“Where do you think our armies are now?” I asked.
“The armies should be at New Haven or even Whitebridge by now,” he told me. “They’d be three to four days out.” His head tilted as he eyed me. “If we don’t return to Three Rivers when we told Valyn, they’ll come looking.”
I nodded.
“How far were you able to communicate with Delano through the notam?”
“Pretty far. He was able to contact me from the Wastelands once, but I don’t think I could reach him this far out.”
“I don’t think so either.” He looked at the window. “But Carsodonia can’t be much bigger than the distance between the Wastelands and Pompay, is it?” Kieran turned to me. “What if he was able to get close to the Rise?”
I stared at the massive wall that loomed in the distance. “I could reach him.”
Sometime later, I stood, blank eyes staring at me from shiny, porcelain faces neatly lined up along the shelves on one side of the wardrobe.
“Please close that door,” Kieran said from behind me.
“Scared of dolls?”
“More like I’m scared of those dolls stealing my soul.”
A wry grin tugged at my lips as I closed the door. I’d been snooping, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. I still had my wolven dagger on me, but they’d stripped Kieran’s and Reaver’s weapons. I’d offered Kieran the blade, but he’d refused. Neither of them was defenseless, but it would’ve made me feel better if he had taken the dagger.
“Did you actually play with them as a child?” Kieran stared at the closed wardrobe as if he expected a doll to crack open the door and stick its head out.
“I did.” Turning to him, I leaned against the wardrobe.
“That explains a lot.”
I rolled my eyes. “She…Isbeth used to give me one every year on the first day of summer until they sent me to Masadonia. I used to think they were beautiful.”
Kieran’s lip curled. “They are terrifying.”
“Yeah, but their faces were smooth and flawless.” I touched the scar running along my now-warm cheek. “Mine obviously wasn’t, so I pretended I looked like them.”
His features softened. “Poppy…”
“I know.” My entire face felt like it was on fire. “It was silly.”
“I wasn’t going to say it was silly—”
A loud bang sounded on the gilded doors a second before they swung open.
It was her.
The Handmaiden.
Millicent sauntered into the chambers, her long-sleeved black tunic was without any adornment and ended at the knees, just above tightly laced boots. The winged mask was painted onto her face once more, this time in black. The contrast to her pale eyes was startling.
“Good evening.” Millicent clapped her hands together as three Handmaidens entered behind her. They were dressed similarly, but they wore loose cowls that covered their heads and their mouths, leaving only their painted masks visible. Two of them had those nearly colorless blue eyes. One had brown. Something struck me then. It was possible that not all Handmaidens were Revenants, but it was clear that not all had those pale blue eyes. My mother…she’d had brown eyes.
“Glad to see you up and moving about.” Millicent tipped her head at Kieran, and her hair caught my attention. It was a flat, midnight-black, but it looked…patchy and faded in areas. “Told you she’d be right as rain in a day or two…and a half.”
I pushed off the wardrobe, immediately reaching out to read her. My senses brushed against a wall, sending a flare of annoyance through me. She was blocking me. “What was that toxin?”
“Something scraped from the insides of some creature.” One shoulder rose. “It would’ve killed an Atlantian. Definitely a mortal. Only one guard carried those arrows. You know, as an insurance policy in case you wanted to continue on your godly Harbinger of Doom warpath.”
“If you continue calling me a Harbinger, I will likely restart that godly warpath.”
Millicent laughed, but the sound was nothing like the one on the road. It rang falsely. “I would strongly advise against that. Everyone is on edge right now, especially after the missive the Crown received.”
“What missive?”
“The Crown got word that New Haven and Whitebridge have fallen under Atlantian control,” she told us. “And we expect Three Rivers to be seized at any moment.”
Vonetta and the generals were right on schedule. I smiled.