Chapter Four
Elara sat in the Sly Fox, a bowl of lamb stew between her hands to warm them up. She twitched the hood of her cloak agitatedly, even though Merissa had made sure to glamour her before leaving the temple. She waited for Leo to return with some steaming mugs of pomegranate cider before she spoke.
‘So, Ariete is here. And now I know where Enzo’s tether is.’
She turned a piece of parchment with Eli’s neat, slanted handwriting upon it.
‘But it’s in his dreams, El.’ Merissa gnawed at her lip. ‘Are you seriously considering walking through them?’
‘What other choice do I have? Eli’s right. We’ve been trying every other way to wake Enzo, but the truth is that the only thing that will is getting that tether back.’
She slid the piece of paper over to her friends. ‘These are the two objects he said I need, to be prepared.’
Leo frowned as he read it. ‘Hypnom. And a snakestone.’
‘The hypnom will be easy enough to get. Eli gave me the address of a poisoner down near the docks here. But this snakestone…he hasn’t divulged exactly where and how to get that yet.’ She took the piece of paper back and folded it up.
‘I don’t even know what a snakestone is,’ Leo remarked.
Elara shrugged. ‘For a Silvertongue, he certainly likes to omit information.’
‘Can we trust Eli?’ Merissa said, voice low. ‘He’s the slipperiest of gods. There’s always a gain for the Stars. If they do anything, it’s never out of the goodness of their hearts. After all, they don’t have them.’
Merissa would know. Her mother and brother were both Stars themselves.
Elara tilted her head, looking to Leo. ‘What do you think?’
Leo took a swig of cider before responding.
‘I don’t trust that sly bastard as far as I could throw him.
But one thing I can see are the cracks in his and Ariete’s relationship.
The King and his Hand. I’ve been taught to spot weaknesses, fractures.
Could an advisor turn on their lord, or a sergeant on their general?
Are there ways to get through the ranks in battle?
To split an army from the inside out? And if there’s one thing as clear as day, it’s that Eli only lets Ariete be in power. ’
‘What do you mean?’ Elara asked.
‘Well, Ariete thinks himself the most powerful Star. He’s the god of war. He’s a conqueror. But when everyone is so busy looking to the mighty rearing ram, they don’t think to look for the small serpent that slithers through the grass, fangs ripe with poison to tear out the beast’s underbelly.’
Elara’s eyes widened. ‘Interesting. So Ariete holds no sway over Eli, you think?’
‘I know so,’ Leo replied.
‘Can we at least trust that Eli wishes for the downfall of Ariete as much as we do?’
Merissa nodded. ‘I think so. After all, he did help you and went against Ariete’s orders multiple times to save you. Remember what he and my mother said—they both wish for the old world to return. One where you ruled.’
Elara tamped down the panic she felt at her friend’s words. It was too much, to think about what she could rule over. Too overwhelming. She tried to eat a spoonful of stew, but it turned to cement as it slugged down her throat.
She nodded resolutely. ‘Then we work with him, for now. Until we get Enzo’s tether.’
She stood, making her way to the bar. As she walked past the huddles at nearby tables, she overheard bits and pieces of conversation.
‘He only gave me six oranges for an argent. I’m telling you, ever since this dark came, it’s become daylight bleedin’ robbery—’
‘—Henry’s cousin swore blind when he was walking home that his shadow split into two. That he saw it peel away from him.’
‘Oh yeah, and how deep in his cups was he?’
‘Wolves are running this godforsaken town. Four chickens I’ve lost to them.’
‘Wolves don’t come this far into the city.’
‘Tell that to my poor chickens.’
‘What can I get you, love?’
Elara blinked at the cheery blonde barmaid, averting her eyes. ‘Another cider, please,’ she muttered, and the barmaid nodded. Leo sidled up beside her, assessing the room as she remained huddled over the bar.
‘And what the fuck is this orb in the sky now?’ she heard a wiry-haired man mutter as he jostled in next to her.
‘Skies know, but I don’t like it,’ said someone beside him.
‘It’s that Princess Elara’s doing. Bad omen is what it is. After she battled King Ariete, this appears in the sky, eating the Light?’ The older man shook something in his hand before placing it on to the bar.
Elara’s ‘wanted’ poster.
‘Did you hear she’s in the city?’
One of them made the sign against evil. ‘If you’re to believe what happened in the temple today—’ He was interrupted by a slam.
There were yelps of surprise as the door to the inn creaked wide open, rain lashing down outside, flashes of lightning illuminating a hooded figure.
‘It’s here,’ wailed the figure. Leo already had his weapon drawn in alarm, ever the general.
‘Oh, here we bloody go,’ mumbled a man into his beer.
The cloaked figure stumbled into the light and Elara could make out a young woman. She pulled her hood down, revealing black hair strung with feathers and what looked like tiny scrolls. As she walked, there was a clinking of charms and potion bottles against her neck.
‘The shadows—they grow. The Dark—it tap-tap-taps on your door. Don’t let it in. Oh, please, don’t let it in,’ she wailed, making her way around the tables. ‘It starts with the wolves,’ she lamented, clutching at the hands of a silver-haired man. ‘It always starts with the wolves.’
‘Gerroff!’ he complained, pushing her away.
‘The end of days!’ the woman screamed. ‘The end of days! The sky is already black, and the Dark—it lurks and waits.’
‘Hilda, get her out, will you?’ said the round-bellied barkeep, drying glasses as though nothing was happening.
‘You,’ the woman said, and Elara cursed under her breath, making haste back to her booth.
But the woman followed. Elara slouched in her seat next to Merissa.
Merissa’s eyes were wide with fear, and Leo had a glare that would have frozen the sheets of rain outside.
But the woman didn’t notice. She cupped Elara’s face, long, jagged nails scratching at her cheeks, and Leo shot forwards across the table, his sword to the stranger’s throat.
But the woman only rasped, ‘Maiden of the silver, Dark-touched. It will hunt you, through this life and the next.’ Her voice dropped to a hush, breath rancid.
‘You’ll never escape it, for it’s as tied to you as the Sun. ’
Merissa gasped, and Elara gripped the woman’s hand, flashing a look at Leo to tell him to stand down. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ she snarled.
But the woman only laughed as tears began to leak from her eyes. Elara noticed a raven inked on to her skin as the woman pulled away from Leo’s blade.
‘Right, come on, out with you.’ The blonde barmaid, who it could only be assumed was Hilda, ushered her out.
‘Mark my words,’ the woman screamed, ‘the night will fall, and Celestia with it!’
The door slammed shut.
‘Bloody raver,’ Hilda muttered.
‘What in all that is holy is a raver?’ Leo asked.
‘One of a group of women who live in the Old Town. They claim they’re guardians of the Nevercrow. Yes,’ she said, rolling her eyes at Leo’s quizzical expression, ‘the mythas that doesn’t exist. They’re stark raving mad. And they’ve gotten worse since the Light disappeared.’
A deep pit had begun to grow in Elara’s stomach, and she waited until Hilda had moved on before she leaned forwards. ‘She knew me.’
Merissa clutched her hand. ‘How did she know about the Sun?’
Elara shook her head, moving her hand from Merissa’s. ‘I don’t know. But something’s not right here. I feel uneasy.’
Leo nodded. ‘The sooner we can get out of this kingdom and back to Enzo, the better.’ And with that, they left the table and climbed the stairs to the rooms they’d rented above.
Elara lay in bed, staring at the thin ray of moonlight streaking through the window and over the flower-dotted cover, and begged sleep to take her. Her eyes itched; her head thudded. Yet it evaded her.
Merissa made a gentle murmur next to her, and Elara breathed in her rose-and-honey scent.
She knew things were distant at best between them, but, to her credit, Merissa hadn’t left her side these last awful days.
Leo was in an adjoining room, though he promised he slept lightly, sword right by his bed in case they had any unwanted visitors in the night.
Elara rubbed her eyes, trying to force sleep again, when something stopped her. There was movement on the balcony and, as she looked at it, her eyesight sharpening, she swore she could see a man.
She cursed, springing from the bed, dagger unsheathed as she ran to the doors.
‘Impossible,’ she breathed.
The priest from the temple looked back at her, his stare blank—so terribly blank—a gaping, oozing wound where her blade had pierced his neck.
‘What are you?’ she demanded as her heart pounded, blood filling her ears.
He opened his mouth to speak, and she staggered back as black smoke poured from it.
You will pay for your sin, Starkiller.
The voice rasped inside her head, and she gasped, tripping backwards and falling to the floor. The priest advanced to the doors, and she scrambled backwards on hands and knees.
‘What do you want from me?’ she demanded.
‘Elara?!’
Elara let out a small shout, whirling to see Merissa and Leo standing over her.
‘The priest!’ she shouted, pointing. ‘He—’
Leo frowned, sleepy-eyed, and Elara turned back to the empty balcony.
‘The priest what?’ Merissa said gently, stroking Elara’s hair.
Elara scrambled to her feet, flinging the doors open as she stepped on to the balcony, looking wildly around. ‘He was just here, he—’
‘The priest from the temple?’ Merissa frowned. ‘Elara…he’s dead.’
‘I know he is. But he was just here. He spoke to me, he…’
Leo squeezed her shoulder. ‘I think you need to rest, El. Your mind’s playing tricks on you.’
Elara nodded uneasily. ‘Perhaps a dream,’ she mumbled.
Merissa nodded.