CHAPTER 36

“I gave you hospitality. I trusted you with my daughter. And you betrayed me.” Shademaster Derowen looked at Vex like she was a stranger, and it cut straight through her.

Vex had spent what remained of the night in the room that still held some of her belongings, and had woken to find her weapons and her bags taken from her. Only her clothes, boots, and finely carved bracers were left. When she’d been summoned to the Shademaster’s office and two guards who’d been posted outside her room fell into step with her, Trinket lumbering behind them all, she knew she’d gone from guest to threat, and nothing she could say would change that. Especially when Derowen met her in full Shadewatch regalia, her uniform crisp and her sword by her side. She looked nothing at all like the woman who’d smiled at Vex and told her they’d look for her brother. She hooked her thumbs around her belt, sent the guards to join the search for any remaining outlaws, and forgot whatever kindness there had been between them. All that was left was a chasm of betrayal.

Vex pulled herself upright. “You used me,” she challenged. “I trusted you. I defended you when my brother told me stories that you were dangerous. And you lied to me.”

“What do you want, Vex?” the Shademaster asked flatly.

“I want to hear your side of the story.” Vex set her jaw. She plucked at the bracers around her forearms to keep her hands from trembling. “I know you’re better than this. I just want to understand.”

At this, hurt flashed over Derowen’s face. “Understand what? Why I sent another group of Shadewatch into the mines? Why I wanted to find these outlaws in the first place? I’m sorry if it felt like I used you, but you managed to do what none of my scouts could. I needed to keep Jorenn safe, and I couldn’t let the opportunity to do so pass me by. You’ve heard my side of the story, Vex. You may not believe me, but I never lied to you.”

“The miners—” Vex started.

Derowen cut in. “Endangered our community. They may have given you and your brother some kind of dramatic sob story, but they were criminals. They are criminals. And they always will be. I only ever protected my people. I thought you understood that.”

She wanted to believe it. How she wanted to believe it. That all Derowen had ever done was for the good of her daughter, Wick, and the people around her. That it had only ever been about the town’s safety. That a place like this, where people took care of one another without asking for anything in return, gave gifts without strings attached, could truly exist.

She’d found the book on dragons Beryl had given her on the nightstand in her room, like nothing had changed while she’d been away. She’d leafed through it, past the notes she made, and she’d wondered if she should give it back to the craftswoman. She’d pocketed it instead.

“I know the miners were responsible for the ash walkers. I don’t deny that.”

“Then what is your problem?” Derowen demanded. She ran her hand across her face and sighed. “I was up most of the night to fight off those bloody creatures and my daughter’s nightmares, so make your point.”

“My point is your trade with silver merchants in Turst Fields. In Drynna. In Kymal. Does protecting your people involve stealing from them too then?” Vex asked quietly. “Was it ever about making Jorenn better? Or was it only about lining your own pockets?”

Derowen didn’t blink, but her eyes skimmed over to the office door, and she walked around her desk. She rummaged through the drawers and reached deeply inside the desk. Vex heard the sound of a small compartment clicking open, followed by a hissed curse from Derowen. “You have some nerve to come here and accuse me of stealing.”

“Why did you do it?” Vex asked. The words felt heavy in her throat. “The people here, they trust you. They look up to you.”

“And I have given them everything,” Derowen countered. Her voice held an edge to it that Vex hadn’t heard before. “What I’ve taken in return is nothing. Nothing more than what I need to ensure the safety and security of my family. A future for Aswin. Would you deny me that?”

If that had been all—silver and security and nothing more—it may have been nothing. But it had been a matter of lives. “There were children in those mines,” she said. “No older than her.”

“Don’t you dare make me the monster, Vex,” Derowen snarled. Rage flashed across her face.

“I came here to offer you a deal,” Vex said softly. “The notebook for the freedom of the survivors and the ones you captured in the mines. Let them leave Jorenn and the Umbra Hills in peace, and we’ll make sure you get the notebook back.”

Derowen’s hand twitched by her side. Her rage made way for something colder. Something harder. Like an animal in distress, she became far more dangerous than she was before. “I saved you. What’s to stop me from trading your life for the notebook? I’m sure your brother wouldn’t want to see any harm come to you.”

“If you harm me or my brother, the notebook finds its way directly to the Clasp in Westruun. I imagine they would not be amused to find out what you and your brother have been doing,” Vex countered, fighting to sound casual. She’d liked this woman once. She’d admired her.

“Ah, so you just happened upon a random bystander in these abandoned hills to carry out your threat?” Fury dripped from Derowen’s voice like flames. “We’re far away from the rest of the world here, Vex. No one cares about what happens in Jorenn.”

Vex raised an eyebrow. She’d prepared for that question. “There was a scout who was a part of our camp that first night. Nera. You must have met her. She knows her way around these hills.”

She held Derowen’s gaze and clung to the implication that Nera had been more than an accidental traveler to them. Derowen had seen the two of them talk outside of the inn. One survivor to another. One traveler to another. She only needed it to be convincing enough to be threatening, the risk too big to call her bluff.

The Shademaster considered it, then slammed the drawers of her desk shut. Whatever mask of kindness she’d worn had shattered, and Vex wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to mend the pieces.

“Look out of the window, Vex. Tell me what you see,” Derowen said coldly.

Vex did. She walked over to the window and stared out over the square, where the Shadewatch were bringing in the miners they’d captured. Two at a time, they were led to one of the quartermasters, who marked down their names before separating the children and the adults. The children were escorted by Wick into The Scattered Bar, with guards posted outside to watch them. The adults were escorted to the town jail. “The survivors.”

“The last of them. There are many people in town who would see them hang for what they did to us before I ever laid hands on those mines, but believe me when I say we do try to make this town better than it was. I know they’re not all responsible. The children are innocent and will be cared for. They’ll find loving homes here if they have no families to go back to. The outlaws who didn’t fight back will have their chance to face justice. No matter what else you might think of me, I don’t condone unnecessary cruelty.”

Perhaps Derowen genuinely believed in what she did. Perhaps it was easy to be merciful when she’d already killed most of the outlaws. Vex didn’t know and she didn’t want to know. Not anymore. “You can’t take children from their families,” she said. “My offer stands. Their freedom—all of them—for your proof. They’re innocent.”

“Not all of them. No deal. Not on those terms.” Harsh lines spread across Derowen’s face, and they tugged at something deeper, something far more primitive. Hurt for hurt. Fear. “I will make you another one. Come, walk with me.”

Without waiting to see if Vex followed her, she stalked out of the office and down the hallway. She waved away two of the guards who snapped to when she passed, and led Vex down to the foyer on the first floor, which spread out from the large guarded doors to the great hall and several hallways that split off into the working quarters of the Shadewatch. It was chaotic here, with one of the Shadewatch’s quartermasters handing out maps to select guards. Maps Vex had helped to prepare. They weren’t done scouring the mines yet, and it made her feel sick.

Derowen nodded at the guards they passed, traded smiles and friendly words with them, or soothing hand gestures at the ones who recognized Vex. And that made Vex feel worse.

She made her way past a large set of doors that Vex had learned led to the great hall, where the commanders of the Shadewatch met and where, presumably, Jorenn Village’s council of elders had once gathered, and into a darker hallway. Past another set of doors, and away from the murmur of the guards, to a smaller door off to the side. An antechamber.

Derowen took a key from her pocket and opened the door to let Vex and Trinket in. The room was sparsely decorated. The table that, judging by the dents in the faded crimson rug, had once stood in the center of the room had been pushed to the side. The chairs that went with it were stacked on top of one another and pushed out of the way too, creating an inadvertent barricade in front of one of the tall windows, where sunlight and a shallow breath of fresh air filtered in through the cracks. What remained in the center of the room was the rug, and—shackled to one of rings in the wall that under normal circumstances held torches or lanterns—the crumpled body of a male half-elf with tangled and matted hair, and torn-up clothes.

Thorn had a large gash over one eye, and no one had thought to clean the blood that had matted his hair and trailed down his face. A deep cut below his right clavicle had been bandaged with what looked to be a torn-up shirt that did little to stop the bleeding, but did stop him from making a mess. His nose looked broken and his right arm hung limp at his side, while some of his fingers were swollen and bent into impossible positions.

Derowen positioned herself in front of him. She kept her gaze firmly on Vex. “I’ll give you the others. I will keep him.”

Vex stared at Thorn without comprehension. She stared at the Shademaster without comprehension. “What did you do to him?”

Thorn stirred at the sound of her voice, but she didn’t want him to wake. Whatever oblivion he was in was surely better than this place.

“Nothing he didn’t do to my Shadewatch a dozen times over, I assure you,” Derowen said. She nudged him with her foot, and he groaned. “You may think of him as some kind of noble martyr, but few in Jorenn would agree with you, and certainly not the families of the people he has killed.”

“I didn’t think anything of him,” Vex snapped, shock rushing through her system. “I didn’t even care about him. I cared about you.” Now … she shook her head. “I thought you were a hero. What would the families of the people you have killed think?”

Derowen shook her head. “They probably understand that sometimes in life, you have to make hard sacrifices to protect a town or a family. I do what I do to give my daughter a better future, and with her all the children in Jorenn. Do you think they had any perspective, before I came here? This town, overrun by the dead pouring out of these hills and with no sense of how to take care of themselves? I taught them everything I know about survival, and once again when these miners endangered everyone with their greed.” She stared past Vex into some unknown distance. “Yes, my brother saw an opportunity when I had access to the mines. No one had to know. The mines provide enough for all.”

Vex narrowed her eyes. Wick had told her Culwen had simply shown up here with the ring, one day. “That’s why he gave you the ring.”

Derowen focused on Vex again. “You spent enough time here to see what a beautiful thing it is when a community comes together. Wouldn’t you want that? I know judgment and how badly it hurts. Do you not long to shed yourself from it and find a place where you’re wanted? I would protect Aswin from the ash walkers, from the outlaws, even from Culwen, if I had to.”

Vex’s breath caught. “Do you? Have to protect her from your own brother?” She tried to add up what she’d heard. What she’d seen. There seemed to be no love lost between the siblings, but from what she’d observed, Aswin was fond of her uncle.

The Shademaster met her gaze calmly. “I would kill for her.” She nudged Thorn again, the toes of her boot pushing hard against his wounded side. He blinked and whimpered, and it made him look small and vulnerable. “What’s weeding out a few unhealthy elements to make a town like this prosper? I will leave this town better than I found it, and he can’t say the same thing.”

“Vex …” Thorn’s voice was barely recognizable. He tried to straighten. “Are they safe? Are they alive?”

She wanted to go to him, but Derowen held her back. The Shademaster regarded the bound and bloodied miner with a curious look of pity. “So that’s the deal I propose.”

Vex blinked against the sudden pivot.

“I will agree to your trade, it’s fair enough. I’ll call off the guards and let the survivors travel freely out of here. Their safety for my notebook. But not him. Not Thorn.”

Those last two words carried so much weight. “What happens to him?”

“Oh, Vex.” Derowen shook her head. “He does not make it out of his town alive.”

“Why? Because he’s on your list? Or is it your brother’s list? Do you merely follow his directions?”

Derowen sighed but didn’t deny it. “He knows too much, and that makes him a threat to us. Not to Jorenn, but to my brother and me. It makes him a threat to Aswin.”

Vex stared down at Thorn. He’d been willing to risk his life for his people once before. He looked like he was on the verge of death. If Vax came through with his side of the bargain, it would be the best solution they could hope for. For all of them.

She bit her lip.

“Do it,” Thorn croaked, a voice like gravel and filled with pain. “Keep them safe.”

Vax would hate her. She knew he would. He’d be right, too.

She would hate herself if she went through with this. “He won’t be any trouble to you,” she tried. “He’ll disappear with the others and you and your brother can go on with your business without any interference from anyone. You can protect Aswin’s future and no one will have to be hurt again.”

As she spoke the words, she realized how untrue they were. She realized how untrue Derowen’s utopic words had been. Someone would be hurt again, and if not Thorn than the next person who accidentally found themself in the Shademaster’s way. Or Aswin, if she ever found out what her mother did.

It wasn’t about the notebook. It wasn’t even just about the ring anymore. She couldn’t let that happen.

“You remind me of her,” Derowen said. “You really do. I hope that one day, my daughter grows into a young woman who is as brave as you are. But I hope she’ll be able to recognize a losing battle before she jumps right into it.”

“She’s already brave,” Vex said. “I hope that when she grows up, she’ll be better than me. I hope she’ll be better than you. I hope she understands right from wrong, and sees the difference between necessary choices and cruel choices.”

She locked eyes with Thorn, and he shook his head, though it was barely perceptible. With his unbroken hand, he cradled his wounded arm to his chest, and he attempted to push himself up. “Not your fight,” he managed, slurring his words.

She smiled at him. He was wrong. It hadn’t been, perhaps, but it was now. She claimed it as such. And she wouldn’t stand by and let him be used as a sacrifice. “No.” She stepped around Thorn, so she’d draw Derowen’s attention away from him. She gestured at the windows, at the town outside. “I want all of them to be safe.”

She hesitated then added, “And if you think that’s too steep a price, talk it through with your brother. He knows about the notebook. I’m sure he doesn’t want the Clasp to learn about his business.”

Derowen sucked in a harsh breath, and genuine fear sparked in her eyes. Her mouth twisted. “Culwen knows? You told him?”

“He knows.” Vex crossed her arms. “So it’s your choice. Your notebook and all it entails—your business, your position in this town, even your family—or your vengeance. You can’t have both.”

“Do you know what you’ve done?” Something violent and hard crossed Derowen’s face. A despair so sharp it caused Vex to step back. Suddenly, she was aware that they were teetering on the edge. And if the Shademaster fell, she’d take everyone around her with her.

“You don’t see it, do you?” Derowen slid her hand to the hilt of her sword, and she held the weapon with the same unflinching determination that Vex had come to admire even as, underneath her armor, the cracks became visible. “If he knows, it doesn’t matter what I do. He trusted me to keep him safe too, and if I can’t …”

A pleading note crept into her voice, and calculation furrowed her brow. “But the notebook isn’t the ace you think it is. Don’t you see? I uncovered information that someone close to me had taken to smuggling and stealing from the hardworking people of Jorenn. Not wanting to risk alerting the thief, I took note of everything that happened, as quietly and meticulously as I could. The notebook details what I found. And while I regret that I couldn’t stop this heinous act, the people of Jorenn will understand that I have and always will keep them safe.” She swallowed hard. “Don’t you understand? Words on paper are merely words, Vex. It’s how you tell the story that counts.”

With one fluid movement, before Vex could even reach for the bow she didn’t carry, Derowen unsheathed her sword and the blade sparkled in the early sunlight before she brought it down into Thorn’s stomach. “I can’t let him endanger that.”

Thorn gargled and coughed, and clawed desperately at the blade. Blood gushed from the wound. It was a cruel wound. A dirty wound. The type of wound that any good hunter would avoid, because it would take Thorn a long time to die. His weak struggles were full of pain and despair.

Vex took a step in his direction, and Derowen withdrew her sword, with a soft groan from Thorn and a trail of blood. “Not another step closer.”

At the exact same moment, a soft voice echoed through the room.

“Mama? I don’t want to do my lessons.”

One of the doors to the hallway opened, and a small, brave girl with big emerald eyes padded in.