Page 112 of Reap & Sow

“Then run away, Kit’rath. My life is too short to waste it on cowards.”

He stiffened. Slowly, mechanically, he let her go. Stood back and looked down at her with an expression as featureless and blank as a fresh field of snow.

Kit burst into a riot of black mist that stirred Eda’s hair, and a sleek crow flew straight through the open door.

As brief and breathtaking as a comet, he was gone.

Twenty-nine

Eda couldn’t bear returning to that bedchamber. She set about lighting a fire in the solar instead, hoping to banish the chill and the dark. A costly expense to light hearths so often. But not hers.

Ben hovered in the doorway. “Whose house is this?”

“I don’t know.”

He wordlessly took the tinderbox and flint. Sparks caught and flamed with only two good strikes.

There was nothing much they could do until sundown, when Eda would meet with Tenelle. It didn’t stop her feeling restless to know her brother was ailing, and autumn harvest growing ever closer. She sensed it in Ben, too, as he prodded excessively at the logs in the fire.

Eda’s mouth ran dry. The last time I saw him with a fire poker, he was beating a man to death with it. Ben must have thought the same, for he paused and stared at his own hand as though it were a stranger to him. “Remind me why meeting with Commander Tenelle is a good idea?” he said.

She recounted her run-in with Fane and Tenelle as succinctly as she could, knowing that if she paused for breath Ben would rage at her foolhardy choices.

But he only listened in silence as he took off his cloak, hanging it over a chair to dry. He was wearing the same ill-fitting Blade uniform beneath, cleaner than the last time she’s seen him. The matching silver sword was looped clumsily through his belt. He propped that up, too, and ran fingers through his damp hair. It was a subconscious action that both her brothers shared.

Eda thought of Lawrie and wanted to cry.

When she finished, Ben loosed a shaky breath. “So, if Lich’s mirror is destroyed…”

“Then Mr. Night’s only way home is through our mirror. There’s no way he’ll just stand aside and let it be destroyed.”

“And the Blades have it.”

There was furniture in the solar—a glossy coffer, a walnut bench, two padded chairs set around a refreshments table—but neither she nor Ben made use of them. They sat instead on the horsehair rug within the glow of the fire, warmth settling into stiff bones.

Eda said, “Tenelle agreed to the plan. I destroy Lich’s Gateway, and she’ll use the remaining mirror to expose the bishop publicly at the Clerics’ Conclave. With enough Blades there, it’d be the perfect chance to draw out Mr. Night.”

“You think she’ll want to risk drawing the fury of a demon on her soldiers?”

“It’s her duty to protect this city from the demonic. She’s no coward.” Eda had to hope that was enough.

Ben grimaced. “A lot of hypothesizing.”

“It’s all we’ve got.”

“You know that tomorrow isn’t just the Conclave? It’s autumn harvest. If Mr. Night isn’t killed by sundown—”

“It’s all we’ve got,” she said again forcefully.

He rubbed his eyes. “Tenelle’s happy enough to let you do the dirty work. What’s her plan, if you fail in destroying Lich’s mirror? If you’re caught?”

“I doubt she’d care overmuch if Lich caught me, so long as I destroyed his Gateway first. And if I don’t manage it…I’m not sure. Maybe she’d finally storm his bloody rat warren and do it herself. But using me keeps her nose clean, doesn’t it?” Eda pressed her forehead to her knees. “This would have been so much easier with Kit’s help.”

“We don’t need him.”

“We?”

“You don’t actually think I’d let you do this alone.”