Chapter Eleven

Freshly bathed and dressed, Thea went to find the others ahead of Wilder, leaving him with a pile of food and strict orders to eat his greens.

‘Not sure I like how the tables have turned, Princess,' he'd laughed.

Thea had savoured the sound. If I can keep him laughing, everything will be alright, she told herself as she made her way through the strange university building.

She had never been in a place like it before. Wooden beams graced the ceilings in nearly every room, along with stained glass in the windows and pointed arches. The walls and even the tapestries adorning them were intense and dark, which should have made the place seem cold, only it didn't. There was a rich warmth to the halls that Thea appreciated, and she could see why Talemir had worked so hard to restore it.

The entire university and its grounds were encompassed by a film of darkness, a great dome of protection, shielding it and its people from the monsters crawling across Naarva's lands. Thea marvelled at the ingenuity of it, somehow allowing light to filter through – from where, she didn't know; she'd seen no buttery rays of sunlight in the fallen kingdom beyond.

‘I was about to send Dratos up to get you,' the Shadow Prince himself said by way of greeting, leaning against one of the sandstone pillars, a steaming mug cupped between his hands.

‘I don't think Wilder would have appreciated that,' Thea replied.

Talemir smiled. ‘That's half of Dratos' appeal.' He took a sip from his drink before eyeing her with a more serious expression. ‘How is he?'

‘He's managing.'

Talemir gave a stiff nod. ‘That's more than we can hope for. That place…'

‘I know.' Thea rested her hand on the pommel of her sword and looked out onto the grounds, noticing the ivy and the midnight blooms for the first time. ‘It's beautiful here.'

Talemir made a noise of agreement. ‘Drue and I worked hard to make it so.'

‘When do I get to meet her?'

‘Soon enough. She's dying to meet the woman who "tamed Wilder's moody arse" – her words, not mine.'

Thea laughed. ‘I like her already.'

Returning her smile, Talemir tossed the dregs of his tea into a nearby bush. ‘In the meantime, there's one or two people who want to see you.'

He motioned for her to walk with him. Slightly bewildered, Thea followed the Shadow Prince from the courtyard and away from the university buildings entirely. They walked in comfortable silence across the sprawling green lawns and stone pathways that wound through clusters of towering oak and willow trees. Not for the first time, Thea marvelled at the life here, at how, behind a shield of darkness, vibrant wildflowers bloomed and soft grass cushioned her steps. It was a far cry from the barren marshland they'd just come from, and before that, the dying winter forests of Aveum.

‘How?' she said, her fingertips brushing the waist-high lavender that lined the walkway.

‘The shield is my doing,' Talemir replied. ‘It took a long while after I was turned for me to realise I was capable of more than flying and wielding darkness as a weapon.' He motioned to the shimmering dome around them. ‘I and others like me maintain this shield around the clock, protecting our people, and protecting the sun orchids from discovery.'

‘Sun orchids?' Thea asked.

‘We'll get to that. But first…' Talemir pointed to a lone figure sitting on a stone wall in the near distance, wings tucked in at her back.

Anya.

‘I'll catch up with you later.' Talemir gave her an encouraging smile before heading back to the main university grounds.

Thea started towards Anya, who turned at her approach. Her sister's head was freshly shaved close to her skull, making the scar through her eye seem all the more brutal, but she gave Thea a wolfish grin and lifted three fingers to her shoulder in the midrealms' respectful salute.

‘Well, well, well,' she said. ‘Althea Embervale, the Warsword and tower destroyer, is in our midst.' She let out a low, appreciative whistle at the sight of the Naarvian steel at Thea's belt. ‘Nice blade.'

Thea couldn't help returning the grin as she unsheathed it and held it out to Anya. ‘It certainly does the job.'

‘I'll say.' Anya weighed the sword, testing the balance in her hands before handing it back with a nod of approval. ‘Knew you'd have one of your own the next time I saw you. I heard you carved them up good at the Scarlet Tower…'

‘Did a little more than that,' Thea ventured.

Anya barked a laugh. ‘Heard that too. No putting the lightning back in the bottle, huh?'

‘Not this time.' Thea sheathed her sword. ‘Did I fuck everything up? By announcing our existence to the world?'

Anya hopped down from the wall and started down the crest in the land. ‘Guess we'll find out soon enough.'

‘That's not exactly reassuring.'

‘I've never been in the business of reassuring.'

‘Isn't that what big sisters are for?' Thea asked, falling in step beside her.

Anya snorted. ‘I'm a bit out of practice.'

‘No shit.'

Thea followed her gaze to a field of golden flowers at the foot of the hill, where several workers were among the rows, harvesting.

‘You going to tell me where everyone is? What the plan is now that we're here?'

‘There's an official meeting of allies due to take place here in two days' time,' Anya replied. ‘We'll make all our plans for the war to come then.'

‘And who are these allies? What happened while I was in the Great Rite and dealing with the tower?'

‘We strategised at the Singing Hare for another day after you left, then we went about carrying out those duties – rallying more shadow-touched to our cause, trying to get word of Artos' treachery to the remaining rulers…'

‘And?'

Anya shook her head. ‘No luck with the rulers. They're convinced that the Daughter of Darkness is behind all of this, and Queen Reyna hasn't left her chambers since the death of her husband. They're saying she's in no right mind to ally with anyone. Meanwhile, Artos spreads his poison across the lands like a fucking swarm of locusts.'

‘What of Princess Jasira?' Thea asked, realising with a start that she hadn't spared her friend a second thought amid the rest of the realm's horrors.

‘We think she escaped in Vios,' Anya said. ‘She's not been seen with Artos, or anyone else, for that matter.'

‘I should have —'

‘You can't watch everyone, Thea,' Anya told her. ‘If she's in danger, it's because her own father put her there.'

It didn't stop Thea recalling Jasira's scream of terror as wraiths had descended on her carriage on the way to the eclipse. She hoped the princess had someone looking out for her now, but Thea knew the best thing she could do was fight – fight for a world in which shadow didn't swallow all that was good.

Thea glanced at Anya, the note of vulnerability in her voice nearly palpable as she said, ‘Do you think we can win?'

Anya's jaw worked before she answered. ‘We can win.'

Thea raised a brow. ‘This is where practising your reassurances might come in handy.'

‘I'll keep that in mind,' Anya replied. ‘Come. I want to show you what that cloak of darkness has allowed us to do here in Naarva…'

Beneath it, the rebel territory had thrived, not least of which in the breathtaking field of golden blooms before her now. The same flowers she'd seen being carried across the quadrangle the day before.

‘What is all this?' Thea asked Anya, watching as workers cut blooms from their stems and deposited them in baskets.

‘Our greatest weapon,' Anya replied. ‘Sun orchids… The natural adversary of anything shadow-touched, myself and Talemir included. Drue and her family discovered them years ago and have been working to grow and harvest them ever since.'

Thea gaped. ‘How has Artos not found out? Even with the shield? Have there been breaches?'

‘In eight years? A handful,' Anya replied. ‘But we're careful, as careful as we can be. That's why we let the majority of the midrealms think the worst of us. It stops anyone looking at this patch of darkness too closely. No one suspects that the University of Naarva and its surrounding grounds holds a rebel force.'

‘And what do you do with a bunch of flowers against wraiths and reapers?'

‘We extract the essence, treat our weapons with it. Over the years we've perfected the formula so that a blade imbued with sun orchid extract can be as powerful against a reaper as a Naarvian steel sword.'

Thea blinked. ‘You didn't want to tell me that before I went through three deadly trials to obtain one?'

Anya laughed. ‘We needed a lightning-wielding Warsword in the mix regardless.'

Thea thought back to the strange sphere Talemir had handed her, the exploding device she'd used in the prison. ‘You're not just treating blades with the stuff, are you?'

Anya shook her head. ‘Why do you think we wanted Thezmarr's alchemists on hand?' She spoke the words with a playful glint in her eyes.

Movement blurred in Thea's peripheral vision. ‘Althea Nine Lives!' cried a familiar voice.

Thea barely had time to brace herself as Wren tore away from the flowerbed and crashed into her, almost crushing her in a bear hug.

‘What in the realms…' Thea muttered, squeezing her back once the shock had ebbed away.

‘Told you we needed them,' Anya shrugged.

Thea looked over Wren's shoulder. ‘Are Samra and Ida —'

Wren shook her head. ‘We couldn't take every alchemist from Thezmarr. They volunteered to remain at the fortress, though they're working for us. The sun orchids have advanced some of our developments drastically.'

The realisation dawned on Thea instantly. She turned her attention back to Wren. ‘You designed that thing,' she said. ‘The ball that exploded with gold and turned all the wraiths to ash?'

Wren broke away and sketched a bow. ‘Obviously. That kind of genius doesn't grow on trees, Thee.'

‘How long have you been here?' Thea asked, looking from Anya to Wren in disbelief. The last time she'd seen them together, Wren had been far from friendly, but now… There seemed to be an ease between the two, a familiarity that sparked a pang of envy in Thea.

‘I didn't return to Thezmarr after we all met in Aveum,' Wren explained. ‘And thank the Furies I didn't —' A quiet gasp sounded from Wren as her gaze fell to the scar on Thea's wrist. ‘Thee…' she murmured, her voice strained. ‘What did they do to you?'

But unlike with Wilder, Thea found she couldn't talk of it. Instead, she said, ‘It aches. All the time.'

Wren hesitated, just for a moment, before nodding to herself. ‘I'll make you a salve when we get back. I have just the thing.'

‘Thank you.'

Thea could feel Anya's eyes on them, could feel the distance that a lifetime apart had created. Wren seemed to sense it too.

‘Can we show her, then?' she asked, turning to Anya. ‘She'll love it.'

Anya shrugged. ‘Why not?'

Bewildered, Thea followed her sisters from the field of sun orchids. As they walked, Wren eagerly built upon what Talemir had told her about the nearby alchemy academy.

‘Before the fall of Naarva, it was the most highly regarded institution for alchemy novices. People came from all over the midrealms to attend,' she told them. ‘It was known for producing the most elite master alchemists in history, Farissa included.'

‘Has she told you much about it?' Thea asked.

Wren shook her head. ‘It disbanded when the kingdom fell to the shadow wraiths. Its scholars and masters were swallowed up by the world… But its archives were touted as the most extensive on record.' Her voice was wistful. ‘What I would have given to see it.'

‘Maybe after…?' Thea ventured.

Wren gave a sad smile. ‘It's nothing but a shell now, Thee.'

Anya's gaze slid to Wren with a knowing glint. "So they say…"

After a while, they reached an outer building on the grounds. Smoke drifted from the chimney in great, thick plumes.

Wren elbowed Thea. ‘We wanted to show you… They rebuilt the Naarvian forge, right here.'

Even Anya was smiling as she pushed the door open. ‘Fendran? You up for some company?'

Someone grunted within, but that seemed good enough for Anya, who motioned for Wren and Thea to enter.

The heat hit Thea first, a wave of it, blazing from the furnace at the centre of the forge, which cast flickering shadows on the soot-stained stone walls. The air was thick with the scent of burning coal and hot iron, as well as the earthy leather aroma of the heavy aprons the workers within wore. Inside was a symphony of hammers striking anvils, sending sparks flying like molten stars. Thea drank in the sight of the tongs, hammers and mallets, the chisels and rasps bearing the marks of countless meticulous carvings – the tools that had shaped all the Warsword weapons before hers.

‘This might not be the original forge,' Anya said. ‘But it's one of the original blacksmiths…' She pointed to the far corner where the worker in question toiled, his brow glistening with sweat, his hands crafting legendary weapons from fire and iron.

The blacksmith lowered a red-hot sword into a trough of water, the metal hissing and steaming upon contact. When he was satisfied, the man motioned to an assistant to take over, and he approached Anya with a wide smile.

‘I see you and Drue have recruited more women warriors, Anya,' he said fondly, his kind eyes scanning over Wren and Thea with a glint of amusement.

‘Oh,' Wren said. ‘I'm not a —'

But Anya waved her off. ‘We're all warriors here, Wren,' she said. ‘Fendran, these are my sisters, Elwren and Althea, from Thezmarr.'

Fendran's eyes widened.

‘Wren, Thea… This is Fendran, Drue's father and our chief blacksmith.'

‘Pleasure.' The older man shook both their hands eagerly. ‘Welcome to Naarva, ladies.'

‘Thank you,' Wren replied warmly.

As Thea shook Fendran's thickly gloved hand, an idea sparked. ‘Fendran,' she said. ‘Do you, by chance, make armour?'