Oathbreaker ch. 10.6 - Gallow and Wynn (REVISED) (Patreon)

The explosions and ensuing fire had been seen from the town walls, and by the time I’d made it back to the gates there were already teams riding out to make sure it didn’t spread to the fields. I reported first to the gate captain, then to Ser Moonbrand, then to the Empress herself, who paced around her solar in irritation as I repeated my account.

“Marion assassins,” she spat. “It’s just like the last war. They were carrying some kind of alchemical, you say?”

“Powerful,” I said with a nod. “And contained in a small, agile package. They could be deadly on a battlefield. Or off of one.”

I’d spent the hours since the attack imagining the implications. Those birds could be sent through castle windows, precisely target commanders, cause terror in heavily populated settlements. I’d been lucky. If Alaster and his sister hadn’t put my guard up…

“You handled it well enough alone,” Kaia noted. She stood by the door, apparently back in the Empress’s personal confidence.

I shrugged. “It was a relatively clumsy attack. We’ll have to assume the assassin will learn from it and be more dangerous next time.”

Rosanna bit at her thumbnail. “We need countermeasures. All these new weapons coming out of the west…”

“I don’t know if it did come out of the west,” I said. “We have people who can make alchemical weapons and Marions right here in the continent. Talsyn used them extensively.”

Rosanna’s pacing brought her to the window, where she paused to stare out over the dale. “We have good reason to believe that House Vyke and its allies were being funded by continental interests. Why do you think Markham was negotiating with dignitaries from Bantes?”

“He wanted confirmation?” I guessed. “And to catch up on the resources our enemies have been using.”

“Auratic Art isn’t as strong beyond Urn,” Rosanna said. “But they’ve fashioned horrible new weapons to compensate. Homonculi, chimera, powders and metals.” She turned to look at me, and her expression was grave. “Markham believes it’s only a matter of time before we face invasion.”

Those words put a coldness in me. “We have the Choir.”

“Do we? You told me that some of them were abetting the Crowfriars. And the Elf Queen is Choir.”

“Only an honorary member,” I said quietly, discomforted by this line of thought. Rosanna had never been as pious as her husband, but this bordered on blasphemy. That was a droplet in the lake for me, but for her…

Kaia and I exchanged worried looks. The First Sword seemed to have similar thoughts to mine.

In the corner of the room, a maidservant held Josric, Rosanna’s youngest son. She bounced and cooed to the infant, who was trying to grab at the woman’s hair. Darsus was there too, seated on a chair by the fireplace and looking worried because we were worried. Suddenly, he leapt from his seat and darted to his mother to bury his face in her skirts. She put a hand on his black hair and another on his shoulder, holding him close.

I watched my queen glance between her children, saw the fear settle in her regal features. She was imagining little birds of fire and death coming for them, I knew.

Kaia spoke in an uncharacteristically soft voice. “Marion handlers aren’t so common. My guess is that there’s only a single assassin, and they won’t be far. Moonbrand already has patrols out looking for them. We won’t let anything get close to you, Amaranta.”

Rosanna nodded slowly, her gaze distant. She seemed to take in my appearance for the first time. I was disheveled, my fine clothes ruined and covered in soot. “Are you alright?” She asked me.

I hid my smile. Once, she wouldn’t have thought to ask me that. “I’m fine.”

I had not told her about the Mabsworn. I still wasn’t sure what to do about them, and I’d ordered them to keep clear of the castle. In truth, I’d mostly accepted their offer of service because it seemed the best way to prevent them from being a problem.

Rosanna’s pale, pretty face hardened. “I want to just send you out to slay everything that threatens us. But I don’t know what threatens us. Demons, conspiracies from foreign lands, dark sorcerers… I feel as though we’re being besieged by shadows.”

That’s probably exactly what the enemy wants us to feel, I thought.

In a more thoughtful tone she said, “Why did they only attack you? From your report, there was a small flock of these explosive puppets. They could have attacked the castle or hit you in the town while you were at your ease.”

I’d wondered that as well, but didn’t have an answer for her. “Well, Moonbrand has the garrison as ready for further trouble as it can be, and we have patrols all across the countryside. If this is the vanguard of some larger attack, they won’t find us with our drawers down.”

Darsus giggled at that. It was a sound none of us had heard from the little boy for some time. Kaia grinned, and Rosanna’s expression softened.

“Now there’s a thing,” a dry voice said. “A dead boy who can still laugh at crude turns of phrase.”

Several things happened at once. The maid let out a gasp of surprise. I put myself between Rosanna and the prince, my dagger in my fist, even as she shielded her son with her own body. Kaia’s heavy curved Alheidi sword came into her hand in a hiss of steel and leather. The man seated on the chair Darsus had previously occupied put his hands up.

“Please,” he said with a touch of strain. “I’m not here to fight.”

He was a portly, middle-aged man with thinning hair and the lazy eyes of a well-fed cat. His clothes were rich but simple, all in shades of forest green dappled in yellow, and a crooked walking stick hovered near his left arm where it was propped against the seat. The ring finger of his left hand sported a band of what looked like black iron.

“Don’t move a muscle,” Kaia snarled. Copper lightning crackled along the length of her blade.

The man remained very still.

“Who are you?” Rosanna said stiffly in her royal voice.

“An ally,” the man said. His accent was odd, like he meant to mimic some fifth century aristo. I’d heard the same affect in cheap street plays.

“Allies do not appear in the private rooms of the Empress of the Accorded Realms unannounced,” Rosanna said coldly.

“This one does,” I said. “He’s Magi.”

Silence fell over the room. The man inclined his head to me, his hands still lifted in mock surrender. Kaia only narrowed her eyes. Josric had started to fuss at the commotion, on the verge of bawling.

Rosanna was not appeased. “Name yourself, ser.”

“His name is Wynn,” a second voice said. “And he’s terrible at introductions.”

A woman stepped into view — literally appeared from behind the wizard’s chair as though slipping from some hidden seam in the air. She placed a hand on the back of the chair and dipped into a curtsy to the Empress. “My apologies, noble lady, but we needed to speak with you most urgently.”

“I know you,” I said.

The woman flashed her teeth. “That’s rather forward, love. We didn’t even exchange names.”

She was the same green-eyed beauty who’d been playing Hark with Arlock and his cousin in the town. She spoke with inflections that somehow sounded more authentic than the man’s while being no less archaic. “Well met to you both, Great Amaranta, Headsman. I have anticipated this meeting for a long time. I am Gallow, and this is my husband, Wynn. As the Alder Knight says, we are both seekers of the greater truths.”

Little Josric had begun to cry in earnest. Rosanna spoke calmly to the maidservant holding the baby prince. “Harrebeth, please take my sons to bed. Kaia?”

The First Sword hesitated. “Lady, I’d prefer to stay with you.”

“I know, but I would rather have you with my children.”

Kaia nodded and stood up straight, beckoning for the maid. The woman scurried into the knight’s shadow.

“Wait.” Gallow held up a hand. “We’re not just here to talk. I would like to see your heir, if you would allow it?”

“I will not allow it,” Rosanna said stiffly. “You are an intruder in my home, and your partner has not made a good impression on me.”

Gallow cast a withering look to her husband. “That comment about the prince was uncouth, Wynn.”

The man slumped in his chair and grimaced. “So it was. My apologies, Your Grace.”

“It’s customary to kneel when apologizing to a monarch,” Rosanna said coldly. “Or when making introductions to one.”

It was one of those moments — and I’ve had many of them — where I turned out to be a poor judge of character. I thought the plump little man would wilt beneath Rosanna’s anger, but Wynn merely arched his eyebrows. He had thin, delicate eyebrows in a round face, his eyes small, dark, and intelligent. He wore his black hair cut short and curled about the ears, every strand of hair and every button on his doublet pristine.

“It is the custom of the Magi to be arrogant.” He shrugged. “And forgive me, but you are not my queen. No woman is save Gallow.”

The female wizard placed her fingertips to her lips, hiding a smile. “Oh, that was smooth.” She noticed glanced to where I stood and her green eyes, which were spotted with flecks of gold, dropped to my dagger. “Are you going to use that thing, big man? It seems a touch small for you…”

Her words were light, but her eyes had a hardness in them. Without lowering my gaze, I sheathed the rondel and nodded for Kaia to do the same with her sword.

“Our steel won’t do much good here,” I said. “Not against two full-fledged Magi.”

They were both powerful. My powers were shouting warnings at me. I highly doubted that Kaia and I could take them both together. I doubted we could even take one of them.

“My oh my,” Gallow said with genuine surprise. “You’re a cautious one! Brains and brawn, is it?”

“What do you both want?” Rosanna demanded.

Wynn spread his hands out. “To help. Did Lias never speak about us?”

My surprise mirrored Rosanna’s. “You know Lias?”

Gallow looked at me through her eyelashes. “Honey, we’re wizards. We all know each other.”

“Little Li was our disciple,” Wynn explained.

Gallow added, “We are his parents.”

“Lias was your son?” Rosanna asked in shock.

“Adopted,” Gallow said, and I thought I heard a touch of regret there. “We found him as an orphan in Llynspring. He had a talent, and we had struggled to have any children of our own, so…”

She shrugged, though her manner was less irreverent in that moment. Wynn took her hand and squeezed it.

“Do you know what’s happened to him?” I asked without thinking.

The woman wheeled on me. “Do you mean how he infiltrated and deceived both the ranks of the Inquisition and the Credo Ferrum of Orkael? Or how he attempted to turn himself into a living Volumen of Zos so that he could fuse with the heart of the Iron God, thus becoming a god himself?” Gallow lifted her chin, and a note of pride entered her voice. “Or are you perhaps referring to how you took him prisoner and gave him over to the Choir Concilium, who even now keep him imprisoned and in torment atop the mountain of Heavensreach, where he awaits death and eternal damnation? Which part do you believe me unaware of, Alken Hewer?”

A silence fell over the room. Gallow glared at me while her husband coughed and looked away. She wasn’t a tall or imposing woman — in fact she was short , with freckles about her nose and a sense of softness that belied the potency I could sense lurking behind her gold-green eyes. I even saw a few embers crackled to life in her mane of curly red hair as she stared me down.

Kaia remained almost within striking range, having not put her sword away. Rosanna shielded Darsus, and the maidservant with Josric looked ready to faint.

Wynn spoke into the silence. “We hold no grudge against you, Ser Knight.” His wife looked ready to disagree, but he continued speaking. “We are here to help. I admit, my flare for the dramatic might have soured this meeting somewhat.”

Rosanna, ever the diplomatic, gave a nod and stepped forward. “You passed more than a little of that on to Lias. Can we start over, Master Wynn, Master Gallow? You caught us during a particularly fraught time. My friend just survived an attempt on his life.”

She gestured to me. Wynn’s eyes widened and he sucked a breath in through his teeth.

“Is that true?” He asked me. When I nodded, he slumped even further into his seat. “Damn. Damn. My timing is truly awful. You must have thought…”

“We did.” Rosanna smiled. “But Lias has made passing mention of you. Be welcome in my home, both of you.”

“Well, neither of us have tried to murder anyone tonight.” Wynn sketched a watery smile and then shot to his feet, moving spryly for a man of his age and build. He inclined his head to the Empress, which would have been the height of rudeness in most anyone else, but was almost respectful for one of the True Scholars. “We are here because events in the world are moving very fast. We Magi have a habit of working behind the scenes, being secretive — even when it’s better that we didn’t — and we are determined that this is no longer productive. You are without a court wizard, Your Grace. We would like to offer our services.”

Rosanna considered them both with regal calm. “And what service can you provide me that my own knights can not?”

It was a calculated question. She knew as well as I did that the Magi were capable of a great many things ordinary adepts couldn’t even hope to achieve. There were no better spymasters, or guardians, any noble could hope to have. Powerful landholders across the world would hire even minor talents at exorbitant cost, because going without left them open to all sorts of arcane attacks. A proper court wizard was a very rare and valuable addition to any royal household.

The Empress knew this. She was trying to stab at their pride, and by doing so get more information — more leverage — from this disquieting pair. It made me shift in anticipation and wish I hadn’t sheathed my blade — when wizards made displays of their power, it could be destructive.

A smile touched Gallow’s lips. I got the sense she was impressed. “For one thing, I would like to see what I can do for the young prince.”

Rosanna went very still. “Explain yourself.”

“I sense the corruption on him,” the other woman said. “There’s something very dark practically shivering to get out of his skin. With your permission, I’d like to take a look for myself.”

The Empress’s jaw clenched and unclenched. Wynn moved to stand beside his wife, and his face and voice were soft. “We’re here to help you,” he said. “My wife is an expert on curses. Let her see.”

Rosanna looked to me. I had my own doubts, but if these were truly Lias’s mother and father…

“Let them,” I suggested. “There’s no one more qualified for it.”

She inhaled deeply through her nostrils, then turned to Darsus. The young prince — God In Exile, he was young — looked confused and frightened. Rosanna brushed his dark hair back from his face and gave the softest of smiles.

There was little drama in it. She ushered Darsus forward. He hesitated, and of everyone in that room looked at me — why he seemed to find comfort there, I couldn’t say. Every time we’d met, something frightening had been happening.

“It’s alright,” I told him and tried to smile.

He shuffled to the two wizards. Gallow had him sit in the chair and looked him over for several minutes, doing a number of inscrutable things. She checked his pulse at the wrist, stared into each eye, seemed to breathe into one of his ears which made the boy giggle and shy away.

“Incredible,” she said after a tense period of waiting.

“What is?” Rosanna snapped.

“He’s…” The wizard stared at us and blinked owlishly. “He’s still alive.”

“Of course he is,” Kaia growled. “Look at him!”

“No, no…” Gallow shook her head and seemed to struggle to find words. “This curse… the Hunger of Ghul, some western sages call it, though there are many names. It is similar to vampirism. The body dies, but the power of the affliction animates the corpse and gives it a semblance of life. There are many scholars who hold that it is a strain of vampirism, and—” she shook her head. “I ramble, forgive me. Has the young prince not consumed any dead flesh since he was afflicted?”

I hesitated. When Rosanna nodded for me to continue I said, “There were some incidents with animals. We never let it go further.”

“Hm.” Gallow tapped at her lip. “How did he contract the disease?”

“Last summer, during the attack on the Emperor’s castle, he was fed human flesh by a western mercenary named Issachar.”

Gallow frowned. “Issachar? The captain of the Lost Legion?”

I thought I’d heard that name used for the Mistwalker Company before. “The same.”

“I know him,” Gallow said darkly. “An old enemy.”

“I killed him,” I said. “What’s left of him is bound inside a Malison Oak in the Emperor’s palace.”

Something fierce lit in the small woman’s eyes. “That is very good to hear, love, very good.” She turned to the Empress. “I’m done for now. It’s best if I say the rest to you alone.”

Rosanna turned to her maid. “Harrebeth, take my sons to bed. Kaia?”

The First Sword bowed and escorted the other woman and the two children out without argument. No one said anything until the door had clicked closed, leaving me, the Empress, and the two wizards in the room.

“By alone,” Gallow said dryly without looking at me, “I did mean—”

“He stays,” Rosanna said.

“It’s alright, my love.” Wynn smiled at his wife. “There are things he should hear anyway.”

She sniffed. “I don’t like it. He’s the reason that Li is—”

“Still alive.” Wynn cut her off, and his gaze went up to mine. “That’s right, isn’t it? You were ordered to kill him, but instead you took him captive and gave him a chance?”

I stared at the short man in surprise. “I don’t… how do you know all of this?”

He just tilted his head to one side, as though he found the question odd. “We’re wizards.”

Gallow just shook her head and seemed to deflate. “Fine, but I don’t like it.” Then she turned to the Empress and ignored me. “Firstly, the curse has not fully taken hold. Your son is still alive and human.”

Rosanna blinked several times. I thought she might have been fighting tears, and her voice was rough when she spoke. “That is…” She collected herself and breathed deeply. “And what else?”

Gallow’s smooth voice was grave. “The curse is not reversible. Should your son die, then he will persist as one of the undead so long as he indulges the Hunger. It’s a curse, laid on this world a very long time ago to punish perversities such as cannibalism and other old sins, and not even I have the power to break it. And if he eats poisoned meat, he will die, eventually. That’s what usually kills most of them.”

My queen seemed to age years in that moment. “There’s nothing we can do?”

“For now, the problem is mostly his age,” Gallow said. “He doesn’t have much impulse control. I’m guessing the affliction seems to come and go at random?” When we confirmed that was the case, the woman began to pace. “It will grow stronger as he ages, but there are ways to suppress it. I would like your permission to perform hypnosis on the boy. I can place certain mental blocks. They are crude and will fade with time, but will help in the short term. I can also ink his skin with binding seals. They are also not a permanent solution, but they will help keep his aura stable and ward off most outside influences. The rest will be time, self-discipline, and the boy’s own willpower.”

Instead of answering, Rosanna turned and walked to the window so she had her back to us. She clasped her hands, I think so we couldn’t see them shaking. It was nearly a minute before she spoke again.

“If you can do this…” Her head turned slightly. “If you can do as you say, and give my child a chance at a future, then I will be in your debt.”

Gallow nodded, though whether to confirm that she could follow through or that she would be in her debt wasn’t clear. “We understand a bit of what you’re going through, love. Our boy Lias was a wild one, ambitious and too clever for his own good. We warned him about getting involved with gods and devils, but…”

“But he wanted to change the world,” I said quietly.

Gallow turned to look at me, and opened her mouth to say something sharp, but then her anger seemed to soften and she simply nodded. “Yes.”

Wynn placed a hand on her shoulder. “Gallow and I are old meddlers. We are cautious. Indeed, we argued about showing up here! But the world is coming to a critical point. There are powers moving, and if we do not act, then things might become a great deal worse.”

“You’re talking about the demon lord,” I said. “And about the Traitor Magi.”

“Them,” Wynn said with clear hesitance. “And others.”

“This is not the time to fall reticent,” I told the man when he didn’t elaborate. “You said you wanted to help us. You’ve put yourself in our good graces doing something for my godson. Now, if you’ve got more to share, we would hear it.”

“Your godson?” He stared at me, understanding lighting in his eyes. “Fascinating. Very well, but first I must… ah, young queen, do I have permission to perform a small arcana in your solar here?”

Rosanna sniffed at being called young queen, but she nodded. Wynn raised his hands like a maestro about to conduct an orchestra. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, all the candles in the room suddenly flared brighter, and I felt the magic inside of me respond as well. It was an incredibly uncomfortable sensation, like something in my chest being pulled. I had to brace myself against the wall, grimacing with the feeling.

Wynn flicked his wrists and blew through his lips like he were putting out a candle. The heat left the room instantly, and frost gathered no the windows until they were too opaque to see through. The wooden door creaked and the stones seemed to shiver. The edges of the room grew strangely hazy, like I looked at everything through a crystal lens.

“There,” he said with satisfaction. “A bit shoddy, but if there were any prying eyes or listening ears then they’ve just been stung quite nastily.”

“Not shoddy at all, love.” Gallow leaned in and pecked him on the cheek. The man blushed like a boy with his first crush, then cleared his throat. “Very well. Yes, your enemy is the fallen angel we call the Gatebreaker and the rogue magos known as Reynard. But they are merely symptoms of a much greater problem.”

“Goring nasty symptoms,” I said harshly. “What are you trying to say?”

Wynn spread his hands. “Have you ever wondered what Reynard wants?”

Rosanna and I traded looks. She answered the mage without her usual confidence. “We always assumed that he wanted revenge on King Tuvon for banishing him, and to claim power hidden inside the elven city. He vanished after the war, and it was only recently that we began to stumble on signs that he is still active.”

Wynn held up a hand, palm upraised as though offering something. “Let me ask a different question. Do you know why the God-Queen isolated this world inside a cage of the aether?”

This left both of us even more perplexed. We’d gone from discussions about our shared enemy to scripture practically in the same breath.

“I know what the Church teaches us,” I said. I had to be cautious, because I knew things the Church did not teach as well. “The demons of the Abyss broke free and swarmed Heaven. The God-Queen was chosen by the old God to be His heir, and She cut our lands off from the Silver City in order to prevent the war in Heaven from touching us here. It was necessary to preserve this world as an island from the greater chaos of the cosmos. It’s why the Underworld was made to house the souls of the dead, and why the angels and demigods who bent the knee to the God-Queen dwell on Heavensreach.”

Because we’re all stranded here, I thought.

“There are fragments of truth there,” Wynn agreed. “It was members of my order who dissolved the old Castias and fashioned them into the Church, before our influence was pushed out during the Crusades and it became what it is today. Our kind have always been very secretive. It’s part of our power. But the intent behind the Aureate Order was to curb the excesses of the Magi, because the ugly truth is that our secretiveness and jealous ambitions across history are the cause of much of this world’s grief.”

Gallow picked up her husband’s narrative as smoothly as if they’d rehearsed it. “The God-Queen did not reknit the seams of the Planar Fabric just to spare this world from further invasion, though I believe that did play a part in Her intent. It was Queen Aureia’s main intention in forming the Church to use it as a counter to the Credo Ferrum, who damn humans with knowledge, and to the Magi, who pursue knowledge at the expense of everything. She intended to stifle the potential of humanity, to make us less dangerous — to Her, and to ourselves.”

“This is blasphemy,” Rosanna said suddenly. “You are putting me and my children in danger just by saying these words.”

Wynn showed no contrition. “You asked us to give you truth. What I’m telling you now is a secret that any of my kind would rather put their eyes out than reveal. We can stop, if you’d like.”

Rosanna hesitated. She wanted to know, but she also knew that this was dangerous knowledge. Forbidden knowledge.

“I can hear it,” I offered quietly. “If you’d rather go, Rose. I’m already pretty damned by other secrets.”

That seemed to catch the interest of both wizards, but Rosanna shook her head as she gathered her resolve. “No. I won’t be a coward now. Please continue, Masters. How was it our God’s intention to stifle us?”

“Not you.” Gallow smiled, and it was not a pleasant expression. “Us.”

“The Magi?” I asked. “I’d hardly call you stifled. I’ve seen what your kind can do.”

She flashed her teeth. “Trust me, love, whatever we Magi are capable of now, if we once again had access to the energies of the Holy Dimensions… well, our kind once ruled this world like gods ourselves.”

“Like gods?” Rosanna asked.

Gallow hesitated and glanced my way before fixing her attention on the Empress. “Yes. You can find reference to it across the ancient kingdoms. The Magi used to be much more powerful before the God-Queen closed this world. We were able to draw power from the energies of the Hyperfabric — that’s what my kind call the river of power that originates in Onsolem and flows across all universes. I’d liken it more to a great storm or a flood than a river, but it’s all allegorical anyway.”

“Universes?” Rosanna said with a touch of strain in her voice.

“Yes,” Wynn said seriously. “Did you think this was the only one?” Then with the air of a man reciting a quote he said, “The Halls of Time stretch on and on, and on we march into forever and beyond.”

“Gilligan Crath,” I said.

“You’ve read Crath?” Wynn asked me in disbelief.

“I’ve opened a book on occasion,” I said with some ice.

“We used to have access to incredible powers in those further planes,” Gallow said wistfully. “We retain some knowledge of them — knowledge now suppressed or obfuscated by the Church — but we can no longer travel to them as the masters of old did.”

She’s redirecting us, I thought. We’d strayed close to something she didn’t want to say. I wished then that I hadn’t left Vicar in my rooms before meeting with the Empress. He’d needed to rest after exerting himself, but his whispers in my ear would have been invaluable just now.

“And Reynard wants that,” I said, filing my thoughts away for later. “He isn’t out for revenge or to tear down the world’s order, but to open our land to these… higher realms. He wants to become a god.”

“Like a god, yes.” Wynn smiled pleasantly, but I still caught a whiff of falseness. There was something they weren’t saying.

Gallow frowned softly and touched a finger to her lips. “I’ve met Reynard. Trust me, he does hate kings and kingdoms, and would happily see it all burn down out of spite. The man fancies himself a revolutionary.”

“We do believe he covets the power and truths lost to us these past seven hundred years,” Wynn added. “But what we’re trying to say here is that Reynard didn’t do all of this alone, but with the aid and backing of numerous powers across the wider world.”

“The Lost Legion,” I said. “And the Gatebreaker.”

“We believe that Ager Roth is Reynard’s slave.” Wynn shrugged. “Somehow, he got hold of the fallen one’s true name. We believe the reason both of them were inactive for so many years after the burning of the elven country was because they were fighting one another, some game of dominance at the edges of the Wend. This is just speculation on our part. Ultimately, however, your enemy isn’t just Reynard. It’s every magos who wants to shuck the bindings on their power. It’s every king who wants to fashion their own eternal kingdom. It’s every old spirit who used to roam freely across the multiverse now trapped on this sphere, and every lost soul longing for their paradise. You’re fighting a world of madmen and tyrants angry that they lost their chance to reach Heaven.”

It was more or less what I’d become aware of at the Heart of the Briar. That vampire, Laertes, had hinted at some of this as well in his own enigmatic way. Come to think of it, he was also Magi. And Catrin had warned me they were — possibly always had been — the true powers of this world.

And This world was a prison. Reynard and his allies were trying to break out.

Did these two know everything I’d learned back then already? Did they know about the true nature of the Briar?

“The Cambion?” Rosanna asked quietly, pulling me from my own thoughts.

The two wizards glanced at one another. It was Wynn who nodded and said, “We believe that the Cambion might be Reynard’s true benefactor. He has ever been the most bitter prisoner of this world of ours.”

“Is he Magi?” I asked.

Wynn’s expression darkened. “He is very powerful and has mastered much arcane lore, but he is not among the Wise. The word carries a certain meaning to us, and it has nothing to do with raw power.”

“You don’t seem all that surprised by any of this,” Gallow accused me.

I hesitated as they all looked at me. There were things even Rosanna didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure that…

You’re still trying to protect her, but she needs knowledge just as much as you do. Maybe it’s time for a leap of faith on my part.

“I think this is why the Alder Knights rebelled against Tuvon,” I admitted. “Reynard and Hasur told them much of this, but they twisted the truth and convinced Alicia and the others that our world was built on lies…” Is it all lies? I thought, then shook my head to clear it. “So they tried to undo it, and they made a hole in the Wend. The Gatebreaker came through that hole.”

“You didn’t join them,” Gallow noted, her eyes narrowing. “You remained loyal.”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t in the inner circle’s confidence.”

That answer didn’t seem to satisfy her, but she let the matter drop.

Rosanna seemed to have aged ten years through the conversation. She rubbed at the bridge of her nose and glared at the world outside the window. “Madness,” she said. “Why couldn’t my reign as Empress just involve a peasant revolt or two, or another House war? All of this goring myth. A cabal of wizards and madmen trying to reach Heaven at the cost of our lives, maybe our world. What am I to do with this?”

I sympathized with her deeply just then, even as I hid a smile at her use of my preferred invective. Karlesian nobles didn’t say goring. That was Herdinger lingo.

“You’ve just laid a lot on us,” I said to the wizards. “These are some dangerous secrets. So I have to ask, what’s in it for you? Wouldn’t you become more powerful if Aureia’s seals were broken?”

The two wizards looked affronted. “Because we don’t want the world to end,” Wynn snapped. “Gallow and I have been around a long time, ser knight. Centuries. We belong to a cadre of our kind who allied ourselves with the God-Queen because we knew that the alternative would make the breaking of Oroion seem like a summer squall. We do not care about godhood or divine enlightenment. We are trying to save the world, and we believe our best chance at that is to reveal some things to people in a position to act.”

“You have stopped a number of plots by our enemies,” Gallow said to me. “You stopped Reynard’s allies in Garihelm and in the Bannerlands. You defeated Yith Golonac, who was a disciple of the Gatebreaker, and Ildeban, who was Hasur Vyke’s ally — the King of Talsyn was Reynard’s co-conspirator, just as invested in breaking Aureia’s cage as he was.”

“To become a God-King of bones and vultures,” I said, thinking again about what Laertes had said. “Which he might have, if he managed to access this power beyond the Wend.” A power neither of you seem willing to explain, I added silently.

“You’ve kept up,” Wynn said with approval. “You are the last active Alder Knight. You hold the line that your order abandoned.” He gestured to Rosanna. “And she leads the nations behind that line. For their future, we would ask you to work with us.”

“The same is true of my husband,” Rosanna said. “Have you spoken with him?”

Wynn smiled mysteriously. “Other members of our circle are watching over Forger. I believe you know one of them? The marchioness, Faisa Dance, is your firstborn’s godmother if I’m not mistaken?”

“Faisa Dance is Magi?” I asked. When Wynn just showed his empty hands, I shook my head. “She told me she was just a minor talent.”

“I knew,” Rosanna said. When I shot her a look she said, “We’ve both kept secrets, Al. Why do you think I asked her to be Malcolm’s godmother?”

“The wise among us don’t like to make airs of our skills,” Wynn told me. “You’ve probably met more than a few of us without realizing. Faisa did a great deal during the crisis in Garihelm without revealing herself.”

Rosanna let out a long breath, as though she’d been holding it through this interview. “You’ve both given me much and more to fret over, and I already had much of that.”

Gallow smiled at the Empress. “You’re a tough girl. I can see it in you. And Lias loved you like a sister, which is enough for me to trust.”

Wynn waved a hand. “For now, we can offer our services in helping protect Harrengate. My wife will want time to do what she can for your son. Reynard will make his move sooner than later, we expect, but we haven’t been idle ourselves. Other members of our order are already in position to aid your counterpart in the north. We believe the enemy will make its next move in the Baern Cities. There’s been… well, that’s a dangerous place these days.”

Rosanna drew herself up as she regarded the pair, cloaking herself in royal gravitas. “Very well. I will accept the services of the Magi. Be welcome in my home and in my court. You are both in my debt for offering your powers to save my heir from his curse.”

They both bowed. Gallow glanced at me, and there was something in her expression that made me uneasy. I’d felt it when they spoke about Lias. Anger, or resentment. A sort of calculating distrust

How do they know I’m the one who captured Lias? I wondered.

One thing was clear. They both knew even more than they were saying, and despite their offers of alliance, they did not entirely trust me either.