Chapter 56 Rescue
RESCUE
KIT
The shadows spat them out at the edge of a stars-damned cliff.
Kit staggered as her boots met damp grass, her stomach catching up with the rest of her body after the gut-wrenching sensation of shadowstepping. She doubled over, sucking in breath after breath, willing the nausea to pass.
“This is so embarrassing,” she said with a groan. “It isn’t fair that I’m the only one affected by this.”
“Are you sure about that?” Elyria said, casting her eyes to the knight standing beside her. Cedric was upright and steady on his feet, but Kit supposed his face had paled a bit. He looked . . . queasy. And when he exhaled, his shoulders dropped several inches.
“Forgive me for not having adjusted to the feeling of the entire world being ripped out from under me time and time again.” Cedric braced his hands on his hips. “I can’t decide which is worse—this or flying.”
Elyria grinned. “You’ve shadowstepped more than I have at this point. You should be an old pro at it.”
“I do not think that being brought along for the ride and walking through the shadows yourself offer the same general experience.”
“I’m with the knightling,” said Kit, her face still twisted in a grimace.
“So, that is Seastone?” Tenebris Nox’s voice carried over the group as they turned and gazed down upon the estate. It loomed below them, perched on a flat stretch of rocky land, seemingly carved from the same slate-gray stone as the cliff they stood on.
From this vantage, Kit could see it all: The stark battlements and flat, near-windowless walls that made up the main structure, evenly lit by the overcast sky.
The two rounded towers that rose, high and narrow, on either side—an east and west wing.
There were no flowering gardens or sprawling courtyards here.
No light, no warmth. Just more stretches of gray—like even the ground between the outer walls and the inner keep had been drained of their color.
It seemed more like a fortress ready for siege than a noble lord’s home. Then again, what did Kit know? Some of these humans did act like they expected an Arcanian invasion at any moment.
As if we are the ones to fear.
Kit’s blue and green eyes were wide as they roamed past the estate to the black void of the Chasm lying several hundred yards beyond. Its endless drop was framed by silvery mist that pooled along the edges, creeping back toward Seastone.
“This is where you grew up?” Elyria slipped her hand into Cedric’s, her voice soft.
He gave a tight nod, his throat bobbing.
A gust of wind knifed through the group, snapping at Kit’s cloak and raising goosebumps along her skin. She wrapped her arms across her chest. “Honestly, if I’d grown up with that view, I would probably hate heights too.”
Cedric loosed a dark laugh. “You’d think if anything, it would’ve had the opposite effect. I should be used to it.”
“I cannot believe this was your home,” Elyria said.
He paused, a deep line forming between his brows. “I suppose it never really was.” The sudden sadness in his eyes twisted at Kit’s heart. He blinked rapidly, like he was trying to clear an unwanted vision. “For one thing, this place certainly wasn’t built for comfort. It was built to last.”
“Or built for secrecy.” Elyria’s gaze ran across the heavy iron gate taunting them from the middle of the front wall.
“Yes, well, I suppose now we understand why that is,” he said.
Kit shivered. “Whatever would possess a person to live on the edge of the Chasm like this?”
“Seastone came first,” Cedric said. “It just so happened that when Queen Daephinia—”
“Your grandmother,” Kit interjected, and he gave another one of his curt nods.
She was admittedly still having a bit of trouble accepting the fact that the knightling was mixedborn, let alone descended from stars-damned Arcanian royalty.
She squinted, tilting her head to one side as she looked at his thoroughly normal, human-looking face.
Not bad, she thought. Perfectly fine. But nothing special. Nothing unique. He wasn’t even the prettiest human she’d laid eyes on. That honor went to—
Kit’s gaze finished raking over Cedric’s features before flicking to Elyria, whose own eyes were narrowed in suspicion. Kit flashed an apologetic smile.
Cedric cleared his throat. “Yes, when my—when Daephinia sundered the land and split Arcanis in three, the eastern Chasm happened to run through right here. My understanding is that it swallowed more than half of the surrounding village when it happened.”
“I don’t see a village,” Kit said, brow creasing.
Nox laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Exactly.”
Silence passed between the four of them. Then Cedric straightened, slipping his hand from Elyria’s to rest it on the hilt of his sword. With his other, he pointed toward one side of the estate. “The family quarters are in the western wing. That’s where Tenny’s room is. I expect she’ll be there.”
“And if she is not? Is there a dungeon or some kind of torture chamber we should check next?” Nox’s voice was free of judgment and expectation, like they truly were simply trying to figure out their plan of action. Still, the thought had Kit’s stomach churning.
Cedric, too, looked nauseated by the notion. “There is no dungeon to speak of,” he said tightly. “Though I’ve never known what lies in the east wing. It was always off-limits to us.” His eyes drifted to the eastern tower. “I have to say, I’m now wondering why that was.”
Kit couldn’t hold in the scoff that burst off her tongue. “You’re only now wondering?”
“Kit.” Elyria’s voice was icier than that gust of wind.
“What? He lived with Varyth fucking Malchior for over twenty years and never suspected anything? Never once thought, ‘Hmm, Daddy’s acting a bit strange?’ ”
The ground rumbled beneath Kit’s feet. She stumbled backward, colliding with Nox.
“Ellie, knock it off. I’m only teasing.”
“He is not Cedric’s father,” Elyria said, steel lacing each word.
“He killed my father,” Cedric added, and Kit’s face immediately fell.
“I—You’re right. I’m sorry. I just—I hate this. Hate that he did all this. That he got away with so much for so long. Hate that he is Tenny’s father, and that she’s in there somewhere right now and—”
“We will find her,” said Nox, cutting her off gently.
“And we will find him.” Elyria stepped up beside Cedric, her head turned to the Seastone estate. “I just wish we knew what we were walking into.”
Nox sighed. “The estate is warded—I can sense it from here. Shadowstepping directly inside is not an option.”
“Neither is flying straight in, right?” Kit added. “They’ll see us coming from a mile away.”
“Who will see us though?” Elyria clucked her tongue. “I don’t see anyone roaming the grounds. Do we have any clue how many guards or cultists might be inside?”
“Growing up, the estate was full of people—servants and workers and tutors and attendants, always coming and going.” Cedric pursed his lips. “I have so many questions now. Did they all know? Had they been working to further the goals of the Cult of Malakar all along? Had I?”
Elyria placed her hand on Cedric’s arm, her fingers hooking under the edge of his vambrace, and his rapid breathing immediately seemed to slow.
The two of them locked gazes for several long moments, their expressions filled with such intensity that Kit felt she was intruding.
There was nothing but the whipping wind and the occasional nod or shake of a head as they held their silent conversation.
Stars above, now that was going to take getting used to.
Eventually, finally, they returned their attention to Kit and Nox.
“You may not be able to see anyone from here, even with that sight of yours,” Cedric said, “but it doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Lord Ch—fuck it all—Malchior is expecting us. I cannot imagine he’ll have made it that easy.”
“What are our options here then?” asked Kit. “We can’t step in. I don’t expect barging in through the front gates will net us better results than flying would. We don’t exactly have an army with which to break it down.”
“I am an army,” Elyria replied.
There was a beat of silence.
“Four hells, Ellie. That was very smooth.”
Elyria offered a devilish smile.
“But still doesn’t solve our current predicament,” said Nox, their mouth curving to one side. “How do we get in?”
“I do have a possible solution,” Cedric said, shifting his weight. “I’m just not sure you’re going to like it.”
“You were right, knightling,” Kit whispered into the sodden dark. “I do not like this at all.”
The tunnel was barely wide enough for them to fit, lined up one after another as they crawled through on hands and knees.
Slick stone pressed in on either side, the ceiling low enough that Kit and Elyria both had to banish their wings so they wouldn’t scrape against the ceiling.
The air reeked of mildew and wet moss, with a rotten undercurrent that had Kit breathing through her mouth.
“Remind me why this exists?” she hissed.
“It’s a runoff tunnel,” Cedric muttered ahead.
“Please do not tell me I’m crawling through a fucking sewer.”
From directly behind her, Elyria snickered, and Kit fought the urge to kick her leg back.
“It’s not a sewer, Kitty Kat. Bathwater and laundry runoff, right?”
“Right,” agreed Cedric, his voice bouncing down the stone. “It leads up to a servant’s entrance in the lower cellar, if I remember correctly. And if we’re lucky.”
“If we’re lucky.” Kit scrunched her nose.
“Yes, I am truly feeling blessed.” A squelch sounded as she shifted her hand forward, and she didn’t ask what she’d touched.
She didn’t want to know. “If I catch some sort of cursed underground plague down here, I want it on record that I died for friendship.”
“Noted,” said Elyria, ducking beneath a large stone that was slick with lichen. “I shall ensure your epitaph reads, ‘Here lies Katerina Ravenswing, braver of mold and mildew.’ Good?”