A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes #2) - Sabaa Tahir Page 0,140

nods a greeting, her knuckles white as she clasps her hands in front of her. She looks too afraid to speak. Livvy manages a smile when she sees me, but I’d have to be a fool not to notice that she’s been crying.

“Greetings, Blood Shrike.” Father’s pained glance takes in Avitas, Faris, and Dex before returning to me. No Elias, he seems to say. I give him a reassuring nod, trying to communicate with my eyes. Do not fear, Father.

“Your family has been kind enough to grace me with their presence daily since you left.” Marcus’s mouth curves into a smile before he pointedly looks behind me. “You’ve returned empty-handed, Shrike.”

“Not empty-handed, Emperor,” I say. “I come bearing something far more important than Elias Veturius. As we speak, an army marches on Antium, lead by Keris Veturia. For months, she has siphoned off soldiers from the Tribal lands and the border regions to create this treasonous army. That is why you’re getting reports of Wildmen and Barbarians attacking our outlying cities.” I nod to the courier. He backs away, not wanting to get involved in any discussion between the Blood Shrike and the Emperor. “The Commandant means to launch a coup.”

Marcus cocks his head. “And you have proof of this supposed army?”

“I saw it, my lord,” Faris rumbles from beside me. “Not two days ago, in the Argent Hills. Couldn’t get close enough to recognize the Gens represented, but there were at least twenty standards flying.” The Empire supports 250 Illustrian Gens. That the Commandant could muster the support of so many gets Marcus’s attention. He tightens a big fist on his throne.

“Your Majesty,” I say. “I dispatched the Black Guard to take control of Antium’s walls and to scout beyond the city. The Commandant will likely attack tonight, so we still have a full day to prepare the city. But we must get you to a safe loca—”

“So you did not bring me Elias Veturius?”

Here goes. “My lord, it was either bring Veturius back or report this coup. Time did not allow both. I thought the security of the Empire mattered more than one man.”

Marcus regards me for a long moment before his gaze shifts to something behind me. I hear a familiar, hated gait, the thunk-thunk of steel-bottomed boots.

Impossible. I left before she did. I rode without stopping. She might have reached her army before us, but we would have seen her if she was headed to Antium. There are only so many roads that lead here from Kauf.

A slice of darkness in the recesses of the throne room catches my attention: a hood with suns glaring out from within. A swish of a cloak and he’s gone. The Nightbringer. The jinn. He brought her here.

“I told you, Emperor.” The Commandant’s voice is smooth as a snake’s coils. “The girl is deluded by her obsession with Elias Veturius. Her inability—or unwillingness—to catch him has led her to concoct this ridiculous story—and to deploy valuable members of the Black Guard in a haphazard and senseless way. An ostentatious move. No doubt she’s hoping that it will support her claim. She must think us fools.”

The Commandant circles me to stand beside Marcus. Her body is calm, her features unruffled, but when she meets my eyes, my throat goes dry at her fury. If I were at Blackcliff I’d be sagging from the whipping post right about now, breathing my last.

What in the bleeding skies is she doing here? She should be with her army right now. I eye the room again, expecting to see her men pour in through the doors at any moment. But though I see Gens Veturia soldiers throughout the throne room, they don’t look as if they’re readying themselves for battle.

“According to the Commandant, Blood Shrike,” Marcus says, “Elias Veturius managed to get stuck in Kauf Prison. But you knew that, didn’t you?”

He’ll know if I lie. I bow my head. “I did, Your Majesty. But—”

“Yet you didn’t bring him with you. Though he likely would have been dead by now anyway. Is that correct, Keris?”

“It is, Your Majesty. The boy was poisoned somewhere on his journey,” the Commandant says. “The Warden reports that he has been having seizures for weeks. The last I heard, Elias Veturius was a few hours from death.”

Seizures? When I saw Elias in Nur, he looked ill, but I assumed it was because of a hard march from Serra.

Then I remember what he said—words that made no sense at the time