Finnikin of the Rock

fund our journeys sometimes. Convinces the king of Osteria we can be of use if we are traveling around the land unnoticed. I trained with their Guard in exchange for information.'

'You are spies?'

'We collect information.' Finnikin propped himself on his elbow, facing his father. 'Do you get much news from outside? From your Guard or the ambassador?'

Trevanion shook his head. 'Not in the past seven years. My decision, not theirs.'

'What is your theory about the impostor king?' Finnikin asked.

'Puppet to Charyn,' Trevanion replied.

'Good.'

He caught a hint of a smile on Trevanion's face.

'I'm glad I have your approval.'

'It's just that we've always suspected it,' Finnikin said, all of a sudden wanting to talk. 'But it's only been lately that we've heard it spoken aloud.'

He went on to explain to Trevanion their plans for the second Lumatere. He tried to convey the extent of the suffering experienced by the exiles, but could not quite find the words. The slaughter in Sarnak was the hardest to explain. It had been the biggest of the river camps. They suspected that two hundred of their people had died.

'Do you ever wonder if they're better off inside Lumatere?' Finnikin asked.

Trevanion shook his head. 'When I first chose to challenge the king about his Guard and the dragonships, it wasn't only because of the former captain's weakness, Finnikin. It was because of his baseness. I'd heard stories of what he allowed to happen in the palace prison. What he instigated himself.'

And then there was silence. Finnikin studied the hard outlines of his father's face.

'What of the Monts?' Trevanion asked.

'We've seen no trace, but we have a strong suspicion Evanjalin knows where they are.'

'Evanjalin?' his father asked.

'Spawn of the devil,' Finnikin reminded him.

Trevanion grunted. 'When did you last see the Monts?'

'In the Valley of Tranquillity,' Finnikin said quietly. 'Saro moved his people out there in the days before the curse. Almost the moment they heard the queen was dead.'

He thought of the horror of that day. Of the grief of the queen's mother, the yata of the Mont people, wailing, 'My pretty babies. Where are my pretty babies?' Many had walked away or pressed their hands against their ears to block out the sound of her anguish, but Lucian had not left his grandmother's side. And from a distance, Finnikin had kept his vigil with the Mont.

Trevanion spoke only once more that night.

'The girl,' he said.

'Evanjalin?'

'She has my mother's name.'

Chapter 8

A week after his arrest, Finnikin spent his first day in the outside world. It was a relief to be able to breathe, despite the fact that he was shackled to five of the most vicious humans he had ever encountered. The guards saw to it that every inmate who worked outside the mines was a foreigner. If escape became a reality, the guards knew the prisoners would be at the mercy of a kingdom that despised outsiders and would soon find themselves back in the mines. Or, worse still, hanging from a tree.

When the head guard gave Finnikin an instruction to pass on to the others, he was instantly confronted with snarls and bared teeth.

'They despise with a passion those who interpret,' Trevanion murmured. 'They consider them spies for the guards.'

And so Finnikin endured one of the longest days of his life. The menacing prisoners attached to him took every opportunity to tug the chain around his neck, causing it to chafe his skin. Or to drop rocks of considerable weight on his feet. Or yank his foot shackles so he found himself flat on his face on cold hard stone. When he picked himself up for the tenth time, he was shaking with rage.

The moment they reached the caves and his shackles were removed, Finnikin launched himself at the Osterian prisoner until both had blood pouring from their noses. The three hundred pounds of pure ugliness and fury held Finnikin's head under his arm, while the guards stood by and watched. If there was one thing they enjoyed, it was the sight of the inmates trying to tear each other apart. Then Trevanion become involved and suddenly blood flew in every direction.

'I can handle this,' Finnikin hissed, jumping onto the Osterian and pressing the side of the man's face into the wall as hard as he could. When the Osterian looked like he was ready to pound a fist into Finnikin's temple, Finnikin remembered how Trevanion had bitterly recounted Evanjalin's words. What needs to be done.

'We're going to break out,' he whispered into the man's ear in Osterian, before he bit part of it off and spat it out. 'Interested in joining us?'

By the time the guards dragged the inmates off each other, Finnikin had also recruited the Yut, the Sarnak, the Belegonian, and the Charynite. Although there was no honor among these men, there was a hierarchy of hate, and they despised the Sorelians first and foremost.

'You're making my hair turn white,' Trevanion muttered later, when they were alone in their cage.

'That would be your old age,' Finnikin replied, trying to stretch out the aches and pains in every joint in his body.

'You fight well. Like the Yuts.'

'We lived in the grasslands for a year when I was fourteen.'

'And you needed to fight?'

'They mocked my accent. And of course you can't have hair my color and not learn how to fight in any kingdom.'

'Your mother had that hair. Would take my breath away every time I saw her.'

Finnikin was surprised to hear Trevanion speak of a memory so painful. He wondered about a man having lost not just one but two women in his life. Both having died giving birth to his children.

'You'd be best to tie a kerchief around your head and keep your hair hidden. It draws attention.'

Finnikin's hair had not been cut for months and was beginning to snag and knot in wild tangles around his shoulders.

Later, as they lay in the dark, he could feel his father's eyes on him and he wondered if he was just as much a stranger to his father as Trevanion was to him.

'So are your new friends all in?' Trevanion asked dryly.

'They seem to be. But I can't promise they won't snap our necks the moment they're free.'

'Tell them this. You will pick a fight with me to bring the guards as close as possible. If we are lucky, there will be five, like most days. Then I go for the guard with the keys, and at the same time you take on the second guard. The first few moments are crucial, so we need to be quick. Two swords, five seconds. The Yut at the end uses his hand chains—grabs hold of his guard's sword and makes himself useful. Do not trust the Charynite or the Sarnak with the keys or a sword. If worse comes to worst, use them as a shield.'

'The Charynite and the Sarnak? Human shields?'

'They would do the same to us in the blink of an eye.'

'But you never use your own side as human shields.'

'This won't be a war, Finnikin,' his father said coldly. 'It will be an execution.'

* * *

Sir Topher woke with a start. A muffled sound came from the corner of the loft. He listened for a moment, and when he was satisfied it was only Evanjalin tossing restlessly in her sleep, he closed his eyes with the same heaviness of heart he had felt these past four nights. Until he heard a scream, hoarse, as if the girl was fighting for