in training behind closed doors, while his sisters were free to roam the castle grounds. It had always been Edlyn and Rayne, and later Madlin. Madlin, who had been Imeyna's little sister and who had been lost to the violence of a king. Madlin, whose death had brought Rayne to this place, to this very moment, in fact.
When Wido and Imeyna were out of sight, Rayne waded out of the water and pulled on her shift dress that had thankfully gone unnoticed where it lay on a rock on the shore. As she was tying her boots, a black crow alighted on a branch just above her head. She couldn’t remember if one crow was a good or bad sign, but she felt uneasy as it cocked its head to watch her with one beady, black eye.
“I'm scared,” Rayne said to the bird. She wouldn't have admitted it to anyone else. She knew better than that. Knights were not afraid, and if she wasn’t a Knight, and she wasn’t a princess, she was nothing at all.
CHAPTER NINE
Rayne
Rayne had been shaken by what she'd heard and dreaded what the night might bring, so she took her time dressing, and Tamsin did not rush her for once. It was refreshing to know that even amicable Tamsin, who was kind to everybody, did not like her own father-in-law.