He gave her a steady look. “I suppose it was a good thing I waslocked up when they arrived. Is that what you’re going to say next?”
So he wasn’t ready to forgive her just yet. Even though she’dbeen a little right. Sort of. Tangentially correct. But he wasn’t yelling.Maybe he felt a hint of shame for all the secrets and a soupçon of gratitudethat this attack hadn’t caught them all sleeping.
He peered into a pit until a string of curses came from theoccupant, and then he leaned back. “What in the spirits’ names are we going todo with them?” he muttered.
“Excuse me,” Illis called from the campsite. The others were up,and he pointed at the prison. “Can we let Calla out, too?”
A look of amusement flashed across Gunnar’s face before he raisedan eyebrow at Thana. “Oops,” he said flatly.
She glared and looked to Sylph, who lifted her hands. “I wasawaiting instructions.”
“Please let her out,” Thana said, trying to sound calm.
Calla lunged out of the prison as it collapsed. Dina caught herby the waist and held on as she shouted and raged, arms whirling as if shewanted to swim through the air. “Let me go. I will kill her. I will kill—”
Dina put a hand over her mouth and said something in her ear.
“Making friends wherever you go,” Gunnar mumbled as he strodeback to camp. “Lady Sylph, if you wouldn’t mind, will you keep an eye on ourprisoners until we decide what can be done?”
“My pleasure, Highness.” Her placid mask was back in place, andThana envied her in that moment. She felt as if she was coming out of her skinwith emotion.
Calla had quieted in Dina’s arms, but her shoulders heaved withevery breath, and her pale face had turned nearly purple. She glared at Thana,but if her eyes strayed toward Sylph, they took on a sheen of fear.
Thana couldn’t blame her. Sylph’s stone pyramid shone like a starto her senses and put her even further on edge. “I’m sorry, all right?” Thanasaid. “I couldn’t take chances.”
No one seemed happy with that answer. Ivar cocked his head in thecaptives’ direction. “If they hadn’t come, how long would you have kept us inthere?”
“Until just now,” she lied, gesturing around them. “Dawn. Thatwas always the plan.” She consoled herself with an excuse Gunnar often used:they didn’t need to know any differently.
Illis scratched at his stubble and echoed Gunnar’s earlier words.“What are we going to do with them all?”
Thana frowned. She didn’t know now any more than she had knownbefore, but she promised herself that she wasn’t going to let them be put tothe sword. As far as she was concerned, these pyradistés had good reasons forsome of their actions, reasons the crown and the nobility had to answer for,and anyone who committed murder or other crimes needed to have their timebefore a magistrate.
Gunnar was staring, and she met him look for look. He had to knowshe wouldn’t see a slaughter hidden away, nor would she be willing to ignorethe existence of noble pyradistés. It wasn’t one of the problems the Ordercould erase from history. There were too many lives at stake, too manypyradistés already cold in the ground. And she would protect all she could, noblesor not.
He sighed as if reading her thoughts. “Some of us will take themto Marienne and lock them up. The others will track where these came from andsee if we can figure out what they were up to.”
Thana let out a breath, happy he was still who she’d thought hewas.
* * *
Sylph had never felt so capable in all her life. The pyramid inher hands felt ten times heavier than it was, fit to burst, never mind that thepower wasn’t in its original cursed pyramid. And she felt swollen with power,too, capable of anything now that the world itself was her companion.
Even her father wouldn’t turn his nose up at that. He’d probablymarch on his neighbors and demand they sign over their land, or his daughterwould turn it against them. More than that, he’d eye the throne, seeing thevalue of magic if it could deliver the world.
Literally.
She sighed as she leaned against a tree, watching and ready toact as the Order divested these pyradistés of their meager weaponry and boundthem in a line so they could march back to Marienne. She was tempted to go withthem. She’d be torn between finally securing her father’s approval and encasinghim in stone.
Better to stay put. Neither plan would endear her to the queen.
As for the prince, he kept up a chilly facade. He and Thanatraded several barbs and recriminations, but she couldn’t detect any realmalice, though her ability to deduce emotions was somewhat stunted. By the wayThana smiled at Prince Gunnar when he wasn’t looking and the similarexpressions he made to her back, they remained friends. Sylph wondered how longit would be before they smiled at each other’s faces.
Thana could hurl angry retorts in one moment and dole out kissesin another. Sylph had pushed her often enough to see it, feel it. But Thananever walked away. She cast many a glance Sylph’s way, as good as saying theywould continue to walk the same path, wherever that might lead. After all thatshe had said to Thana, all the nasty little thoughts…
She did not deserve such loyalty.
But she couldn’t flee from it or betray it and not just becauseit felt as warm as a thick blanket on a cold day. A rejection of that loyaltywould break Thana’s heart, and Sylph had to protect her from everyone.
Including Sylph herself.
Calla shuffled up nearby. “What is that?” she asked, resentmentroiling off her like heat off molten rock.
Sylph turned, her mask in place. She didn’t know how to treatthis woman, a noble with a peasant’s power—like her, she admitted—an Umbrielsecret.
“Don’t insult me by saying, ‘It’s a pyramid,’” Calla said,sneering. “I’ve never felt one like it.”
“I don’t know how to explain.” She tried to be patient, but shefelt as tired as everyone else and
