as the cold steel forced my chin upward and my gaze with it. He continued to drive my movement until I shifted cautiously to my knees.
“What do you want?” I asked, watching two more identically dressed shadow-men climb over the balcony. Their garb concealed their features, though I could tell their brown complexions more or less matched mine. Who were these men?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rynna stumble back and lean against the wall. If she survived, the palace physician could tend to her until Tilmorn returned. Perhaps Mercer had foreseen this attack and would lead the others back from their mission to aid us. Maybe they were on their way, would arrive any second.
The man didn’t reply to my question. The tip of his saber traveled down to my collarbone and snagged on the chain around my neck. He lifted the elicrin stone until it was dangling in front of my face, the point of his blade between my eyes. How had he known?
“Your scarf,” the man said in Erdemese, beckoning Falima with his free hand, the spikes of his rings still wet with Rynna’s blood.
Falima unwrapped her scarf with shaky hands. She surrendered it but kept her distance. Why was she still here? She could have escaped during the fight.
The chain rubbed my skin raw as the man snapped it.
He caught the elicrin stone in the scarf, staining the peach fabric with blood as he wrapped it and tucked it inside a leather pouch on his belt.
“Give this one a quick and merciful end,” he said to the others with a nod toward Rynna.
“Don’t touch her,” I growled in my first language.
“They have to bring you to Erdem unharmed!” Falima blurted out. “You can strike a barg—”
One of the fighters hit my maid hard across the face, cutting her off.
The realization made my rage burn hotter than a forge fire: Falima had lured me into a trap. She had knocked on my door to recite lines and lead me into danger.
But my anger toward her paled in comparison to my fear for Rynna.
“I’ll go willingly,” I breathed. I jerked my head in Rynna’s direction. “If you leave her be, I’ll do whatever you ask.”
“No, Kadri!” Rynna barked. Though she did not speak the language, she seemed to understand the tone of the interaction enough to realize what I was offering.
The man, who was clearly the leader, dropped his blade from my throat. “You have a deal.”
I gulped in an overdue breath of relief.
“To your feet,” he ordered.
Rynna struggled to straighten as well, but the leader turned his blade on her instead as a warning.
The other two men advanced toward me. Within seconds, I was bound and gagged and utterly at their mercy. One shoved me toward the balustrade.
I offered Rynna a farewell nod that I hoped would encourage her. The wound wasn’t fatal. She would survive.
An arm dense with muscle reached around me to seize the rope attached to the grappling hook. With three slapdash motions, one of the men in black tangled me up and slung me over the balustrade, gripping me under one arm. He held a clamp in the other. Squeezing the release lever, he pushed off the craggy cliffside with the soles of his boots, and we soared downward until we landed upon soft sand.
He slackened the rope and I stumbled forward, tripping and falling flat. Through the sting of sand in my eyes I saw the bodies of two royal guards just paces away. Blood stained their emerald tunics.
A hard wrench of my elbow set me back on unsteady feet and propelled me toward an oared vessel poised in shallow waters. The boat rocked as my captor pulled me aboard and sat me down. Soon after, another shoved a grim-faced Falima down beside me with such bruising force that she struck her jaw on the thwart before struggling to sit up.
The leader followed swiftly behind. “You warned her twice, the first time with your eyes,” he said to Falima in a chilling tone as he sat down. The others began rowing us into deeper, darker water, undoubtedly toward a larger ship waiting in the infinite night. “You cost me one of my men. You are fortunate that King Agmur asked us to treat you both with kindness.”
King Agmur.
“Ironically, the bargain you suggested did none of you any good.” He raised the fist with the protruding spikes, eyeing the weapon with pride. “Venom from the eastern coilsnake.”
Bile rose in my