eerie and ominous quality in her voice. “The story says that where the knight went, harm followed.”
My heart sinks. Isn’t that always the way? Nothing good can exist, it seems, without some bad thing as a counterweight. “What do you mean?”
“Where he trod, the fabric of the world seemed to grow thin and weak.” Kae’s voice has taken on a lyrical cadence like a storyteller’s, but the tone beneath is deadly serious. “A warm breeze came from nowhere. The smell of metal. Plants and animals began to die, and wanderers and hunters went missing.”
I look at Graylin but can’t tell anything from his face except that he’s troubled.
“What does that mean?” I ask, my voice small. The gauntlet on my arm, which had started to feel like a source of comfort, suddenly feels heavy and cold.
“It’s another story,” he murmurs. “One that I always thought was just a story. It’s called the Wound in the World.”
The words themselves have a fairy-tale quality, and I can see the effect on all three Fiordens; he, Brekken, and Kae all stiffen. I look from Kae to Graylin to Brekken.
“Like another doorway?”
“Not a doorway,” Graylin says. “Nothing so orderly. More like a wall in a house that, having been battered by the wind for many years, begins to show cracks.”
“So …” I clear my throat, tracing over some of the dark whorls carved into fantastical shapes on the table. “What’s the wind in this situation?”
Silence falls for a moment, until Brekken offers, “The knight?”
“Not the knight.” Kae shakes her head. “His armor. More specifically, what it’s made of.”
“Phoenix flame,” I say, echoing the strange word from earlier, turning my wrist back and forth so the gauntlet catches the light.
I think of the hole in the ozone layer back on Earth, an invisible tear in the sky that humans, out of ignorance or uncaring, ripped further just by going about our lives. A sense of foreboding fills me. “Is it … am I doing damage just being here?”
Is it just me, or does Kae’s expression get cooler? “If our conjecturing here is correct, yes, the mere presence of phoenix flame does damage to the barrier.”
“Not much,” Graylin interjects quickly. “Clearly. We haven’t seen any effects of it as we traveled.”
Guilt seeps into me as I look between them. It’s not like I can do anything, I can’t take the gauntlet off, but I hate the idea that I’m doing damage to Fiordenkill just by being here.
“But if there was more of it … more of the phoenix flame … then the cracks will start to show?”
“For instance, a whole suit of armor?” Graylin adds in.
Kae nods wordlessly.
“So if Cadius Winterkill has the armor …” Brekken puts it together. “He has a way between the worlds. That’s how he’s running the soul trade.”
“If we can get our hands on the armor, will the wound close?” I ask.
But before Kae can answer, Graylin cuts in.
“This trip is for reconnaissance only, remember?” He addresses me, dark eyes drilling into mine with serious intensity. “That’s what we promised Marcus. We don’t have the resources for a confrontation.”
“I know that,” I reply. “But just humor me for a second. Would it close?”
Kae holds my gaze. “Maybe,” she says quietly. “I do not know for sure. But it is possible.”
“I know we can’t confront Cadius,” I press on. “But if all it takes to stop him is stealing one suit of armor—”
“Winterkill won’t make it that easy,” Brekken says. His voice is thoughtful, distracted, fingers drumming against the pitted tabletop. “But if we see the opportunity …”
“We won’t take any stupid chances,” I promise Graylin. A renewed sense of urgency and hope gathers beneath my breastbone. “But if we get lucky, we don’t have to wait for a chance to come back. We could bring the soul trade down tonight.”
The rest of the day passes in a blur of preparations. It seems to me that time is moving faster, now that our goal is clearer. What awaits us at Winterkill is still murky, but now there’s a focus point. The phoenix flame armor. A single object, corroding the barrier between the worlds like water seeping through floorboards. Water or, more appropriately, acid, creating a gap through which the traders can carry their silver and souls.
It turns out that in addition to being a scholar, Kae is also a gifted practitioner of healing magic. As evening falls across the stretch of snow outside, she and Graylin work together to alter my appearance