Page 47 of To Save a Kingdom

“How did you know?”

“How do you think I found out where you were going?” he countered.

Aliya growled deep in her throat. Shadow had broken her word.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Elessan said, “she didn’t tell me on purpose. But once she slipped, I wouldn’t let it go. I think she eventually told me just to get me to go away.” He met her gaze, his finger stroking her cheek. “I can be quite persuasive, you know.”

Aliya chuckled despite herself. “I bet.”

Zadé grunted, hauling Dalyor’s body onto her back until he curled around her neck, legs over one shoulder, arms on the other.

Aliya raised her eyebrow. “I can cremate him here, too, if you want?” It would take less effort than carrying him all the way outside.

Zadé shook her head, her voice still thick with grief. “Can’t leave him here.” She paused, uncertain. “Can we burn him beneath the sky?”

Aliya’s heart clenched. She sent the other woman a watery smile. “Of course. Whatever you want.”

Aliya, Elessan and Zadé stood in the courtyard of Brisimin as she poured her magic into fire hot enough to scorch the buildings and the tunnels behind them. Her flames sought out each tunnel carved into the rock, every door and window, and burned everything in its path.

There were no other ‘death chambers’ like Daylor’s, but nearly every visible surface had been covered with iridescent goop.

“May’haps we should save a sample o’ it for th’ alchemists ta study?” Zadé asked.

Aliya shook her head, redirecting her power to char the top of the parapets lining the prison, even taking care of the initial substance she’d spotted from the road. “I don’t think that’s a wise idea,” she gasped between blasts. “The last time we did, Brooks stole the Whisperers out from beneath our noses. We don’t need him, or someone like him, getting their hands on this.”

No one bothered to mention how he’d likely had plenty of time to do so before they’d arrived.

A rancid stench like burning paraffin and hair scorched her nostrils with each blast of the power-siphoning compound, but her flames were more than a match for the goo.

A dull headache throbbed between her temples, the cost of using too much magic. Hopefully they wouldn’t meet more bandits on the road back to the castle—she wouldn’t be any use in a fight with her head pounding.

As she completed her circuit around the courtyard, she turned to Zadé and gestured to the body still slung with care over the woman’s shoulders. “Where do you want to do this?”

Zadé’s throat bobbed in a visible swallow as she studied their surroundings. “Suppose here is as decent a spot as any.” She lowered Dalyor to the ground.

Aliya stepped up to her. “Would you like to say any words?”

After a heartbeat, Zadé shook her head. “Never was good with ‘em. Not since I got knocked on the head.”

It didn’t feel quite right to say nothing, but not knowing the elf or anything about his life, she had no idea where to start.

“Who was he?” Elessan asked, coming up to Zadé’s other side.

“A friend,” Zadé whispered. “We grew up together.”

Aliya schooled her face before the disbelief showed through. The body in front of them was geriatric, whereas Zadé appeared to be no older than her mid-twenties by human standards.

“I know he doesn’t look it,” Zadé said, her voice a whisper, “but we were the same age. Must’a been due ta siphoning his magic.”

Aliya swallowed. “He was a mage?”

Zadé shook her head. “Not like Cress was.” Zadé’s aunt had been one of the foremost mages in the world, until Aliya had panicked in the middle of a fight with Brooks and caused her death. “But all us elves have an innate magic… It’s what makes us, well, us.”

“He’s not in pain anymore.” It sounded trite, but after a few seconds of touching the magic-sucking goop, Aliya couldn’t imagine literal years or, in Dalyor’s case, decades, of being exposed to the stuff.

“He’s not,” Zadé agreed, her voice cracking as she dropped to her knees. “I should’a dealt with my own issues ‘n come for him earlier. Him bein’ here was my fault.”

Aliya shook her head as she glanced around the prison. “I don’t think you would’ve gotten very far.” She eyed the dead man. “I didn’t know him, but I doubt he’d have wanted you to throw your life away trying to save him from an impenetrable fortress.”