Byrd stared at him.
“Just leave me here, man. I need a second to bask in not dying.”
The goblin shook his head and went to join Lumil, who was pacing in front of the line of prisoners.
“Did I hear you say something about calling in a special cleanup team?”
Cheyenne glared at her father as he moved casually toward her, his hands clasped behind his back. The kneeling prisoners had given up screaming in lieu of whimpering and moaning, hanging their heads as they sagged where they’d been left in the clearing. “What did you do to them?”
“No one can know I’m with you, Cheyenne.” He shot her a sidelong glance before his gaze flickered back toward the prisoners. “Not until it’s time.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“About what?”
“Murdering these prisoners after they’ve been captured.” Cheyenne’s anger burned through her veins alongside her drow magic. “I just made a promise to Maleshi I seriously hope I won’t have to keep.”
L’zar chuckled softly and closed his eyes. “I’m not killing anyone. Not right now, at any rate.”
“So, what did you do?”
He turned to his daughter and gestured at the prisoners. “We now have a few dozen deaf, mute, and blind loyalists to hand over to your friends in black. I sincerely hope they’re more competent than they’ve proven to be so far.”
“What?” Cheyenne stared at the moaning loyalists kneeling in a neat, submissive line.
“It might have been better for them if you’d let General Hi’et do things her way, but you made your choice.”
“This isn’t okay.” The halfling shook her head, clenching her fists as she ran through all the possibilities of what was in store for the loyalists. “You might have killed them anyway, just on a longer timeline.”
“Not at all. They’ll regain what they’ve lost once they set foot in their homeland again.”
“How are they gonna make the crossing if they can’t see, huh?”
“Well, that’s something someone else will have to deal with, isn’t it?” L’zar met her gaze again. “You took responsibility for these magicals when you stayed Maleshi’s hand. The general has thousands of years of experience in weighing the pros and cons, Cheyenne, and there’s a singular truth in all of this that she’s come to understand very well. And she’s not the only one.”
“Oh, yeah?” The halfling gave him a tight-lipped smile of disapproval. “What’s that?”
“Everything comes with a price.”
A cold wave of disbelief washed over her body. No fucking way have L’zar and Bianca been comparing notes. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. It’s time for you to learn how that applies to the way we do things from here on out. The way we handle this war and hopefully stop it in its tracks before the real cost must be paid.”
“And what about the cost of you disappearing when we got attacked? You went off and hid in the woods while the rest of us put our necks out there to protect the others you invited here.” When her father didn’t reply or even acknowledge her, Cheyenne leaned toward him and muttered, “How many of your loyal rebels know they’re following a coward?”
“Like I said, no one can know I’m with you.” L’zar raised a thin bone-white eyebrow, then nodded toward Ember. “Right now, I’m much more interested in what happened with your Nós Aní. That portal she closed was a direct line to Ambar’ogúl.”
Cheyenne glared after him as he walked across the clearing. Tuning out the low moans of the prisoners behind her, she headed stiffly toward Ember and the rest of their group, who had gathered around her. When Ember saw her coming, a burst of violet light lifted her from the grass and deposited her in the wheelchair Persh’al pushed quickly toward her.
The clearing was thick with a tense silence. Then Ember gazed at the faces of those staring at her and shrugged. “Anyone wanna tell me what the hell just happened?”
“You had your first taste of what’s possible as Cheyenne’s Nós Aní,” Corian said with a small nod. “And that awakened what looks like a large portion of your magic, if not most of it.”
“Yeah, I figured that part out on my own. I’m talking about the portal, or rather the big one. Who was that?”
L’zar glanced at Cheyenne and cocked his head. “That portal opened straight from the other side, Ember.”
“What?” The fae looked at Cheyenne for answers, but the halfling could only shrug and shake her head. “How is that even possible?”
“With a lot of magic the Crown shouldn’t be able to use.” L’zar lifted his chin and looked first at Corian, then at Persh’al. “Looks like we were on the right track. The Crown’s now siphoning magic from the land and her subjects, which means we have even less time than I thought.”
Cheyenne swallowed. “Because now she knows about Ember.”
“Now she knows.” Corian nodded. “A child of L’zar’s who’s passed the trials and been bound to a Nós Aní is more of a threat than she imagined possible. The Crown will redouble her efforts to stop you, and she’ll be expecting you to take the next step.”
Cheyenne snorted. “That stupid coin.”
“What she won’t expect is to find me at your side, Cheyenne.” L’zar dipped his head in concession. “If we can contain things long enough for Corian and me to finish what we started.”
The halfling waited for either of them to offer more information on that little nugget. When they didn’t, she spread her arms. “Care to share what that is?”
“We need to get L’zar across the Border without alerting the Crown,” Corian muttered. “She’s had hundreds of years to perfect her methods for keeping him out of Ambar’ogúl.”
“That’s one hell of a security
