“The Chosen . . .” Sayah’s voice trailed off and she raised a hand over her mouth. Slim chance she’d find her sister in this.

  Faolan shook his head slowly and his hand strayed over his back to Kronr’s hilt. “This wasn’t the worms. Whoever’s responsible . . .” Quiet fury rolled off him, cruel and pitiless. This wasn’t the Faolan she’d set off with.

  Maud doubted he’d be waiting long for his retribution. The wastage was infested with survivors. They crawled over rubble, squirmed and wiggled under it, screamed into the rains. She shook her pelt, and in seconds it was smothered wet again. What now?

  Faolan pushed a deep breath out through his mouth, and his anger tailed off into a simmer. He smeared water out of his face and squinted through the palling rain. What do you smell?

  Violence. She sucked in rotten air and her stomach twisted. She pinched out the piney stink of Fanir through the choking putridness. She took another deep sniff. Your kind are there somewhere. The entire pack maybe. She snorted water from her snout. Impossible to make anything out. There’s been blood though, on all sides.

  The old ways don’t discriminate. He motioned at Sayah with his head and pointed into the wreckage. “Maud smells Fanir here.”

  Lightning cracked the sky open and Sayah’s eyes glinted in its light. “Isn’t that good?”

  Faolan crouched into a squat. He picked up a small rock in and pressed it into soddy dust with his fingers and wiped the residue on his knee. “It’s complicated. If they’re here in enough force for Maud to smell, mother is here.” His anger cooled into a hopeless sort of love and a yawning hurt. He took a long breath and swept drenched hair out of face. “But she wouldn’t have brought a force this size for me. She’s trying to take the city back.”

  Maud thought about the fires they’d left the village in, and doubted his mother would be welcoming him with hugs and smiles. Then she thought about the scores he was sworn on settling with the humans. One way or another, they were about to walk into real blood. The kind from the songs Faolan used to dream about being in, and it wasn’t nearly as pretty as his songs made it to be. They stared into the dark and listened to the pounding rains and faint screams scrabbling out between the thunder. Sayah shrugged and cracked her neck side to side. “Only one way to go, and I won’t find Raiza standing here. What’re we waiting for?”

  “A lot of nothing.” Faolan took a breath and stood. “Whoever we find, don’t draw unless I do. Whatever this is . . . We’re here for a ship.”

  “And to find Raiza.”

  Maud expected to feel annoyance washing off Faolan, but he was as calm as his breathing. He gave Raiza a short nod and strode into the wreckage. Sayah followed and Maud padded after them. The waste was even more jarring up close. It seemed the paths caved in on themselves. Corpses strangled the sides of the debris like moss, pounded into bloody pulp by the storm. As much as Faolan might want to keep from pulling out his claws, the further they walked the more apparent there’d be more blood to come. Men wearing metal plates and mesh dragged survivors out, scavenged the dead ones for weapons and small metal trinkets. They were shouting at each other trying to reorganize into proper packs, too busy to notice the three newcomers marching through.

  Maud caught a familiar scent and stopped in her tracks. She took another whiff in case the storm and sickness clinging in the air was fucking with her sense. Her heart skipped in his rib. A new pack. No more running. Something worth fighting for. No more reasons to fight. Runt! Her realization seeped to Faolan.

  He drew to a dead halt and Sayah smacked her shoulder on his chin. She rubbed her jaw and cursed him. He turned back, chords gnarled his brow like roots. Where?

  Maud stepped up and dragged in a deep inhale. It was maybe a couple hundred steps in front of them, mixed in with a clump of other scents. She wondered if Faolan’s mother was one of them.

  Maybe, but I oubt it. She hates him more than me. He narrowed his eyes into the darkness as he ran the possibility through his head. He pointed forward. “Maud smells an old friend of ours, but I’m not sure what side he’s on.”

  “So, what now?” Sayah followed his gaze into the deluge, still nudging her chin with a finger.

  There was a terrible calm about Faolan, given the violence that might be hunting them on the other side of the hill. The moon wouldn’t like their chances if Celdar was with his mother. “Now we get answers.” Faolan said. He stepped in Celdar’s direction and glanced back at maud. “What’d the moon say for my chances against the Devil of the Clay?

  They got their first look at Celdar under lightning. Standing on a raised wooden floor, shaking still, next to an ugly bald man in thick rags. The largest person she’d ever seen stood behind them, draped in a dark hood. Others surrounded the platform, wrapped all over in metal. The bald man saw them approaching and snarled something, and the others shambled into a circle around him and Celdar. Maud exhaled relief. They were all human.

  The one in from jutted his hand out, rainwater spilling from his helmet into his beard. “Stop there!”

  Faolan drew a hand to Kronr’s hilt and gave the group a quick run over with his eyes, thinking about how easy they’d be. She was starting to think it wasn’t violence that was hunting them, and violence was easy prey to catch. “If you like that hand, you’ll tell Celdar that Faolan Vonungr is here.”

  He reeked of fear after hearing Faolan’s name. He muttered under his breath to the man next to him, and his comrade scuttled back and hauled himself onto the wood. He told something to Celdar and the bald man and stabbed a finger at Faolan.

  The bald man turned to Celdar and got a nod of a response. “Out of the fucking way then!” He snarled, bald pate glistening under the moonlight with rainwater.

  The runner bumbled back to the others, and they parted sloppily, bumping into and stepping on each other to get out of the way. She had a biting feeling that these idiots weren’t on the side who’d dropped holed the city in on itself. Funny how she always ended taking up claws the ones the odds were against. Odd though how she never saw the fucking fun in it. She leapt onto the wood after Faolan and Sayah.

  The giant stood eerily still, his face clouded behind metal. Celdar bowed to Faolan as they stepped up. “Well met, Vonungr,” he said with a hint of a slur. Looked like half his face was sagging.

  Faolan snorted and waved at the waste. “Met, definitely.”

  A hard cast set to Celdar’s face. “Your mother’s work, unfortunately. Say what you might, she’s never been afraid to embrace the old ways.” Faolan reckoned with his mother flattening the only place he’d ever felt was home and Celdar turned to Maud. “I thank you for returning the young Vonungr.”

  Maud growled. Tell him I’m fucking tired. And wet. And I’m not sure if it’s this storm or the fucking blood we had to swim through getting here.

  Faolan repeated the words exactly and Celdar smiled at her, one side of his face definitely lagging behind the other. “Things worth earning rarely come easy.” In her experience they never came at all.

  Celdar greeted Sayah with a dip of his head. “It’s been many years since I’ve spoken with a Zurun.”

  The bald man sneered where Raiza’s horns should’ve been and wasted energy trying to rub his head dry. “You sure it’s a demon?”

  Sayah showed the bald one her teeth and made him flinch before returning her attention to Celdar. “These savages took my sister.”

  The bald man gulped, and fear wafted off him. Celdar nodded. “There are whispers our enemies have a Zurun child with them.” His Southern was even cleaner than Faolan’s. “I know not if it’s true or what their designs might be. Forgive me, I wish I had more to tell a friend of Faolan’s.”

  Sayah took a step back, looking dazed for the first time since Maud had met her. “She’s here?” It didn’t seem like she was asking anyone but herself. She looked out into the darkness stretching over the rubble like she might see her sister strolling through it.

  Celdar cleared his throat. “Vonungr—”

  “Maud has questions,” Faolan interrupted.

  Celdar’s brow rolled into wrinkles. “Of course, but I’m not sure if now serves us especially well. There will be war shortly—”

  “Then I might suggest urgency.”

  “Fuck!” the bald man spat. “We don’t have time for this. There’s a war on our doorstep and we’ve already suffered more casualties than we expected for the entire bloody mess of it! We’ve lost most our siege towers before even using them!”

  Faolan slid Kronr a hand’s length out. “You should either make some time or be careful where you place that tongue. Things tend to get lost in the old ways.”

  The giant turned his neck slowly toward Faolan and made a rigid step forward. The bald one held an arm out to stop him. “Your mother’s boy alright.” The giant took a step back and Faolan dropped Kronr back into its sheath.

  A vein strung over Celdar’s brow and his shaking worsened. “What would you ask of me, Maud?”

  Maud gave her pelt a rough shaking. Where’s the other Lýkein? Faolan repeated the question.

  “The situation has become challenging.” Celdar sighed and gestured widely at the rock heap around them. “The Lýkein you’re looking for is responsible for this.”

  “I thought this was my mother’s doing?”

  Celdar murmured something about how complicated it all was, along with reassurances to her, but she let his words drown in the rain. Peace was as far off as it’d ever been, freedom along with it. All for nothing. All the killing in the Fanir village. And in the Far South. All the killing in front of her here. She wheezed laughter through snotty nostrils, despite not finding any humor in it. Naja had been right. She never should’ve run from the blood to begin with. She flexed her claws and glanced at Faolan. No more running. Something worth fighting for.

  She peeled her lips into a snarl and shot a glance over her shoulder to the debris. Sometimes blood was necessary. She knew that better than anyone. Ask him when it starts.

  Faolan asked and Celdar sighed and said they’d sound the horns in moments. She’d be ready.

  Celdar dipped his head and returned his attention to Faolan. “Now then, Vonungr?”

  Faolan painted worry over his face and shrugged. “Only if it serves us. I hear there’s to be war shortly.”

  Celdar narrowed his eyes. “Your father’s sword—”

  “My sword.”

  Lightning tore through the sky and Celdar’s face was ripped in anger. Another flash and it was even again. “Your sword. You couldn’t bring it to the Void?”

  Faolan’s worked his jaw. “I could, but there was nothing to be done.”

  Celdar grabbed Faolan’s shoulder with a trembling hand. “You’re mistaken, Faolan. Your destiny is to sit the Old Chair with Kronr in your hand.”

  Faolan swatted his hand down. “Vonungr. And destinies are for stories. There’s only the old ways, and those are taking me to Starköhle to finish Kronr’s forging.”

  Celdar bowed, but there was a trace of a smile on his face. “My apologies, Vonungr. Then I suggest we get you to Starköhle as fast as the old ways will allow.”

  A man shouted and a horn blared in the distance. Commotion erupted around them. There was shouting into the rain. Men doubled pace, tightened into clusters, then columns. Another horn. Faolan’s gaze locked on something in the distance. “Aye, First Shield, only there’s unfinished business here.”

  Lighting burst from the sky and Maud caught what had captured his attention. On the other side of the wreckage, barking to his own men, was death itself, the Devil of the Clay.

  The rain stung Niaz’s face. Not that he was complaining. Could’ve been a lot worse considering he’d pushed his luck further than he’d ever had.

  Kara had been able to heal he and Taite’s major wounds and fade most of their newer scars. He’d decided to leave his face split in two. He wanted the Vonungr boy to see it, ruined and all, when he carved his insides out.

  “For family!”

  Niaz turned back to where Taite was pacing up and down the row of men, doing his best to rally them. He couldn’t help but spin a grin as he watched the boy waving his repaired arms in the rain. He wasn’t half bad when he wasn’t whining and was growing into a fine leader to boot. Niaz never saw the point in getting men excited to die, but if it made them feel better, so be it.

  “For glory!” Taite left the men riled up and trotted next to Niaz. “Well, let’s hope it’s not the end.”

  Niaz gazed into the blackness of the storm, where thousands of men were aiming spears and swords and axes at them. “I’m not joining the clay today, boy.”

  “Then I guess I’d better stay next to you.”

  Niaz rolled his neck, made stiffer by the rains. “Guess so.”

  He ran Siofra’s military arts over in his head. If you’re going to find yourself in some nasty work it always helps to follow the Fanir military arts, especially if Siofra Vonungr has the canvas. It was a sound plan. All he needed to do was lead this group—

  Lightning struck and Niaz saw him. Staring back across the debris even as Niaz stared at him. Faolan Vonungr. His hand was on his hip before he could finish his train of thought. The thing about the rebellion and the military arts, was that he didn’t give much a fuck about either. There were scores needed settling. “Tell the men we’re charging on my signal,” Niaz growled.

  Kain left the ranks to join them. Niaz had no idea how the fucker kept managing to survive, but sure enough when Niaz had reached the library, there he was waiting. “Hold on now, Akhtar. Kara—”

  “Now!” Niaz snapped his head toward Taite. The boy looked as nervous as ever. Bad timing for him to freeze. Niaz was taking whichever path led to the Vonungr brat fastest.

  Kain stepped between them and shook his head. “There’s too much at stake.”

  Niaz ran it over in his head. Didn’t take long. He never liked the bastard anyway. Himself, Taite and Raiza. That was the list of people who mattered. Short list.

  His sword caught Kain’s shoulder before he could gasp and split the chainmail to his hip. Entrails spilled, pink and mush, rain smashing them into the stone The air turned nasty as the body shit itself and crumpled.

  Taite stammered where he stood.

  Niaz kicked the corpse over toward the men. They wanted words? He’d give them words then. He stepped over Kain to get a better look at the sorry bastards. “Who else wants to question me! Huh?! I’m the fucking one who decides shit here! We clear on it?!”

  Lightning.

  Thunder.

  Rain.

  “Then it’s understood!” He turned back around and raised his sword to the night. “Let’s fucking kill them!”

  He heard the men erupt behind him, or maybe it was just thunder crashing from the sky. He raised his sword, and in the lightning, he saw Faolan Vonungr with Niall’s sword brandished.

  Niaz yanked Taite close and leaned into his ear. “Just stay next to me. You hear?”

  The boy nodded and gulped.

  A horn came from across the debris and in the next lightning strike there was a wave of metal crashing toward them.

  Niaz yelled into the storm and charged, trampling Kain’s remains.

  Fifty men screamed murder and charged after him.

  The Fall of Aerilon’s Edge

  Lightning blasted apart a building in the distance and wails carried between the smashing thunder. In the flashes she could see soldiers running ragged through the ruined city, stabbing and jerking at each other. It was impossible to tell which side was which from the distance. She doubted it’d have been much easier up close. The light vanished quick as it came and she stared into the wet abyss, thankful for once that her head was clear. Raiza was here, alive. She stuck a glance back at the old Fanir. “Where would she be?”

  “They operate out of the Great Library.” As if that meant something to her. Faolan seemed to have a short temper for him, and she wasn’t having trouble understanding why.

  She snapped her head around to her older shoulder toward Faolan. “Where’s the library?”

  He waited for the next lightning strike to point into the mess of screaming, killing and debris. “The other side of that. We’ll have to cut out way there.”

  Sayah raised an eyebrow. “We?”

  The old one with the shakes gave a watery smile. “Your courage is legendary, Vonungr. No doubt you wield all the glory of the old ways, but I beg you to stay here. When this has been sorted, we’ll arrange passage for you immediately.”

  Faolan slid his emeralds to the corners of his eyes to get a look at the old one and scoffed like he couldn’t even believe the suggestion. “Glory? Nothing to be found in the old ways but death and consequences, and I fear neither.” There really was a fierce handsomeness to him. He looked at Maud, frothing and snarling into the storm. “I will not forsake those who’ve gotten me here.”

  “If you cross your mother in there, Vonungr . . . She means to kill you.”

  Faolan nodded and took in the sounds. Sayah had known screams in the Pit, and in the canyon, but nothing like this. Lightning struck and they took in the killings. It reminded her of the Chosen tearing apart the Pit, but at least there’d been monsters then. To think people were capable of this much death. “Maud always says there’s no point in running,” Faolan said. “Siofra has to do what duty demands of her, same as me.”

  The bald one spat. “You ought to tell him before he fucks all of it,” he said with a sneer that could’ve put Zayd to shame.

  Faolan blinked rainwater from his eyelids and squinted. “Tell me what?”

  The old one opened his mouth to answer, but Faolan silenced him with a wave and swung his haunted frown back toward Sayah and Maud, and yanked Kronr from over his back. “Save it for later, First Shield. Ring your blade swift and true.”