But the stranger would not fall.
Blood poured down her chest, and her face was a scorched ruin, but she remained on her feet. Before Thorn could back away, the woman grabbed her broken arm. The pain was excruciating, and Thorn almost dropped Steel. Marshalling her strength, Thorn slashed at the woman’s arm. She felt Steel slice through muscle, and her opponent released her.
Unfortunately, the burned woman wasn’t alone. Thorn sensed the motion behind her just in time, and the stone that would have crushed her skull merely struck her in the back. Nonetheless, the raw force of the blow knocked Thorn to her knees, and she could feel blood flowing down her back. Her one solace was the fact that the scorched woman had fallen along with her. Blood was bubbling at the woman’s throat, and it seemed that she was finally succumbing to her injuries. But there was no time to savor this victory.
Thorn rolled to the side, gritting her teeth against the pain when her broken arm struck the floor. The raging man’s rock smashed against the floor, and before he could draw back for another blow, Thorn drew her blade across his legs, severing the rigid tendons. He might be impervious to pain, but his fury couldn’t help him stand on crippled legs, and he collapsed beside her. He pushed himself up on one arm, twisting around, and for the first time, Thorn had a really good look at his face. What she saw surprised her. It wasn’t the savage fury she’d expected; instead, there was a terrible hunger in his eyes, a desperate sorrow. He drew back the stone, preparing to hurl it at Thorn’s face, but she was faster. Steel pierced his wrist, and the bloodstained rock fell from his hand and clattered against the floor. The man, teeth bared, lunged at Thorn as Steel returned to her hand. Her thrust caught him under the chin and drove Steel up through his skull. He shuddered and finally lay still.
The third man should have finished her.
He was a dwarf, with insects crawling in his matted beard and the same lost look in his eyes. His club was a shard of Cannith hardened glass, tough as stone, already raised over his head. Steel was trapped in the corpse of Thorn’s last foe, and her own injuries had sapped her speed. She didn’t have the time to parry or the strength to roll away.
But the blow never fell. The dwarf stood over Thorn, an instant away from the finishing blow… frozen.
“Well, do something.”
Through the haze of pain, it took Thorn a moment to recognize the voice. Drego. His words were enough to break Thorn from her stupor. She reached out. Her hand locked onto the dwarf’s leg. This time, the rage came more easily, even for this stranger. The pure, visceral hatred flowed through her, washing away her pain. Fire coursed through her veins, but this was a comforting, cleansing heat. The feral dwarf fell to the ground as the sensation faded, and Thorn pushed herself up, using both her arms. She was weak, exhausted… but her broken arm and shattered ribs were whole again. Just like in the battle with Sorghan, and with Toli in Droaam. She’d torn away her enemy’s lifeforce and used it to preserve her own life.
“I’m impressed, beloved.” Drego’s voice seemed to come from all around her, a whisper flowing around her head. “How much of you remains, beneath this ghost?”
Ghost? Thorn tried to form the words, but she had no strength left. She fell to the ground, and exhaustion drew her down into darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY — FOUR
Fallen Lharvion 21, 999 YK
A chill gripped the air, and the stone felt cold against Thorn’s cheek. It took a moment for her to get her bearings. There was no pain. Whatever injuries she had suffered had been healed. But she was stretched out on the hard floor, and Steel wasn’t in her hand.
She opened her eyes And saw the skull. It towered over her. Each of the curved teeth lining its vicious maw was longer than her forearm. She could have crawled inside one of the vast eyesockets. Bone, teeth, and the curving horns atop the skull were all as black as basalt. Disoriented as she was, it took Thorn a moment to recognize it for what it was: the skull of a dragon. She stared at it, puzzled.
As consciousness returned, Thorn realized that she’d been moved. She wasn’t in the passage in Fallen. She was lying on the floor of a vast cavern. Or was it a cavern at all? Now she could see that it wasn’t stone beneath her. It was glass or crystal, dark purple in color. As if the entire chamber had been carved from a massive Khyber dragonshard. Even as this information clicked into place, she realized something else. She was naked.
A voice echoed through the room. Drego. “So this is where you keep them. It’s touching.”
Thorn’s first thought was to cover herself, but she pushed it from her mind. She’d been a soldier before she became a spy, and on the battlefield, privacy was a luxury. It was anger that drew her to her feet. “Where are you?” she snarled.
“Here.” Now the source of the sound was easier to track. He was standing just behind the enormous dragon skull. “Just admiring your collection.”
She stalked around the skull, armored in her fury. What she found was enough to break her angry resolve. Drego had his back to her. The wall before him was covered with niches, scores of alcoves of various sizes. Each alcove held a skull, and for a moment it seemed that the sightless sockets were all glaring at Thorn. The bones came from creatures of many races. The polished, slender skull of an elf sat alongside the remnants of a human skull that had been split apart by a blade. A narrow silver crown sat atop the shattered remains. Drego was examining what appeared to be the skull of a massive tiger, though there were certain elements of jaw and skull that seemed more human than bestial.
“He’s certainly seen better days,” Drego said, resting a hand on the skull of the great beast. He glanced back at Thorn and smiled. “You, on the other hand, look lovelier than ever.”
Thorn didn’t return the smile. “What is this place? And what have you done with my clothes, you twisted bastard?”
Drego laughed. “There’s no knots in my lineage, I assure you of that. As for your clothing, it’s just waiting for you to claim it.”
He pointed. Following his gesture, Thorn saw the gown standing just beyond the skull, supported in midair as if worn by an invisible woman. The red silk was the color of wet blood, set against panels of black so deep it seemed more like shadow than silk. Long gloves of red leather rose almost to the shoulder, seemingly filled by unseen flesh. She’d seen it before. In her dreams.
“This isn’t real,” she murmured.
“Perhaps,” Drego said. “Or perhaps this is the one thing that is real. Don’t you want to see how it fits?”
“No,” Thorn turned back to him. “Who are you, really? What is this place?”
“I may be the only friend you truly have,” Drego told her, running his fingers along the top of the tiger’s skull. “And this is a place you carry within.”
“If you’re such a great friend, give me answers instead of questions.”
Thorn knew that she couldn’t trust anything in this place, but the man was a perfect match to Drego-from the gleam in his eye to his mischievous grin. “Perhaps I could. But you aren’t asking the right questions.”
It’s a dream, she reminded herself. Punching him won’t solve anything.
“Oh?” she said. “What should I ask?”
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I know the answer to that,” she said. “Nyrielle Tam. Thorn, of the King’s Dark Lanterns.”
“That’s two answers,” Drego said. “You began as one. You became the other. And how did that happen?”
It was a surreal conversation to be having, all the more so while surrounded by skulls. But if it was a dream, there was no reason to hide from it. “My father.”
“How so?”
Memories rolled through Thorn’s mind. The few images of her mother, before she’d returned to Aerenal. Her father, dressed in his red cloak and armor. And the man who came to tell her of father’s death. “He was a hero,” she said. “He loved Breland, and he died for it. Breland is part of us. And in the service to the king… I guess it just seemed like the only way to be close to him again.”
Drego brushed an imaginary tear from his cheek. “And so we know how Nyrielle became Thorn. But what
