MIRA AND THE enchanter walked in silence, although with each yard Mira grew steadily more agitated. She didn’t want this man with her. She didn’t trust him at all. His silence now put her more on edge.
He’d said he meant no harm to her or Ninia, but Mira sensed danger from him. His lips said one thing, yet his eyes told another story.
Above them the sky had clouded over. There was a heaviness in the air as if a storm approached. They eventually reached Pike Walk and the boarding house. Mira led Asher inside. She mounted the stairs slowly, her mind whirling.
It’s not too late … if he tries anything upstairs, I’ll be ready. She couldn’t use her fists, but her legs weren’t restrained. She’d deliberately feigned passivity on the way to the boarding house, hoping her captor would let his guard down.
The wooden stairs creaked under their weight as the pair made their way upstairs. Mira and Ninia’s room was on the fourth floor. However, halfway up, a muffled scream brought Mira to a standstill.
Ninia.
Mira twisted in the enchanter’s hold and, surprisingly, he released her. She fled up the stairs. Reaching the fourth floor landing, she saw the door to their room lay wide open. The room inside was empty.
Ninia was gone.
“Upstairs,” the enchanter barked from behind her. Mira barreled past him. As she did so, she felt the restraints on her wrists release. He’d freed her.
Mira didn’t hesitate. She bounded up the spiral stairwell. This building had two more levels above theirs, and at the top she reached an empty landing with an open trap door above it. Mira climbed out onto the roof.
There, ten yards away, perched on the edge—grasping a struggling Ninia by the arm—was the sharp-featured dark-haired man the princess had befriended days earlier.
The man glanced back, his gaze fusing with Mira’s. A heartbeat later he grinned. Then he pulled Ninia against him and leaped to the next roof.
The buildings in Thornmere were all high and packed in close together. Some buildings shared roofs with those next to them, while others had gaps of varying distances between them.
Mira skidded down the steep roof, her boots slipping on damp slate tiles, before she completed the same jump. Heart pounding, she scrabbled for purchase on the next roof and climbed up after her quarry. Many of the tiles were in a terrible state of repair up here, slick with moss and lichen.
Ahead, the man quickly widened the gap between them. He moved with the grace and confidence of a spider, even dragging his struggling captive. Ninia fought him, kicking and clawing. Losing patience with her, the man swung round and hit her across the face.
Her squeal of pain echoed over the rooftops.
Then they disappeared over the spine of the next roof.
Mira scrambled after them, vaguely aware of sounds behind her. The enchanter had followed them. However, neither of them was fast enough to catch up with the princess and her abductor. The man up ahead moved as if he’d been training his whole life for this moment.
He was Reoul of Anthor’s man, and he had known who Mira and Ninia were the moment he’d set eyes on them. After that he’d just bided his time.
Idiot, Mira cursed herself. You knew that man was trouble. This is what happens when you don’t trust your instincts.
A sea of rooftops spread out around them, dipping and rising like craggy peaks in every direction. From this height Thornmere lay in the shape of a great tree; Broad Walk formed the huge trunk, with many branches protruding from it. The man of Anthor had fled in the direction of Broad Walk and now made his way north along its spine.
Mira scrambled up and down, slipping a number of times and only just managing to right herself in time. Meanwhile her quarry, who was clearly half-squirrel, pinned Ninia under one arm as he leaped across a wide gap between two roofs.
“Fight him, Ninia!” Mira shouted. “Claw his eyes out. Kick him in the cods!”
To her credit, the princess fought like a cornered vixen, her cries ringing out across the town. Yet her captor didn’t loosen his grip.
Mira glanced over her shoulder for the first time. She caught a flash of pale blond hair as the enchanter followed around two roofs behind. She then looked back at where her quarry had almost reached the crest of another roof. They were now four roofs ahead of her.
Despair rose within her. I’ll never catch up with them.
And then, up ahead, she witnessed a strange thing.
The princess’s frightened cries had transformed into hysterical screams. Her round face was screwed up, her eyes squeezed shut. She struggled against her captor once more and managed to free an arm.
Then Ninia reached up. Above, the sun was a pale orb, playing hide and seek with the gathering storm clouds.
To Mira it appeared as if Ninia gathered something from thin-air—a blinding white-hot dagger. Then she stabbed her assailant with it.
The man grunted and fell sideways, releasing his captive.
Mira didn’t hesitate. She’d lost one of her blades when she attacked the enchanter earlier, but she still had more strapped to her body. She drew two swiftly and threw them hard at the man of Anthor.
Thud. Thud.
They embedded into his chest, and he let out a strangled wheeze, toppling forward. Clutching at the hilts of the blades, he slid down the roof. Before he disappeared over the edge, Mira caught a glimpse of the deep slash wound down his flank. It had sliced through his layers of toughened leather as if they were linen.
With a shriek, the princess slid down the roof after him. The building had a steep pitched-roof, and Ninia had lost her balance when her captor fell. Mira leaped forward, bruising her knees and grazing her hands, as she attempted to reach the princess in time.
Mira lunged over the gap between the two buildings and clung to the tiles. The gradient was frighteningly steep here—and just a few feet away, Ninia hung on by her fingers to the guttering. Her feet kicked as she tried to find a toe-hold. The street below, where a crowd now gathered around the fallen man of Anthor, was a long way down.
“Mira!” Ninia screamed. “Help me!”
Heart in her throat, Mira swiveled around. Then, the fingers of her right hand gripping onto the edge of the tiles, she reached down with her left arm. “Grab my hand,” she gasped.
A small hand, damp with sweat, fastened on hers. The muscles in Mira’s left arm screamed as she attempted to pull Ninia up. She felt herself slide further down the roof, her fingers losing their hold on the tiles.
“Shit,” she grunted, digging her toes in. At this rate they’d both go over the edge.
“Pull me up,” the princess squealed.
“I’m trying.”
Yet she didn’t have a good enough hold on the roof to do so. Sweat slid down her back as she began a slow, inexorable slide toward the edge.
“I’ve got you.” A strong arm hooked around her chest and pulled her up short. “Grab hold of her with two hands.”
Mira released her death-grip on the roof and swung her right hand down, grasping Ninia’s slender wrist. Then she pulled. Moments later, the princess scrambled up over the edge and collapsed on top of her guardian. Ninia clutched at Mira, tears streaking her young face.
Then she went still, her red-rimmed hazel eyes growing wide as she spied the man who still had his arm around Mira as he tethered the three of them to the side of the roof. “Who are you?”
Asher followed Mira and Ninia into the room. It was a good-sized space—much larger than his cramped attic. He cast his gaze over the scattering of possessions around him.
“It’s not safe to stay here,” he told Mira. “You'd better get packed.”
The Swallow’s full lips thinned. “Or what?” she challenged. “Will you put manacles on both of us this time and march us out of here?”
Asher met her eye.
What am I doing?
He should have let the pair of them fall off the roof. It would have made things simpler for him. Yet he hadn’t been able to. He’d acted on instinct and now regretted it.
“You need to come with me,” he answered. “Soldiers will be all over this place soon.”
“Where are you taking us?” Ninia asked. Her eyes were still swollen, her pretty face blotchy from crying, yet her expression was determined.
Asher observed her for a moment. He could kill her and Mira now. All he had to do was gather the Light.
I’ll do it later.
Time was against him now—he didn’t want to find himself bailed up by soldiers.
“My room is three walks away,” he replied. “Far enough to hide until things quieten down.”
The princess frowned. “Why should we go with you?”
“I told you … I’ve been sent to escort you both across the border to safety.”
“So why doesn’t Mira trust you?”
Asher glanced back over at where Mira had folded her arms across her chest. She was watching him coldly. “We got off to a rocky start earlier. She came at me with a knife … things got worse from there.”
“You were chasing me,” Mira reminded him.
“I was trying to speak to you,” he replied. “It’s not my fault you ran.”
They stared at each other for a long moment, before Mira looked away, shifting her gaze to Ninia. Her expression turned wary as she watched the girl. “That thing I saw you do on the roof … what was it?”
Ninia flushed. Watching her, Asher wondered how she would respond. He could sense the tension between the two females.
“I don’t know,” Ninia murmured.
Mira’s gaze narrowed, before she glanced over at Asher. “She gathered the Light, didn’t she?”
He nodded.
A nerve flickered in her jaw. “You knew … that’s why they sent an enchanter to find us, isn’t it?”
“Aye,” Asher replied. “Queen Rena told us in her message.”
Mira’s attention returned to Ninia. “Are you still going to lie to me?”
The princess’s jaw firmed, and she lifted her chin. “You didn’t need to know.”
Mira glowered at her. “How long … since you’ve known?”
“Around a year … we had to keep it secret. You know what father thinks of enchanters.”
Mira huffed, revealing that she shared her king’s views. Her mouth twisted. “And what are you planning to do with this … skill?”
“I want to train to be an enchanter.” The girl tore her gaze from Mira and fixed that sharp stare upon Asher. “I want you to teach me.”
He snorted. “Let’s just focus on getting out of here before it’s too late.”
His words roused Mira. She moved then, grabbed her pack, and started stuffing her things inside. “Come on,” she ordered Ninia gruffly. “Move.”
Asher waited, impatience seething within him as the women packed. He was relieved to see that they traveled lightly: just a pack each. They both wore travel-stained cloaks with fur-lined hoods; the kind of clothing that helped you blend into a crowd.
“Are you paid up?” Asher asked Mira. “Do we need to settle the bill before leaving?”
“No,” she replied. “It's all taken care of. Let's get out of here.”
The three of them left the room and descended the creaking wooden stairs.