Page 217 of The Crown's Awakening
"What do you mean?"
"I mean they are trapped in the high pass."
The words take a moment to become something I can fully hold, and when they do I feel it immediately, a tightening low in my stomach that does not ease.
"They are still here?" I ask. "In Shalvar? In the freezing cold of the mountains?"
Colsar looks away. "Yes."
The answer is quiet but it carries more weight than anything he has said so far. Neither of us speaks. The map behind him stretches across the table, the high pass marked in careful lines that suddenly feel less like ink and more like something living and unresolved.
“I only found out when I got here," he says. "The moment I did, I made the decision. I would bring them back. They come home with us to Veynar. I will not leave them behind."
“So why have you not gotten them yet?” I murmur. "You have the firebirds."
"It is too close to the other warded sectors," he replies. "If I use them there I risk disturbing the wards. If one weakens, even slightly, it opens a path. I am not willing to gamble with that."
"Then send men to retrieve them."
"I can," he says, "but the only way out of the high pass is through our wards. The moment we open them, even for a controlled passage, the undead will follow. It would not be a trickle. It would be a rush straight into Shalvar."
A chill moves through me. "So what do you do?"
"It took time," he says. "More than I wanted. But I built a tunnel beneath the pass. If we can get word to them they can move through it and bypass the wards. Once they are through we seal the entrance before anything can follow."
"And where does it open?"
"At the Yarkavay."
"What is that?"
"An infirmary," he says. "For beasts who cannot defend themselves."
I hold that for a moment, the image forming without effort.
"So you needed builders. Reinforcements. A way to move the wounded. Money to fund it," I say.
"Yes."
"And all of that has taken everything from you."
He does not deny it.
"And you have been doing this while—" I stop myself, but the rest does not need to be spoken.
"While you were recovering," he finishes. "While the children needed me. While Veynar still sat unresolved behind us."
"You should have told me," I say.
"I know."
"You should have let me stand in it with you."
For a moment he simply looks at me, and then something in him gives. “You are right, I should have told you," he says again, quieter now.
"Yes," I answer.
"And I should have been there," he adds.
