Page 78 of The Iron Hex

Commander Hugo’s notes were a frantic scrawl:Who are they taking? What is the Rot? Does this have to do with the farmland being destroyed in the midlands? Is this where Saoirse went?

Rhona’s mouth went dry at Saoirse’s name—one of the few other women in the Iron Retinue, she had disappeared before the commander had left. No one had seen her.

“Does that say Saoirse?” Maeve said, peeking around Rhona’s arm to read the note.

“Do you know Sir Saoirse?” Rhona said, looking at Maeve, a feeling not far from jealousy rippling through her and settling in her stomach. Maeve had reacted the last time Rhona had mentioned Saoirse too...

Maeve looked up at her, dark eyes questioning if she should answer. “Saoirse was my other... friend,” she finally said.

Rhona stepped back—Saoirse had been harboring a witch? Under all of their noses? She supposed it was hypocritical to be upset about the very thing she was doing right now, but she found herself reacting as if she’d been betrayed nonetheless.

“The one who just... disappeared from your visions, like she died, but different?” Rhona asked.

“Yes,” Maeve answered, her voice thick with concern. “Rhona, we absolutely need to find that gilded bull archway. Being in here... seeing this letter. I think these were all flashes of one of my visions. The gilded bull archwayhasto be the next thing we find.”

“What happens after the archway?” Rhona asked. Why couldn’t Maeve give more solid clues?

“It’s... nothingness. I have no idea why.” Maeve shook her head in clear frustration.

Just as Rhona was about to voice her confusion, she heard the familiar sound of plate-armored soldiers walking down the hallway. She quickly grabbed Maeve, pulling her tight to her chest before pressing them both against the wall behind the door.

Rhona squeezed her eyes shut, hands pressed to the hard stone walls behind her.Don’t make a sound.She willed the witch to hear her thoughts, though she was fairly certain that wasn’t at all how Maeve’s magic worked. The voices grew louder and then faded as the knights walked through the hallway without even pausing to look at the ajar door that was meant to be fully closed.

Rhona slowly opened her eyes to see Maeve with her full and bouncy curls spread around her face as her head pressed back against the wall, looking up at her. Rhona felt the urge to brush her fingers over the lady’s soft lips, to sink her hands into those curls, to maybe even... No.

“Quick thinking,” Maeve smiled, pecking Rhona on the cheek quickly before ducking under her arm. “But we shouldgo. You have an archway to search for, and I have a gossip session to get to.”

Rhona wasn’t entirely sure how Maeve managed to recover from stressful situations like the one they’d just been in so terrifyingly quickly, but she was in awe of the woman as they walked out of the hallway with as much care and quiet as they could muster.

39

Eira

Eira had no idea just how quickly it became dangerously cold once you headed into Astra’s mountains, but she was swiftly learning that it became frigidfast. She shivered on Arthur’s back, her hands going numb through her leather gloves as they rode as hard as they could along the snowy path toward Luwha. The mountains were more than beautiful; they were imposing and breathtaking, and she had never expected to see them in her life. Except... had she already?

“Evangeline,” she called forward, teeth chattering through her words. “Did I ever come to the mountains before?”

“I could also have answered that,” Hugo said, his horse in stride with her, concern in his eyes.

Eira had started to wonder if getting involved with Hugo was going to make him more protective of her... until she remembered that had, quite literally, been his job for nearly a decade, so there probably wasn’t much she could do to deter those instincts. He wasn’t going to bemoreprotective; he already was as protective as Eira thought might be humanly possible.

“I wanted Evangeline to answer,” Eira shivered.

Evangeline turned her black horse as she waited for Eira. If Eira had learned anything already about her forgotten friend, it was that Evangeline didn’t yell.

“I actually brought you up to Iceport when my family had a meeting with the Osnians once,” Evangeline said, falling into a trot on the other side of Eira.

“So, I have seen the mountains?” Eira asked, crinkling her nose in frustration. “I was hoping I hadn’t. I didn’t feel any sort of familiarity, so I was hoping there was just nothing behind the locked memory door.”

“I mean,” Evangeline exhaled, her breath visible in the winter air, “I don’t think you’ve ever seen them this close?”

Eira pondered whether or not that made her feel better; she decided it did.

After another hour of riding, the sun fell below the mountains and Hugo directed them to a small cave where they would be protected from the wintery winds to camp for the night.

Eira flicked her fingers at the kindling in the firepit they’d made, her eyes closed. Ever since that little girl had summoned fire, there had been an almost all-consuming thought in Eira’s head—could she summon fire too? She snapped and snapped and snapped and felt no warmth on her fingers, no fire jumping from her hand into the firepit.

“Maybe I’m not meant for fire magic,” she said, opening her eyes and leaning back as Hugo lit a match and set the tinder on fire the traditional way. Perhaps there was a limit to what the Flow would allow her to do.