I glanced over my shoulder. Commotion stirred in the distance. Probably just the festival debauchery going on too long—but I was still conscious of how long I’d been gone.
“Go,” the Sightmother said, as if sensing my concern. “You have our faith and our Sisterhood, Sylina.”
She paused at that sentence, as if to let it sink in—as if she knew, even over this distance, that I needed to hear it. I would never admit that I did, never show her that insecurity. But of course, she saw it anyway.
I bowed my head. “Yes, Sightmother. May the threads guide you.”
I severed my connection to the Keep, rose, shook off my now dirty, wet skirt, and retreated back to the camp.
12
The next night, the vampires were sluggish and slow to rise. Erekkus looked like a corpse when he dragged himself into my tent not long past nightfall.
I laughed the moment he revealed himself. In response, he shot me an acidic glare, punctuated with a sarcastic sneer.
“I can see that face,” I said. “Don’t you know that by now?”
“Oh, I know, Sister. Just like you can see my shame, too, apparently.”
I made an exaggerated sound of sympathy. “Poor little thing. Overindulged? Is it the blood that makes you look like that, or the wine?”
He grumbled something wordless, then jabbed a finger at me. “You got me in a hell of a lot of trouble with Atrius, you know that? I told you to stay put.”
I shrugged. “Everyone else seemed to be having fun,” I said innocently. “Why can’t I?”
“Because if there’s one thing the Arachessen are known for,” he muttered, dripping with sarcasm, “it’s fun.”
I almost chuckled at that one. He wasn’t wrong. I loved my Sisters, but they could be… a stoic bunch.
“I’m not an Arachessen, remember. Maybe I was just so much fun I got myself kicked out.”
Erekkus, despite his obvious misery, actually made an expression resembling a smile at that.
“I’ll remember that,” he said, “and challenge you to prove it the next time there’s wine around.”
I returned his smile despite myself. “I might be moved to accept it.”
I was a little surprised to see Erekkus that day, actually. Atrius had seemed so unhappy to see me wandering around the night before that I thought he’d fire Erekkus as my bodyguard. But no—apparently Atrius still trusted Erekkus, because he remained my companion, and I had to admit I liked that. In part, because he was talkative enough to get information from. But I found I also just enjoyed the chattiness.
We packed up camp and traveled over the next week, venturing closer to Alka as the crescent moon approached. Then, several hours’ travel from the city, we stopped again, shielded from the city by the rocky cliffs. Because of the steep, mountainous terrain, we were able to get quite close to the city while still remaining hidden—though no doubt Aaves, Alka’s warlord king, had some inkling that Atrius was coming for him.
This was, however, the only advantage offered by Alka’s terrain. The roads from here were narrow and steep, making it difficult to move thousands of soldiers at once and forcing them into a chokepoint that would make them easy to target with snipers—or, more likely, a bunch of drunken maniacs with oil-fueled firebombs. Beyond the mountain passes, the city was broken up into tall, isolated islands, connected by a series of difficult-to-navigate, poorly maintained bridges.
It was challenging. But Atrius, I’d learned, didn’t back down from a challenge.
Here, we stopped and waited. Erekkus was called away from me for the first time since the festival night. No matter where we went, my tent was always beside Atrius’s, separated slightly from the rest of the group. With Erekkus gone, I sat against the cloth wall of my tent, on the side closest to Atrius’s, and reached out for their presences.
I couldn’t make out their words, but I could sense their intentions. Half a dozen people gathered in Atrius’s tent, and as always, Atrius’s presence overwhelmed then all. They were tense and serious. Every so often, the energy would rise—in arguments, I thought—and then would immediately fall back into quiet with a single soft-spoken word from Atrius.
They were strategizing. Determining their approach.
Hours later, Erekkus left the tent and strode back toward mine. Curiously, another presence I didn’t recognize joined him. I moved away from the wall quickly, settling onto my bedroll and looking thoroughly bored by the time he opened the flap.
“You should knock,” I said. “You might’ve seen something you didn’t want to see.”