Page 41 of The Iron Hex

Eira inhaled sharply, the tunnels and dark spots swimming in her vision fading.

“Get on Arthur,” he repeated, gently this time.

So Eira did—she pulled herself onto the horse, mindful of her ankle, and pulled Pennyroyal out of the bag, holding the rabbit close. She licked the wound on her arm as Eira scratched her head. A few minutes later the ringing in her ears subsided, but then the shivering started, her whole body quaking from the shock of what she’d just seen. What she’d justdone.

Eira Eckhart wasn’t just a potions witch. She was something else.

Interlude

The lab where Dr. Balet had been working on the soldiers somehow smelled worse than the last time Lord General Kerrigan had been down there.

He walked through the halls, dozens of Iron Retinue soldiers and prisoners tied down to beds. Some writhing, some still, some... screaming.

His hands were clasped loosely behind his back as he perused what Dr. Balet had been working on the last few weeks. Word had gotten back to the capital that Sir Saoirse had been killed in a clash with Hugo Venton—and Lord General Kerrigan wasn’t happy about it.

The lord general felt his blood boil as he thought of the man, a man he’d seen such potential in. A man he’d trusted with the rebellion and plucked out of a long line of fellow rebels for leadership in this great new empire. A man he’d made a commander—a man who had betrayed him. Anger didn’t cover the depth of the hatred Kerrigan had for Hugo.

“Lord General Kerrigan,” the mousy Dr. Balet said, skittering over from one of the dark alcoves. “What can I help you with?”

“I have heard news of Sir Saoirse.”

Dr. Balet waited for him to continue, dried blood flaking under his fingernails as he picked at the stained apron he wore.

Lord General Kerrigan knew that it was going to take sacrifice and bloodshed to create the soldiers they needed for the war to come, but he didn’t have to pretend he wasn’t disgusted by it. “She was killed,” was all he said.

Lord General Kerrigan watched the doctor get lost in his thoughts like he frequently did, but he didn’t have time to wait for the doctor to think of an excuse for his soldier’s poor performance.

The lord general grabbed Dr. Balet’s throat and shoved him against the wall next to them, nearly knocking him into an unconscious soldier strapped into the alcove beside them, skin graying and waxy. “Your work is supposed to give me an undefeatable army,” Lord General Kerrigan hissed.

“My work is... still in progress,” Dr. Balet choked out as he gasped for breath.

Lord General Kerrigan would have once felt bad for the mousy man, but Dr. Balet had been the one to convince him that only he could deliver the soldiers Astra needed. He had been so confident.

“My patience is waning,” Lord General Kerrigan said, squeezing harder and feeling a jolt of satisfaction as the skin and muscle flexed and strained under his strength. He had been too cooped up these past years, just like before the uprising. He let go abruptly, the doctor falling to the ground in a heap as he sputtered and coughed.

Lord General Kerrigan walked over to the soldier lying on his side on the cot beside Dr. Balet, who was slowly picking himself up off the ground. He pulled a dagger out of his sleeveand stabbed it into the back of the sleeping man’s head, leaving it there.

“No, no, Lord General Kerrigan.” Dr. Balet coughed as he tried to stop him. “This soldier is not ready for testing.”

“This is how Saoirse died.” Lord General Kerrigan gestured at the dagger. “I’m replicating it so you can figure out how to prevent it. I expect a solution when I come down to this dungeon next,” he snarled.

Lord General Kerrigan would get his army. The danger that was coming needed so much more than fragile humans to fight it.

23

Hugo

Hugo and Eira had ridden hard for the rest of the day, passing through a handful of towns before they finally settled on somewhere to stay as the sun was setting. This wasn’t where Hugo had planned to take them next, but an attack as brazen as the one they’d encountered had him more worried than usual, so getting as far as they could seemed like the best solution. Hugo hadn’t ridden that hard or that fast since he’d fled from the capital in the middle of the night all those months ago.

“You did good, Arthur,” he said as he patted the horse and gave him some water. Hugo had been watching Eira through stolen glances, checking on her with brief touches. She hadn’t spoken since they’d been attacked on the road that morning, and he could almost feel her brain working overtime as she processed what she’d done.

The vines had whipped up out of nowhere and fear had risen in Hugo as quickly as a tide. He hadn’t seen magic like that since the culling of the witches, and part of him had almost forgotten how unbelievable it looked when elemental magic was cast around people who couldn’t use magic. Each time awitch wielded magic like that it felt otherworldly to Hugo, in the worst possible way.

The betrayal felt worse each time Eira cast magic he hadn’t known she was capable of casting, though he had asked her to try. Hugo had spent more than half a decade protecting Viscountess Westcotte before she fled Astrad, and she hadn’t told him anything about her magical capabilities. He supposed it had been her secret to keep, but there was a closeness and friendship that they had had together. Hugo had always thought, hoped, it meant that they told each other the truth about themselves... not that Hugo had told her about his role in the budding rebellion. Perhaps he was a hypocrite.

He remembered dozens of nights, sneaking out of the Westcotte manor in the earliest hours of morning as he rode into town to the Iron Empire’s secret meetings. They’d called themselves the Iron Resistance back then, and those meetings had been so invigorating. The idea of being a part of something big, something that would shake up the status quo and change the world for the better... well, it had intoxicated him.

Maybe he needed to be comfortable with the idea that they had both kept secrets from each other, and that maybe they both still were.