Tace lay on her cot, her arms crossed over her chest, with Raseri curled up next to her hip. She already knew she would face with bravery whatever challenge they chose to throw at her. She feared little in this world—even if the being who ruled the Fifth Sanctum had already seen into her deepest secrets. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain. If she could receive knowledge about how to stop the infection ripping through her orcs, it would be worth all the pain. This challenge was but one more step in her quest to understand what the symbols meant, and how to use them to save her orcs.
She laughed to herself. Not long ago, she had killed orcs indiscriminately, caring little for the person behind the death order. And after they died, Tace did her best to forget them, to avoid second-guessing herself. Now it was her hope to save as many orcs as she could. Dying in this way… it went against everything her religion taught. Dying in battle was the honorable way to meet Drothu after death. It was why she’d been an assassin with no remorse.
A lifetime ago, her parents had strictly forbidden Tace and her brother to follow the religion of Drothu, which, in the end, was what had pushed Tace even closer to it. Her father was murdered. Her brother left home. She and her mother fled the town of Kanta. Their life was in shambles, all due to her parents’ rejection of Drothu.
So she had done everything she could to make up for it, becoming the best assassin to ever work for the guild in Agitar. And where had that gotten her? Mired in a religious war between the Defiants and the Consecrated.
And then the xarlug had arrived. Many believed it was a harbinger of Drothu’s return. The very god Tace had been trying to please had wreaked destruction on them. And she’d been more than happy to fight against him.
Tace groaned. Everything she’d done, all the lives she’d taken in Drothu’s name, had been for naught. With her actions in Agitar, she’d turned her back on the orc god. She doubted there was a route back. Her family’s souls were doomed.
So was hers.
A light knock sounded on the door.
She rose from the cot, walked to the door, and opened it. She expected to see a tray of food on the floor. Instead, a small human girl stood outside, dressed in rags, her hair a tangle.
“Hello,” Tace said uneasily. She had thought no one else was in the castle besides her, Ademar, Frensia, Brax, and the odd little boy who’d greeted them.
“One has failed and died,” the girl said. “The other passed and is alive.” She looked up at Tace with wide green eyes. “What will I say about you when the day is done?”
“You will tell me I’ve passed, and you’ll give me the information I came here seeking.” Tace wanted to ask if Ademar had survived, but she assumed if the girl was going to give her the answer, she already would have. Besides, if Ademar had failed, Tace didn’t want to know until after she’d faced her own challenge. Knowing he was dead would compromise her ability to concentrate, and she had a feeling she’d need every ounce of focus she could muster.
The little girl smiled, her bright white teeth a sharp contrast with her disheveled countenance. “I know you hope it is so. I must confess, I do as well. I have a great deal of information I want to share with you.” She pouted. “But I need to know you’re ready to receive it.”
“What will you have me fight?” Tace asked. She expected she’d have to prove her strength by fighting another beast. Maybe something similar to the xarlug. She’d spent her time in the cell exercising. She wanted to be ready for the battle.
“Oh, it’s not so simple as that.” The girl reached out a hand.
Tace took it. She was surprised at how cold the girl’s skin felt.
“Your dragon cannot come.”
Tace nodded. “Raseri, stay here,” she said. It was for the best; she didn’t want the dragon to get hurt.
Raseri’s head hung, but she didn’t follow as the girl pulled Tace out of the room and down the hall. They moved quickly, and Tace almost had to break into a run to keep up.
“Where are we going?” Tace asked.
“You’ll see.” The girl stopped and looked up at Tace with those wide eyes. “But you won’t like it. I don’t even want to take you there, but I have to. Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Tace swallowed a lump in her throat. “I’m willing to do whatever is necessary.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.” The little girl started forward again, tugging on Tace’s hand.
Soon they rounded a corner into a huge hall. “Wait here,” the girl said. “It’ll start soon. I hope you don’t die.”
“Thanks. Me, too.”
The little girl ran to the other end of the empty hall, where she seemed to simply disappear into the shadows.
Tace shifted her weight from one foot to the other. The hall was completely unremarkable. Plain stone walls rose to a stone ceiling. There was no furniture. No art. The room was completely empty, save Tace. She waited.
A throat cleared behind her. Tace spun around, her fists at the ready.
But the orc before her only smiled. Tace dropped her hands to her sides, her stomach in her throat. “Mother?”
Her mother was dead. Tace had seen them carry the body through Agitar, her arm hanging out of the shroud. Her mother’s hand had worn the dragon ring Tace had so admired as a small child. After that, Tace had fled town.
“It wasn’t me you saw.”
Tace’s jaw dropped.
“Now come on. Let’s get out of here before they kill you.” Her mother cocked her head to the side. “They will, you know. The Fifth Sanctum is only a house of tricks. It swallows us whole.”
“I don’t understand,” Tace said. “I saw…”
“I know what you saw, sweetie. It was a trick. I had to get out of Agitar. It was the only way.” She strode toward Tace, quickly closing the gap between them. She reached out and rested her hand on Tace’s arm. Her hand was warm, not like the touch of the little girl who’d brought her here. “I’m here with friends. We’ve come to rescue you.”
“How is that possible?” Tace had to hold back tears. She wouldn’t let herself cry, damn it. Not after everything she’d been through.
“We’ve been tracking you since you flew to Agitar on the back of that dragon. Spectacular, you know? I was so proud.” Her mother smiled. It was the same smile Tace had always known and loved. “Now let’s go.”
“Wait.” Tace held back. “One of my friends is still alive. We have to find them.”
Her mother’s eyes fell. “I’m afraid that was another trick of the Fifth Sanctum. Both of your friends are dead. They must have failed their challenges. I can’t let the same thing happen to you.”
“Did you see their bodies?” Tace asked. “Can you take me to them?”
Her mother looked over her shoulder. “My friends are waiting for us out there, but we don’t have much time. Whatever they have planned for you might show up at any moment.” She wrapped her arms around Tace, pulling her into a hug. “I don’t want to lose you.”
It really hadn’t been so long, only weeks, since Tace had last seen her mother on that fateful morning of her murder—or what Tace had believed was her murder. But it seemed like an eternity ago. So much had happened since then. So much had changed.
“Come with me, sweetie. I’ll get you to safety.” Her mother held out her hand. The silver dragon ring was wrapped around her finger. If Tace had had any doubt this was her mother, that doubt now dissipated.
But still she held back. She didn’t want to face the challenge, but without it, she wouldn’t get the information she’d come here seeking.
“I can’t,” she said in a whisper.
“Why ever not?”
“If I leave, I won’t know how to stop the infection or find the other relics. The orcs of Agitar will die.” Tace steeled her fists at her sides. “I have to complete what I came here to do. You should wait outside. As soon as I have what I need, we can leave together, okay?”
The smile disappeared from her mother’s face. “That’s not an option.”
“It’s the only option,” Tace said. She’d never so fully defied her mother before, which only went to show how much she’d changed since she’d left Agitar with Ademar. “Wait outside, Mother.”
“Mother?” She cackled. “Children should obey their mothers, not stomp their feet like petulant children.”
“I’m staying. If you want to leave without me, then leave.” Tace crossed her arms over her chest, not caring if she appeared every inch a child.
“You will pay for your choices.”
Tace’s mother bent forward. A great tearing sound echoed in the room as her skin ripped in two.
Tace jumped backward. The challenge. Her mother had been the challenge the entire time.
Her mother’s body fell to the floor like a discarded piece of clothing. A great horned beast stood in her place, black wings protruding from its back.
“You made the right choice,” it hissed. “But it will leave you marked forever. This is a day you can no longer turn away from. The path only goes toward the final fight. If you take one step off of it, you will perish.”
The beast reached one claw toward Tace.
She stood still, facing her challenge. Part of her screamed inside, urging her to kill it. But another part of her advocated patience.
Its hand wrapped around Tace’s wrist and yanked her close. Putrid breath spilled from its cracked red lips. A small, forked tongue snaked from its mouth and dragged its rough surface from her chin up over her face.
Tace didn’t resist. She’d been forced to defy her beautiful mother, but everything in her said she needed to let this… thing… do whatever it wanted to her.
Her arm began to ache where the first tattoo had appeared. The beast dragged its claw over Tace’s skin, just above the first tattoo, and drew what she knew would be the second.
The beast released her, and through tears of pain, Tace looked down at her arm. Blood dripped from the new marking. It was a rune, two half moons with a wavy line between them, just as Kindara had shown her in the forest weeks ago.
But she saw something else, something puzzling. Her mother’s dragon ring was now on her left index finger. Tace gazed at the dragon’s body, wrapped three times around her finger, the head near her knuckle and the tail at the base of her finger. She touched it, then gently tugged, but the ring didn’t budge.
There was no denying it. Tace was on a path she had chosen, and she’d be damned if she left it now.