small and blonde and pinch-faced, flanked by her own well-armed vassals. Crates lay heaped on the ground behind them, and the woman sitting huddled against one could only be Mom.
I strained my vision as far as it could go. Was she all right? Had they hurt her further? But it was impossible to make out details in the faint light.
I clenched my hands, forcing down the fear. Arcturus had forbidden Darshan and Acubens from accompanying us due to the dangers involved, despite Acubens’s loud protests. But they were still with me, in a way. I was armored in Acubens’s clothes and Darshan’s wards.
And I still wore the Everblade that Arcturus had given me. I hoped that I wouldn’t have to use it today.
The hills were limned in deep autumnal colors, fading back into inky darkness at their bases. We gathered on our side of the bridge, displaying our strength and our prisoners in the dawn light.
“Arcturus Nightfeld,” said Leda, her voice brittle and chill. Magic carried her words across the bridge. “Does your father know about this? Does your father know what you’ve done?”
“My father is incapacitated at this time,” said Arcturus, impassive. “As his eldest trueborn son, I am authorized to act as I see fit in his stead.”
“You’ll regret this,” Leda hissed. “House Redbriar is not as far fallen as you think it is, not under my care. There will be consequences.”
A dangerous glint appeared in Arcturus’s eyes. “I look forward to them.”
“What an arrogant young man you are,” Leda sneered. She turned to me next. “And you, Cassandra, standing at his side. I knew you were involved when I heard the Nightfelds ask for Kathleen Turner. You traitor. You whore.”
“House Redbriar betrayed me first,” I answered flatly. “I’ve done nothing to you that you haven’t done to me already.”
“You—you think we’re on the same level as a mongrel like you—” Leda’s chest heaved. “Let’s get this over with. Begin.” She waved forward the first of her vassals, who started down the bridge, carrying a crate of Nightfeld artifacts.
Arcturus nodded one of his own subordinates forward onto the bridge. I watched the crate exchange hands in the middle, where the two met, and continue down to our side in Nightfeld hands.
“Two Everblades engraved with the initials XSN, and an astrological clock,” said Arcturus’s hard-faced clerk, marking them down on a ledger, even as another vassal continued onto the bridge for the next crate. “Badly packed, I think on purpose.” The clock had a long crack running down its face.
Arcturus’s lips thinned. “We can’t prove it was more than accident,” he said quietly. “It’s too late now. We will pack them with more care ourselves, and repair them in our own time. And we will not forget.”
The clerk nodded tightly, letting other vassals take the crate for repacking, and continued onward to the next crate. “A set of beacon markers for a Class Three teleportation circle. A suit of armor bearing the Incantation of Peace.”
I startled at seeing the armor. I recognized it from the upstairs hallway in Redbriar Manor where it used to be on display. I’d run past it a hundred times without really noticing it.
And many, many more crates followed. “I never realized so many things from your family ended up with the Redbriars,” I said to Arcturus.
“They were tribute,” said Arcturus, and I saw the rage stirring behind his eyes. “We bribed Priam Redbriar to delay our own annihilation, and he laughed and reached his hand out for more. He preferred it that way, a slow death rather than a quick one. He would first see us sell ourselves and everything that was ours—”
Abruptly, he fell silent. The convoy of crates had stopped.
“This is far short of everything you took,” Arcturus said, lifting his head toward the Redbriars.
“It’s our turn to receive something back, don’t you think?” said Leda Redbriar. “You can’t expect us to hand over everything and wait in the hopes of having Clytemnestra back at the very end. It’s hardly fair.”
Arcturus jerked his head in a nod. “I’ll grant you her bodyguard. As a bonus, given he wasn’t part of our original agreement. Surely you consider a Spellbreaker worth something.”
The sun was rising over the horizon, casting enough light for me to see the way Leda’s lips thinned. “Very well. That will suffice for now.”
A Nightfeld vassal jabbed a needle into Aegis. Slowly, he slumped forward, the spikes on the front of the harness drawing blood from his chest as his weight