Ever-Loyal had discovered the source of the Queen’s power, that chamber of silver blood and silence, but he and the Resistance had managed to set only Sil free before his plot was uncovered and he was killed for his efforts.
Captain Baeth had leaked the details of their plan, having feigned dissatisfaction with the crown in order to infiltrate the Resistance’s ranks and feed vital information back to Morien and the Queen. Cab remembered the day she’d revealed her role to the loyal Queensguard. Felt sickened by how they’d cheered for her as she laid out the punishment for those crow traitors the Ever-Loyals.
More Houses than Ever-Loyal had burned that night. A few of the lesser ones, diminished by the Queen’s greed as she bought up land to dig and dig, had also been torched. The usual grousers, Baeth had explained, with nothing to offer but complaint and treason.
The Resistance had been larger once.
No longer.
They’d risked too much by bringing Cab here, and he’d been working against them since before they met.
Not all of the Ever-Loyals had been innocent. One of them had been plotting against the Queen. Only the plotting hadn’t been part of a base grab for power, as the Queensguard had been told. Someone in House Ever-Loyal had learned a terrible truth, terrible enough they were willing to risk the consequences of acting against the Queen.
Cab had struck them down for that.
“Something ails you.” Sil paused in her story. Her eyes burned twin holes through Cab’s heart the same way he imagined her sharp nails had bored through his chest. She should have left the glass there—or torn his heart out with it. “Unburden yourself, Cabhan of Kerry’s-End.”
“Bet you I know what’s got his tongue,” Einan said, falsely bright, when Cab found himself unable to answer. Always was a coward. “Word is, they sent every Queensguard they had out into the streets that night. Even the recruits. No chance our man here wasn’t part of the Ever-Loyal massacre.” Though her tone remained light, Einan’s eyes were as hard as steel. “Always liked them when they came to see my shows. They clapped loud, threw flowers, never gossiped through the monologues. Good people. You helped kill them. Did I hit the mark, soldier?”
Cab nodded. “It’s as you say.”
Uaine, who’d stood silent until now, let out a choked snarl. She didn’t leap forward and grab Cab by the neck, though.
She clearly wanted to. But Sil held up one hand, and no one moved against him.
Cab would have welcomed it.
“Not all of the Ever-Loyals are dead,” Cab managed. State the facts. Make your report, soldier. “One of them shares the connection with Two—Two of Many—that I share with One.”
Good boy, One said.
Any clue where Two and his human are? Cab asked.
He felt, rather than saw, the flick of her tongue tasting the air around her. Some information’s too precious for communication of any sort.
It wasn’t the others she was protecting. It was One who’d gone silent, in order to protect Sil and her Resistance. To keep knowledge of her location hidden from those close to Morien. Cab shared the taste of his approval with her, though he had none for himself.
“And the others have not yet been found.” Sil’s eyes glittered brightly. “Our hope in this darkness is that the Queen does not fully understand what she plans to control. She does not know all the ways in which it can be used.”
“Her sorcerers can control us, if they find us first. The mirrorglass in my heart, in the Ever-Loyal girl’s heart—” Cab began.
“—can be removed.” Sil’s small hands formed tight fists. “As you have learned through experience, Cabhan of Kerry’s-End. And we must only contend with them if we do not find the others before the Lying One.”
“She’s got more than we do already. Two masters, one fae prince, and one fae fragment.”
“Then we must beat her to the rest, however we can,” Sil said. “If you are with us, I will allow myself to feel hope again.”
Fear, panic, the old urge to run. All these were present in the flood of adrenaline that surged through Cab at Sil’s words. She hadn’t posed a question. She’d given him the room to make a graceful retreat.
Back to what? Another village, not Kerry’s-End, this time with a silver lizard he couldn’t hope to hide? Consign this precious thing to cowardice, too?
No. Cab had stopped running from his past when he’d met One.
Am I a part of this Resistance? Cab asked her. Silly