Page 141 of Sunsplitter

The aedari smirked. “We’ve not seen a single reincarnateddaeyari here. The beasts force their feral kin far from their home Plane, guard dogs to prevent us getting close.”

A knot tightened in Fi’s stomach. She’d known the derived daeyari were kept away, out in the Contested Planes, less trouble for the mortal territories. She’d never thought of them as fodder to hold back the aedari. A war among immortals called for ruthless action on both sides.

“But you can help us.” Kressyalia turned her most tender yet. “How many daeyari travelled with you? What were they planning?”

Fi chewed her lip.

Of course she was going to lie. Buthowto lie, and not sabotage her daeyari allies? At her hesitance, the aedari’s eyes narrowed.

“It doesn’t matter,” said the other one, Drekanmis. “The dae- yari know we’re here. We can take her with us back to Avarglais. Question her there.”

Fi bit back no less than five curses.

She wasn’t going anywhere with these aedari, especially not a place she’d never heard of. Their home Plane, judging by the familiar way he spoke the name.

Fi had to think fast. She had transport stones in her pockets—useless, would only get her as far as she could throw one. She could Voidwalk an escape, now that her focus was less muddied. But she’d nearly conned these light-feathered fools. She couldn’t run away.

And she knew one carrot the aedarireallywanted…

“You’re looking for the Twilit Plane?” Fi said. “I know where it is. I can show you.”

Both the aedari went as still as gold-plated statues.

“How do you know this?” Kressyalia asked, flat. Only perked ears betrayed her intrigue.

“My daeyari took me. He made me promise never to tell the way to anyone.”

Drekanmis scoffed. “A trick.”

“A trick?” Kressyalia gripped Fi’s chin, fingers tightening with warning pressure. “You wouldn’t try to trick us, little one?”

Fi had worried this world was too big for her.

She couldn’t have been more wrong. She was right in her element.

“I can show you,” Fi pleaded. “Please. Anything to get me away from those creatures.”

They wanted to believe her. Fi saw the hunger in their gilded eyes, that same glimmer of a smuggler about to lay hands on a payout, of a child eyeing a caramel-coated dessert.

“Tell us the way, then,” Kressyalia said.

“I can’t tell you, it’s too complicated. But I can show you.”

“If you’re lying—”

“I can prove it! Right now.” Fi made her eyes so big. She made her voice shake. She didn’t need them to trust her completely.

All she needed was the aedari’s pause, her lips pressed thin in contemplation.

Kressyalia looked to her partner. He returned narrowed eyes. An argument without words. The way they’d bickered with each other, their casual mannerisms, all suggested more than a shallow acquaintanceship. Fi stowed the knowledge in a safe place.

At last, his shoulders slumped with concession.

Kressyalia grinned—baring long canines that hadn’t been there before. Her fingers gripped Fi’s face, too firm.

“Very well, human,” the creature said with honeyed menace. “Prove your worth. Prove what you are willing to give to your new gods. But if you try to deceive us…”

Kressyalia’s tongue tracing across her lips would have beenthreat enough. The memory was fresh and nauseating, how Fi had burned when the other aedari had drunk from her, how her muscles still ached with energy depletion.