Chapter Twenty

“White hair, white hair,” Asterin muttered as an enormous clump of gnarled roots forced her to dig deeper yet again. “Who the hell has white hair?”

“What are you on about?” Eadric muttered, his back hunched. He glowered at the tunnel walls, crowding ever closer. “Also, are you certain that we won’t be buried alive?”

“For the seventh time, yes.” Asterin bit her lip, a revelation bubbling up inside of her—but then she lost it. She cursed. “One of our attackers,” she explained aloud. “Young, with white hair. I swear that I’ve seen him before somewhere, but—”

Eadric paused. “Didn’t that jerk who fought alongside Rose during the Fairfest battle have white hair?”

Asterin halted in her tracks. “Kane?”

“Yeah. She should have left him ages ago. She deserved way better. His skill in combat was decent, I suppose, but—”

She snapped her fingers. “The knives!”

Eadric frowned. “Do you think it was him up there?”

Asterin paused her excavation and began pacing, though it was more like walking in a circle since the space was so narrow. The earth they dug had to end up somewhere, so she’d been packing it back in behind them, sealing their pathway but also blocking off any pursuers. “But why in hell would he try to kill us?”

“Because he’s a lying, selfish prick?”

Nicole snorted. “Damn, Captain.”

Eadric threw his hands into the air. “It’s true! He’s a stone-cold bastard who broke Rose’s heart multiple times—”

“And helped save lives at the battle,” Asterin finished, brow furrowed. “It makes no sense.”

“Sure it does. Think about it. He almost failed his exams at the Academia Principalis twice. That means he’s either lazy or lacking in magical ability. It’s unlikely that Rose would have risked her neck for a slacker, and on top of that I saw them fight together. If I’m remembering correctly, he barely even touched his magic, if at all. Maybe he’s trying to find a way to become more powerful.”

“If I may,” Gino interjected cautiously, “No one could have possibly known about Your Majesty’s impromptu trip to Eradore prior to two days past, since Your Majesty hadn’t yet known herself.” His light sphere bobbed at his shoulder, casting long planes of darkness across his face. “Unless Kane happened to already be in Orielle with, I suspect, two accomplices, and decided out of nowhere to kill you, he must have pursued us at ungodly speeds from elsewhere. And there’s no reason why he couldn’t have just attacked you back home in Axaris . . .”

Realization stabbed her. “So they are trying to keep me away from Quinlan.”

“That’s the other thing,” Gino said. “If that is Kane’s motivation, why not simply kill Prince Quinlan himself? Especially since Eradore is or was his domain? Kane managed to sneak past our guards during Fairfest ball, so why not Eradore’s? And especially considering Prince Quinlan’s vulnerable state . . .”

Asterin bit down on her cheek in frustration. “But that doesn’t help us understand why he’s trying to kill me.”

“No, that’s my point,” Gino insisted. “Maybe he’s not targeting you. Maybe he’s working for someone. Someone who doesn’t want you reuniting with Quinlan, and knows that the best way to keep you in Axaria would be to eliminate your escorts instead . . . especially Captain Covington.”

They all went deathly silent.

“Someone who, though?” Eadric demanded.

Gino shrugged, his hair flopping to the side. “Beats me. That’s all I’ve got.”

Asterin massaged circles into her temples. “Clearly, whether or not the assassin on our trail is actually Kane, they still need to finish the job,” she said. “Meaning that they’re probably hunting for us, right now.”

Eadric jerked his chin at the massive tangle of roots obstructing their path. “So what do we do?”

“I hate to admit it,” Asterin said slowly, “but these roots are basically impossible to penetrate without causing a noticeable earthquake. And we’ll draw too much attention if we surface now.” She scoured her memories for Orielle’s layout.

“Perhaps something closer to the harbor?” Eadric suggested.

Asterin smacked her fist into her palm. “The Yards. We can’t miss them since we’ll know we’re in the right place as soon as we hit concrete.”

“Yards, plural?” asked Eadric. “How many are there?”

“Two. North and South, one on each end of the harbor.” The captain’s mouth tightened. Hastily, she added, “Don’t worry, I’m not saying we should split up.”

“No,” said Eadric, his expression tightening. “If Gino’s suspicions are correct, they’re after me. So we should split up. The Elites will stay with you. We can meet up aboard the Ocean Gypsy. I’ll go alone.”

“That’s a horrible idea,” Asterin told him flatly. “And besides, how would you get there? You’re not an earth wielder.”

Evidently, the captain hadn’t considered that. “Fine,” he replied grudgingly. “Nicole, you’re with me. We’ll take South Yard.”

Asterin folded her arms over her chest. “And then what?”

Eadric lowered his voice. “Asterin, I know this is a gamble. But I also think it’s our best shot.” He checked his pocket watch. “We’ve got four hours until our ship is due for departure. It’s up to you.”

Asterin lifted her chin, staring up at the earth surrounding them like the maw of some beast waiting to claim them at the slightest mistake. Desperately, she prayed that she wasn’t about to make one. “Fine. But if you get yourself killed, I’ll have you resurrected just so I can tell you I told you so. Neither of us wants that, so don’t die. Understood?”

Eadric’s mouth quirked up at the corners. He saluted. “Understood.”

Gino had decided that he really did not like being underground. It wasn’t claustrophobia or a fear of being buried alive or anything like that, and at first the cool damp air on his skin had even soothed him. But that was before he tripped over a root obscured in soggy brown murk and an earthworm fell onto his face.

They had parted ways with Captain Covington and Nicole awhile ago, agreeing to meet up at a tavern called The Boar’s Head if their plan went awry.

Asterin forged ahead of him in tense silence, doing her best to tunnel onward without disturbing the earth above them.

Dirt covered them both from head to toe by the time they finally hit the promised concrete. The queen shot him a weary grin. “Jackpot.” She steepled her fingers, her eyes slipping shut in focus. Clods of dirt directly overhead flew outward, tumbling down the sides of the new tunnel walls. The ground beneath their feet shuddered and began to rise as the queen redirected the excavated earth from above to boost them higher from below. With a deep breath, she brought her clenched fist above her head and the earth followed, thrusting them upward. Before they reached the surface, the final dirt layer above them gave way at her command, greeting them with a gust of gloriously fresh, sea-kissed air.

Gino shielded his eyes with a wince as blinding afternoon sunshine poured into their little ditch. “We made it!”

“See? Told you so,” a voice above called smugly. “Like two hungry baby bunnies popping out of the ground to look for carrots.”

Gino’s heart jumped into overdrive as two hooded faces blocked out the azure sky overhead. Queen Asterin swore. He threw himself in front of her as they rose fully into North Yard, but it was too late—they were already exposed and surrounded.

“Shut up, Killian,” a man said. Both strangers were clad head to toe in white, from their flowing robes to the simple garb beneath. A brutal blast of wind yanked the man’s hood back to reveal a chaotic shock of hair so violently white that it almost made his robes look dull.

“Kane,” Asterin whispered in horror. “It is you.”

The other stranger—a young woman, slender and lithe, with tawny orange eyes glowing like a jungle cat’s—let out a charmed laugh. She cocked one leather-clad hip to the side and tugged off her own hood to unveil a devilish smirk. “Kane, you never told me that you were so famous!”

“I’m not,” Kane grumbled. Two wicked knives flashed into existence. “Well, two down, two to go. Shall I do the honors?”

Before Gino could grasp Kane’s meaning, something sharp bit into his chest. He heard a little gasp behind him from Queen Asterin, and then a scream of rage.

Did they hurt her? he wondered dazedly.

But by the time Gino comprehended that the prettily engraved iron hilt swimming below him was, in fact, buried deep in his chest and he managed to think, oh, the crimson-stained world had already gone black.