No one answered. Everyone, even Eli, was staring at the line of tiny dots on the eastern horizon. Far below, the water on the beach began to churn against the rocky face of the storm wall. Out in the bay, the lines of docked Oseran runners rocked against their moorings as the sea swelled beneath them, the bay’s water pushed aside by the new, enormous current flowing from the east in a perfectly straight line.
CHAPTER
17
Josef gasped as the dark washed over him. This was true dark, not just lightless, but light consuming, and so cold he felt it like a punch all over his body. He couldn’t hear anything, but he could feel the darkness screaming, vibrating against his skin. Panic like he’d never felt began to close over him like a sheet of ice, and he began to sink. The darkness sucked him down like a hungry mouth, screaming and laughing at the same time. Josef couldn’t even move to defend himself, all he could do was sink and wait as the darkness poured down his throat, eating everything it touched.
Just before he was consumed, Nico’s arms tightened on his chest, pulling him back. All at once, the sinking stopped, and his limbs were free. The feeling of motion was so beautiful, Josef almost laughed with joy. Instead, he clung to the familiar realness of Nico’s wiry body with everything he had.
In less than three heartbeats, the light returned.
Josef fell to the ground, clutching his chest. He felt heavy and weak, like he’d been laid up with fever for weeks, and cold like he would never be warm again. He could feel Nico’s hands on him. Her voice was in his ear, asking if he was all right. Josef nodded and reached for the hilt of his sword. The Heart leaped into his hand, and the weakness began to fade. When he was sure he could stand, Josef pushed himself up and looked around.
He recognized the place at once. They were in the hall that ran through the center of the royal guard’s headquarters at the top of the palace. They’d come out next to the barracks door, but the barracks were empty. So was the hall. Josef’s stomach began to sink. This was the heart of the guard. Given the current crisis, it should be crawling with soldiers as the reserves reported in, but the floor was silent. His face set in a grim line, Josef drew the Heart. He turned the sword in his hand, testing the grip in his palm. An echo of power flowed back like a greeting. Josef held the sword close as he tugged open the door to the stairs leading up to the watchtower. Nico fell in behind him, skipping from shadow to shadow.
The stair was a narrow spiral ending at a heavy door that was usually guarded and locked. But there were no guards now, and the heavy door hung open a crack, as though someone had just stepped inside and forgotten to close it. Pressing his body flat against the wall, Josef reached out with his sword, opening the door with the Heart’s blade.
Even though he knew it was coming, the sight of the watchtower stopped him in his tracks. Men lay sprawled on the floor, their white faces still wide with shock above their severed necks. Josef took a quick count. Fifteen bodies, all guardsmen, far too many for the small tower. Josef set his jaw and raised his eyes to the only figure still standing.
Adela stood beside the table where the Council wizard lay slumped in his chair. Her helmet was off, and the dark braid of her hair hung free down her back, which was turned to Josef. For a moment, Josef thought maybe they’d snuck up on her, but before the thought could even finish, Adela turned to face him with a warm smile.
“I told you one day we’d be done pretending.???
Josef cursed. No point in hiding now. “Adela,” he said, stepping fully into the doorway. “Stand down.”
“Little late for that, husband,” Adela said. Her hand moved, and Josef raised his sword, but she wasn’t drawing a weapon. Instead, she held up something small, round, and blue between her fingers.
“What’s that?” Josef said with a sinking feeling.
Adela’s smile widened, and she clenched her hand in a fist. There was a sharp crunch, like an eggshell breaking, and then she opened her hand again, letting broken glass and a tiny amount of water fall to the floor.
“It was a Relay point,” she said, shaking the last drops of water from her fingers. “The last Relay point in Osera.”
Josef stared at her, trying to put words to everything that was going through his mind. But he wasn’t Eli. Words didn’t come easily. In the end, he managed only one.
“Why?”
“Because it is my duty,” Adela said calmly. “And because I have waited my entire life for the day when I could leave this miserable dirt scratch of a kingdom.”
“Duty?” Josef roared. “The queen raised you up from nothing! Defended you and your mother when everyone else wanted you cast out. She made you an Eisenlowe, captain of her guard, and this is how you repay her?” He swung his sword over the dead soldiers. “You have a twisted sense of duty, princess.”
“And what of that matters to me?” Adela sneered. “I serve a higher power than you could ever imagine.” Her voice grew deep and resonant as she spoke, and her eyes lit with a fire Josef had never seen there before. “There is no loyalty except loyalty to the true queen of the world,” she said. “No duty except in her service.”
Josef was beginning to wonder if she might be truly mad. “What are you talking about?”
Adela reached down and drew her short sword with a metallic hiss. Josef braced himself, but she didn’t point the blade at him. Instead, she held the sword in front of her with the flat side facing him. Josef was so busy trying to guess her ploy, he didn’t see the words etched into the metal for several seconds.
Sleepers wake. I am coming.
Josef’s eyes darted from sword to swordswoman. “Who is coming?”
“Who do you think?” Adela laughed, swinging her sword until the point was leveled at the eastern window.
Josef kept his eyes on her, but she made no other moves. Finally, he risked a glance. He had to glance twice before he realized what he was looking at. There, miles out on the line where the Unseen Sea met the sky, the horizon was peppered with tiny dots running north and south as far as he could see.
“Oh yes,” Adela said as the realization broke over his face. “The Immortal Empress is here at last to finish what she started two and a half decades ago.” She brought her sword back around, aiming the point at Josef’s heart. “We are the sleepers,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion. “For years we’ve worked to weaken this island in her name. Now, your country, divided and hollowed by our hands, shall break like rotten fruit when her boats strike the shore.”
“That’s impossible,” Josef said, forcing himself to ignore the rapturous smile on her face and keep his eyes on her sword. “You weren’t even born when the Empress invaded.”
Adela lifted her chin with a haughty sneer. “Loyalty to the Immortal Empress is not constrained by time. Our duty is passed down from mother to child, for generations if need be. We who sleep are called the ever faithful, all of us waiting generation to generation for the day she calls our blade.”
“Loyalty?” Josef shouted. “Faithfulness? You betrayed your country and your queen! You killed your own men, and for what? Loyalty to an Empress you’ve never met?”
“Yes,” Adela said, holding her short sword steady. “And I will be rewarded in ways you cannot comprehend.”
“Not if I can help it,” Josef growled. “Nico, go tell the admiral I have our traitor.”
Nico didn’t even get a chance to respond before Adela started to laugh.
“Go ahead, little girl, it doesn’t matter now. Your kingdom is broken, your queen dying and alone. Her duke, the only man who could have rallied Osera, is dead. Your army is terrified and without leadership, your clingfire, the only weapon against the palace ships, destroyed. And since both Relay points are gone, you can’t even use what little time remains to warn your allies. Now do you understand, prince? Send your girl, it will do no good. Osera has already fallen.”
Josef glowered. “I never picked you for a fool, Adela,” he said. “But I guess I was wrong about that too. Only a fool counts a battle won while the defenders are still standing.”
Adela smirked at him. “Not for long.”
Behind him, Josef felt Nico tense, ready to jump through the shadows and land on Adela’s back. He stopped
