was my chance to kill my oldest enemy—and this was our chance to free the Night Elves. But it could end in disaster.
Thyra continued, “We are looking for advisors among you. Anyone who has been into Midgard and may have intelligence about weaponry, tactics. As we travel, I will be collecting any information I can.”
Around me, the crowd of elves began to murmur.
Thyra nodded. “We will leave at once. The way to the wall is long and arduous—”
“Wait!” shouted Bo suddenly.
The Shadow Lord glowered. “Who dares to interrupt me?”
“I just thought— Your Lordship.” Bo bowed his head slightly. “I think you should speak to Ali. Midgard has changed over the years, and I believe she knows the High Elves better than any of us.”
Thyra’s lips thinned. “Anyone but the traitor.”
“She has visited the Citadel, met King Gorm—she’s even traveled to realms beyond our own.”
“She committed high treason,” the Shadow Lord said coolly. “She fraternized with the enemy. She helped bring Galin back from the dead. She is the reason we are in this predicament.”
Bo was right, though. I had the means to help them—I just had to convince them to let me.
I stepped forward. “You never gave me a trial. You haven’t heard my story. But if you want someone who understands the High Elves and Midgard, I’m the closest you’ve got.”
Thyra looked to the other Shadow Lords. Almost imperceptibly, Lynheid inclined her head.
With a long-suffering sigh, Thyra turned back to glare at me. “We will speak later.”
We’d walked for hours, now, making our way through the narrow tunnels that led to the surface. We only stopped to make camp when we’d reached the impenetrable magical barrier that was Galin’s wall.
I crouched next to Thyra and Ilvis on a ledge just feet from the wall. As it shimmered darkly above us, I warmed my hands beside a small fire of smoldering coal. Soup bubbled in a cast iron pot above it. All around, the chosen were leaning against walls, resting and eating. Light from torches wavered around the tunnel.
“Hungry?” Thyra asked me quietly.
I nodded, and she ladled steaming soup into an earthenware mug, then handed the mug to me without speaking. I inhaled deeply. Bird’s nest with chunks of fried bat wing, my favorite. I took a long sip, then leaned against the wall of the cave and allowed the mug to warm my hands.
It was strange being this close to Thyra and Ilvis. Ilvis was silent, with a deeply wrinkled face he kept hidden under the hood of his cloak. Thyra, on the other hand, sat with her hood pulled back as she studied me with piercing gray eyes.
Up on her throne, she’d seemed distant and aloof, but now that I’d spent the day at her side, I’d learned she was more than that. Certainly, she was quiet, but she was also sharp—a fierce intelligence within a wizened frame.
“I didn’t know he was Galin,” I said. “I only knew he was a lich. You sent me on a mission into Midgard, and I was captured. The lich got me out. He looked nothing like Galin, and I knew he wasn’t a High Elf. I traveled with him because I thought we were retrieving the ring you wanted. I swear to you that I had no idea who he was. I always planned to destroy the wall, and I still do. It’s been my dream since I was a little girl. And since Galin sent you that letter, getting me thrown in prison—who do you think wants that High Elf fuck dead more than anyone?”
“Mmmm.” Thyra considered me. “Perhaps.”
“You will see. I will kill him,” I promised. “When do we cross into Midgard?”
“We cross the barrier in the morning,” she replied. “Galin’s wall will be temporarily lifted.”
“And then what?”
“The first contest of this Winnowing is to be held in Boston Common, at the corner of Beacon and Charles Street. We fight at dusk.”
“Until three hundred elves remain?”
“Yes.”
I rubbed a knot in my forehead. “I realize this is our only hope, but this is a bad deal.”
Thyra’s eyes narrowed. “We have Wyrd on our side.”
I groaned inwardly. Wyrd was starting to seem like bullshit to me. “That’s what the High Elves think, too, because everyone tells themselves that. It won’t be enough, not when their weaponry vastly outshines ours. We will need to be strategic.”
“How so?” Thyra leaned forward, studying me intently.
“Our people are armed with rusty swords and broken shields. The High Elves will be in full plate armor and