Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,26

eye and tried to whisper something.

“Maghdlm,” Crow said. “Can you tell us who did this? Did you see who hurt you?”

“. . . must leave,” she murmured. “. . . evil comes.”

“Kohaku,” Karasu called. He came running back down an aisle of bookshelves.

“We found no one,” he said to Tancho.

“Can you carry Maghdlm?” Karasu asked him. “We must hurry.”

Kohaku gave a serious nod and sheathed his sword. With more gentleness than belied his size, he scooped up the injured woman and overhead, the blue lights flickered.

“I think she controls the lamps,” Tancho said as they headed for the spiral staircase.

And sure enough, as the last of them filed up the stairs and out the door, the lamps at the far end of the library went out. Then the next, and the next, and as the last guard came through the small door, the library fell into darkness.

“Back to the stable,” Crow said, and he and Tancho led them back the way they had come.

They encountered no one and heard not a sound. The horses were antsy, and if that was unease from whatever oddity was here, or if they knew they were heading home, Tancho wasn’t sure.

But he felt much the same.

Kohaku mounted his horse, Maghdlm at his front. It wouldn’t be an easy ride for him, but he was the biggest, the strongest. The only one who could carry her.

Elmwood and Samiel stood to the side, watching as Soko and Karasu ensured the horses were ready. Crow went to them and offered his hand to them in turn. “Your alliance is met with a well of gratitude,” Crow said. “I look forward to when we meet again. A feast, perhaps, and a bottle or two of mead.”

“We never did get to spar,” Elmwood said with a grin, shaking his hand with earnest. “I should like to see your skills with that sword.”

“It would be my—”

Tancho slipped in closer to Crow. He wanted to tell Elmwood it would be met with a well of gratitude if he didn’t touch Crow, but the handshake was brief and Tancho’s irrational rage subsided as quickly as it had arrived. He managed a smile at Samiel instead. “You are leaving also?”

“Yes,” she replied with a smirk, as if she’d seen Tancho’s barely schooled reaction. “We shall collect our belongings and leave directly after you.”

“A suggestion, if I may,” Tancho said. “Don’t go back inside. Leave whatever you brought with you and ride for your homelands now. Ready your armies. Drawing the four of us away from our kingdoms had little to do with the eclipse. And if trouble has not found your home yet, I fear it is only a matter of time.”

Crow stared at Tancho for a long moment before he gave a nod to Elmwood and Samiel. “Send word if you need help,” he said. “I cannot promise we won’t be fighting our own battles, but please know you have allies in the north.”

“We will meet again,” Samiel said. She offered her hand to Crow and smiled when Tancho bit back a snarl. Then she clapped Tancho’s shoulder and laughed when Crow bristled at her hand on him. “That red string of fate has a sense of humour.”

Both Crow and Tancho growled at her, then at each other, and Samiel chuckled. “Ride well, and we will meet again.”

Karasu, Kohaku, and Soko were on their horses, unsettled, turning tight circles and trying to control them. Tancho pulled himself up on his horse and Crow did the same, and with a nod, they rode for the western bridge.

The horses wanted to gallop and they were hard to hold back. Tancho half expected to be met by guards, or something more sinister, blocking their escape. He didn’t know by what exactly, but he expected to be stopped. Yet nothing came at them. They crossed the bridge without incident and he felt an almighty weight off his back when they were on Westlands’ soil.

He had no idea what he would find at his home when they got there, or even along the way. Would his castle be in ruins? Would his people be slain?

What had happened to Asagi? He would have met an invading enemy with honour. He’d have fought like a lethal summer breeze, killing effortlessly, gently, like the kiss of the wind.

But how many could he face?

Was he even still alive? The creatures were first seen arriving six days ago. That was the distance between his castle and Aequi Kentron, and it would take