Abolisher

Vur was bursting with glee.

Faolin had returned to their apartment and imparted everyone with their plan to head to Silvervale tonight. She was glad he didn’t question about how she knew Syrene was in Silvervale … she was spared from lying.

In truth, Faolin had known the duce’s whereabouts for weeks now, but she’d wanted to stay in the city and free all the slaves before approaching her.

She wouldn’t say she failed. But she wouldn’t call it a succession either.

They set about for the town that same night, it was only about time Queen Felset sensed Drothiker near herself, and the last thing Faolin wanted was Syrene’s death. The trek would have been quicker by carriages—which would have taken two hours instead of five—but Levsenn needed to stop by water and they couldn’t afford anyone witnessing a siren.

They’d stopped twenty minutes ago—Levsenn was still in water. Vur with her, keeping a mirage around the area lest anyone passed by. Meanwhile Undesin trailed Faolin hauling the doe they’d just hunted. The boy may be scrawny little thing but he damn well knew how to hunt for food. Used his sharp mind to calculate the target’s movements more so than crossbow skills—which he barely had. Either way, it made the hunts quicker and easier with him.

“Master used to hunt,” he’d told her once. “At the orphanage. I watched him.”

“And you’re telling me that didn’t teach you to use a crossbow?” she’d joked, displaying a mock disbelief on her face.

A blush had bloomed beneath Undesin’s dark freckles before he’d looked away.

He didn’t blush with her now.

It was only fear in his eyes when he was near her—he tried to veil it like a good lad but Faolin saw it in those big green eyes, bright and tattling. He hesitated a lot around her, as if he expected her to strike him if he messed up, and it unsettled Faolin more than it should.

Even now, as they trudged their way through the teemed trees back to Vur and Levsenn, Undesin was quiet, trying not to breathe too loud around her.

“Tell me something.” She broke the silence.

It startled him enough that he jumped and almost dropped the doe—she caught it from the corner of her eye but chose to pretend otherwise.

“How was it at the fortress?” It pained her to talk about that place—she hadn’t allowed herself to even think of it. It made her feel a weakling, and she hated it.

Undesin fidgeted. “It was all right.”

And that was it. That’s the most he would say around her.

“All right?” she echoed. “Didn’t soldiers give you a hard time? I know that pig Imsev did.”

The boy made a sound that came close to a snort. But whatever it was faded soon. “He had all the right to. All of them had. I was slow and inefficient and … thin. They didn’t think I was fit to be a soldier. So they gave me a hard time, insulted me, hoping I would … man up. Except—” He paused. Audibly swallowed. And didn’t say further.

Except Aazem. Her throat burned.

Faolin paused and turned to the boy. “You’re wrong. They had no right to regard you the way they did. Being bony doesn’t make you any less of a man, neither does being slow or unproductive. Being a man doesn’t mean you have to be masculine and rowdy. Be honest with yourself about who you are. Don’t let anyone ever get that shit into your head. Understand?” She spat her disgust on the twigs. “Man up, my ass.”

The boy nodded dutifully, looking down at his feet, as if he’d just been chastised. But just as Faolin turned back and made to continue walking, he said, “That’s exactly what he once said to me.”

Her foot paused mid-step and retreated; chest aching with a butchering pain.

“He loved you, you know—that’s what everyone at the fortress used to say. He used to watch you when you did your day work and they all mocked him. A few even threw insults at him for mulling over a slave—but he never took it as an insult. He ignored them.”

It took her moments to gather sense of words. “He was a fool.”

“For loving you, or for not insulting them back?”

“Both.” She gritted her teeth. A fool to think world could be a better place. A fool to believe there could ever be freedom for people like him and her. A fool to believe they could have a life together. A fool, a fool, a fool—

A twig crunched.

Faolin instantly gripped Undesin’s arm and tugged him behind herself. Another hand went for her dagger. She stepped towards the direction where the sound had derived from, cautious. She listened to distant birds and animals. But no other presence punched her senses. She took another step forward—

“Wrong move.”

Faolin whirled.

But Ferouzeh already had a dagger at Undesin’s throat. The boy’s eyes bulged, fear igniting in them like a flare gone up.

“I’m sorry,” the healer drawled, “I couldn’t help but overhear. You’ve had more lovers after me?” She gaped. “May I say I’m very offended.”

Faolin clamped down the rage she felt clawing at her, urged it to puff out. She wouldn’t let Ferouzeh get to her again—not after so many years. Besides, a threat from Prince of Cleystein wasn’t ever to be overlooked—

Ferouzeh mused, “What was his name—”

“Don’t you dare say his—”

“Aazem, was it? Aazem,” she crooned, as if tasting the word on her tongue like saccharine poison. “Aazem. Aa-zem. Look at that—is that a heartbreak I see on your face? Do you see it, too?” She nudged at Undesin’s shoulder. “Did Aazem give you that?” Amusement limned her face like second skin.

“He certainly wasn’t the first one,” Faolin spat, gaining a step.

But Ferouzeh pressed the dagger in Undesin’s throat. His skin bobbed against the gleaming blade.

“What,” Faolin sneered, “you’re going to kill him too like you did my brother?”

The blow was unexpected for Ferouzeh—Faolin saw, and ignored, the emotion that flickered across her face—enough that her grip faltered on the dagger.

That was all Faolin needed.

She threw her own dagger.

The blade bit into Ferouzeh’s arm. She staggered back, yelping, as Undesin leapt for Faolin like a child seeking shelter.

Ferouzeh straightened, yanking out the dagger from her flesh, a cry locked behind her pursed lips, and cradled her bleeding arm.

But Faolin was already on her—she pressed the healer against a tree, another dagger against her slender neck. Still so fragile, so snappable, she thought. For a moment, she stilled at the closeness of her, at the warmth of her body that swathed her in the cold night, unable to think, unable to move, but just watch at Ferouzeh secreted her fear so marvelously.

Faolin didn’t quite comprehend why, but an undeniable impulse gripped her and she found herself releasing the dagger and closing her fingers around Ferouzeh’s neck. The familiar rasp of her rough calluses against the smoothness of her porcelain skin rung in her head, so loud that it momentarily blinded her.

Faolin felt her pulse against her palm, felt her breath on her skin and thought her body was going numb.

Her gaze locked with Ferouzeh’s, and Faolin found herself wanting to melt into the sanctuary still awaiting there.

Why? she almost whispered, fighting back the burning in her eyes as her chest tightened. Why did you do it?

She needn’t say it out loud, needn’t demand the explanation she’d once so desperately wanted, because Ferouzeh stiffened against her, as if reading Faolin’s face like one might read a parchment. She opened her mouth, but too bad Faolin didn’t want any explanation anymore.

Her grip tightened around Ferouzeh’s neck. “What are you doing here.” Her voice had dropped to a dangerous whisper.

“I have a mission,” Ferouzeh muttered in a choking voice. Then—

For all her sharpened senses, Faolin didn’t feel or see as Ferouzeh hooked her leg with hers and knocked her to the ground. Before Faolin could so much as attempt to lift, Ferouzeh’s foot was on her neck.

A press and she would be no more alive than all the rocks in this forest.

“You know I’m not fond of carriages.” The healer shrugged casually. “You never know the rider’s intentions, and Ryle happens to have more enemies than I’d like to risk.”

Faolin waited, fighting for breaths.

“You want to get to Syrene Alpenstride,” the healer said, “so do I. You want her protected, right? So do I. I’ll make you a deal.”

Faolin blinked. Had there not been a foot pressing on her life, she might even have barked out a laugh. Might have knocked the woman senseless. How could she even think—

“I believe”—Faolin braced herself as the healer reached in her pocket—“this belongs to you?”

Something in her stirred as the healer brought about her closed fist. The Darkness hissed as it roused inside her. Whispers claimed her ears. “What is that,” Faolin warned. “Get that away—”

Ferouzeh opened her fist. A black stone lay at the heart of her palm.

Then the Darkness began roaring a bleeding song in her skull.

“No,” Faolin pressed her hands to her ears, as if that would keep them from splitting. “Get that away!”

“Lin—”

Her vision darkened at the corners of her eyes, narrowing her sight to the stone. And its bearer.

Faolin rolled out from beneath Ferouzeh’s foot, an inhuman sound she’d never heard ripping from her throat. She rose to her feet.

The Darkness recognized the stone—no, not recognized it. Felt it—as if it were a part of it. As if it’d found the lost half of itself.

Because it had.

That was the stone Delaya Fairdust had locked the Darkness in a year ago. That unholy stone had been embedded in the locket.

The Darkness shrieked in her ears—it hungered. For complete power.

Sounds blurred—her senses blurred. All that remained inside her was this longing, this will to devour. And Ferouzeh, the woman who’d taken and ripped and wrecked her heart so ferociously that no salve had ever healed it, held that power from her.

The Darkness began dragging up images from the mud of her memories. They took over her sight.

Blood. Raoden. Ferouzeh’s dagger in his chest. The letter. Wrath. Assassins. More blood. And then, there, at the center of it all, Ferouzeh An-Idris.

Then Faolin’s body was moving, just as dark fog coiled both her arms.

Ferouzeh retreated a step but she could do nothing as Faolin’s fog gripped her arms like ropes. The healer’s face pained, her chest heaved, as smoke discharged from where were the fog burned her skin.

“Faolin!” Ferouzeh gasped.

But the mist went for her legs and slammed her to her knees. Her pants charred and turned to ashes, leaving her shins naked. Then her skin was burning.

Ferouzeh screamed painfully.

Faolin stepped towards her.

“Give me it,” she hissed, didn’t recognize the voice that slid her throat.

Ferouzeh’s grip only tightened around the stone, even as she continued screaming.

Faolin gripped a handful of her night-dark hair and yanked her head back. “Give me the stone,” she snarled in her face.

Tears of pain slid down Ferouzeh’s round cheeks. “This isn’t you,” she gritted.

Faolin tightened her grip on her hair, and she gasped. But her fist around the stone turned white-knuckled.

Faolin’s knee went slamming in her skull, and Ferouzeh toppled to side.

Then the healer was chuckling like a madwoman, even as blood streamed down and her lips and her lids looked heavy. “Otsatyas, I missed you,” she rasped, a bubble of blood bursting at her full lips.

She was dying.

Faolin felt something tugging from the depth of her mind.

But Ferouzeh went on. “I missed you so much that sometimes I thought I’ll lose my mind. It drove me crazy—I couldn’t focus on anything, couldn’t think about anything, you were everywhere I looked.”

Her eyes fell shut as the stench of burning flesh sneaked up Faolin’s nostrils. Something in her mind prickled, as if she were in a bad dream and someone were trying their utmost to wake her up.

“You were trouble, Faolin—a danger I couldn’t afford. You were a killer, a monster I fell in love with. You were everything I was always taught to never let in—everything I was taught to fear and hate. Ablaze Kosas, the things they called you …” She coughed, sprayed more blood, just as her eyes drooped shut. Then—

Something hit the back of Faolin’s skull so hard that she was surprised her head didn’t tear off. The world fell deathly quiet. Blood bellowed in her head, her ears.

And then, the ringing.

She turned in time to see Undesin holding a heavy log in both his hands before her world went dark.