Shadowguard

The clean-up of the tavern had made little progress. While the remaining chairs and tables were back in their places, puddles of blood and liquor and piles of glass blanketed the floor. Bree and Melenda scrubbed at the tiled entranceway to the kitchen, the flagstone stained red. Banor stumbled about, picking up glass shards and the odd cork. Everna didn't see Lyra or the rest of the waitresses.

Behind the bar, her father swept the shattered remains of the stock into the dustpan and dumped it into the bin beneath the counter. His axe rested against the wall behind him, just within reach. Wil sat perched on the stool in front of him, turning something over in his hand. A half-empty bottle of brandy sat near his elbow.

Feeling indulgent, she plucked one of the few remaining bottles of whiskey from the shelf and popped the cork. Her father immediately turned to her, a deep frown set into his face. They had the same argument every time she touched a drink that wasn't meant for a customer, but she stared him down as she brought the bottle to her lips.

After what she'd dealt with these past two months, she deserved the drink.

Then, to her surprise, he sighed. "I'm just glad you're alright."

She managed a half smile. She hadn't been "alright" since the night Windmore arrested her. With the Courts and Shroud's baffling indecision (first they wanted her dead, now they wanted her alive?), and all that happened in between, the limits of her patience were fast approaching. A different form of exhaustion took hold; she was tired of the game, tired of people getting hurt because of her, and thoroughly fed up with hiding away in the forest while Shroud ran rampant and destroyed her life piece by piece.

"I'm something," she said at length. "Not quite 'alright' but still alive, for what it's worth."

"It's worth more than you realize. Your mother and I always knew that, one day, something from our past would catch up with us, but we never expected it to be Shroud." Her father flung a broken chair leg into the hearth. "If I had known, I wouldn't have been as lenient with your training."

Everna took another sip from the bottle, the warmth of the cinnamon-flavored whiskey flooding her belly. "It was probably for the best, if I'm honest. I have a feeling I'd be in a worse position if Shroud took me seriously from the start."

"And I wouldn't count on that advantage any longer," Wil said, grabbing his bottle as he pushed off the counter. "Between Windhollow and today, you've made it clear you're not going without a fight — and you're putting up more than they expected. This time there was a witness."

He tossed a pin onto the counter between her and her father. Small and forged of gleaming silver, the pin depicted a venomous snake coiled around a crown of thorns. While she'd never seen the symbol before, there was no question who it belonged to.

Curious, she plucked it from the counter and turned it over in her hands. Something about the way the brier wrapped around the snake's coiled frame struck her as familiar. It bore an eerie resemblance to the woven pattern of the crown of roses that was Inverness's standard.

Her father frowned, his brows drawn. "Where did you find this?"

"In the cellar a few moments ago," Wil said. "Someone's been watching the tavern, I think."

The next mouthful of whiskey hit her stomach hard. Several of the staff, including Lyra, had fled into the cellar when the fighting broke out. It could belong to any of them.

How deep did Shroud's influence go? They had agents and operatives inside the Guard. Wil suspected there were some within the Courts. Now, there was evidence of their presence in the tavern. Next, they'd tell her Shroud had infiltrated Shadowguard.

"It could belong to that agent Mom killed," she said. "He must've been hiding down there. I didn't see him when I came in, and I was near the cellar door when he pulled me off the bar."

It couldn't be Lyra's. It simply couldn't. There was another explanation, she was sure. There was always another explanation.

She hoped.

Her father's gaze remained on the pin. "I think it's time I told you the truth about the town and Windmore's issue with me."

Everna gave a non-committal hum. Had the circumstances been different, she would've asked sooner. Perhaps it was for the best she didn't; her parents clearly hid something from her, and she doubted they'd have told the truth without Shroud forcing their hand. Her mother already admitted to knowing more than she let on. She always had.

"It's about time someone started telling me things," she muttered. "Seeing as how everyone's been keeping me in the dark."

"What good would it have done?" Wil asked. "You couldn't do anything, even if you knew every detail."

"I'm not helpless," she snapped.

Wil raised a brow. “In this particular matter, you are. You don’t have the power or the experience necessary to make use of that information. There was no point in telling you.”

She drew in a breath and forced her irritation aside. "This matter directly involves me, and I've had enough of being pushed around like a pawn on a chessboard. I have every right to know what the hell is going on and why."

The situation was getting too far out of hand for secrecy. Shroud no longer hid in the shadows, but came after her in her own home. They razed the town hall and nearly killed her mother. Yet the ones with the power to stop it dragged their feet and kept her stumbling about in the dark.

"This has gone on long enough," she continued. "And if someone doesn't start talking or doing something, soon I'll take matters into my own hands."

Her father drew in a sigh, his shoulder slumped with resignation.

"You'll have to ask your mother for the details, but as far as I know, Windmore's mother was part of Shroud. She was in the capital, until her postion was exposed and she and fled to Pendel with Windmore and his sister, seeking protection from Mikha, who was in charge then."

"He had a sister?" Wil asked, frowning. "That's the first I've heard of this. It's not on any of his family records. In fact, Pendel's records are a mess. Last I looked, I couldn't make sense of them."

"You can thank your father for that. Pendel was an embarrassment, as far as the Crown and the Courts were concerned. They had no control over a town within their own borders, and they tried to cover it up as much as they could."

Wil muttered something under his breath. Everna learned some elvish from Andryll over the years, but not enough to understand more than the odd curse. She hadn't a clue what Wil said, but from the tone of his voice, she suspected it wasn't kind.

"And why is it he hates you so much?" Everna pressed, pushing the conversation back on track. She had suspicions, but they needed confirmation; a clear motive for Windmore's involvement would solidify her case for the Courts. They may not be cooperating at the moment, but she would have to face them eventually. The more she had, the better.

And, if they still refused to consider her side of it, she'd push Wil until he held them in contempt of their duties and had the High Knights remove them. As far as she was concerned, it should've happened already.

"I killed his sister," her father said at length. "Shroud wouldn't go without a fight. Quite a few people got caught in the crossfire, and she was one of them. He never let it go.”