side. The stone was the gleaming white of the Citadel’s walls. We seemed to be on a curving walkway surrounding the fortress, towering somewhere above Beacon Hill.
Thing was, since I’d never been inside the Citadel before, I didn’t have a sense of the layout at all. I had no idea what to expect next. Were they going to throw me off the edge of the tower? I remembered vaguely that used to be the punishment for treason in ancient times.
My head throbbed as I tried to formulate a plan, but I’d been through such a beating tonight that I was nearly out of coherent thoughts. I still had the vergr stone, at least, but I couldn’t get to my shoe with my wrists bound.
Skalei always came to me when I called for her, and the blade could slice through rope. But I’d need the guard to stop yanking me before I could pause to make that work. I’d get one chance to call Skalei and make my escape, so I’d have to consider it carefully.
Once again, I tasted blood on my lips, and my thoughts drifted a little. Somehow, it was hard to think clearly when your body was magically frozen, like Novocaine for the mind.
Vaguely, I remembered I was supposed to play Rick Roll for Barthol tonight, and I wondered if he’d manage to find it on his own. Would he be okay without me? He must be out of his mind with worry, and I felt desperate to get a message to him. He wasn’t in the dungeon, and I hadn’t seen him out here on the roof. With any luck, he was back in the Shadow Caverns. On a normal night, I’d be making mushroom soup for him, while he made up wild stories about a talking goat character he’d invented, or we would draw on the walls. When we were super bored, we would try to choreograph dances. In the Shadow Caverns, we had to do our best to make our own entertainment. Tonight, he’d be telling stories of Jeremy the Alcoholic Goat to the silent walls.
Assuming he got home safely.
But what would he do if he figured out where I was? I didn’t want him taking off on a wild revenge mission, or attempting a prison break. He needed my guidance to undertake anything insane.
“Oh! The thing is awake.”
Revna’s singsong voice pulled me out of my stupor, and I realized I had to switch into survival mode again. As the numbing spell grew weaker, I could feel myself bouncing painfully over the stones.
Revna walked beside me, smiling placidly down. There was no one else with us besides the High Elf guard who dragged my bound wrists. At last, my legs were thawing a bit, and I could better feel the stones beneath me.
“I can walk!” I shouted. “You can stop dragging me.”
The guard ignored me, not even a glance back in my direction.
I scrambled to stand on my tingling legs with a jolt of panic. For a few moments, I was locked in a tug of war with the guard. But after an awkward tussle, I managed to get to my feet, glowering eye to eye with the guard. An arctic wind whipped over the parapets, stinging my cheeks and rushing through my silver hair.
It was only at that moment that I felt the sharp pain in my hand, that I looked down at my finger. I felt myself going dizzy—
Revna pivoted. “I’m sorry,” she cooed. “We had to take the whole finger off. It was frankly disgusting.”
With horror whirling in my mind, I stared at the bloody nub where my ring finger had once been. When I glanced back over the long, curving walkway, I saw a long stream of crimson. In fact, the nub was still pumping blood onto the stones at my feet. My knees went weak.
I wanted to call Skalei, cut my bonds, and carve a permanent reminder of what Revna had taken from me across her pretty face. But now that I’d lifted my gaze from my mutilated hand, I took in the view around me.
On one side, the city of Boston spread out. And on the other—the walkway encircled an enormous amphitheater of white stone, with seats cascading down. The floor of the amphitheater was as dark as the night sky.
Tugging on the rope, the guard dragged me through a gate, into the top row of the amphitheater.
So, this was what loomed over Beacon Hill, on top of the