“That’s all right, Allen,” Barrett said stepping forward. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s the pools,” he said. “The heretics are organizing some kind of ceremony.”
“Bant’s shining cock.” The prince looked to me. “Looks like our chance for action is coming sooner than we thought.”
Facinga mob should have been terrifying, but I’d been oscillating between numbness and burning rage for so many weeks, the prospect of feeling someone else’s anger sounded like a damn good time.
Barrett and I had Sapphire land a ways from the dark pools nicknamed the Blackfyre, so we wouldn’t be seen flying overhead. We ran the final half mile, my fingers curling around the Vincienzo dagger. In silence, we approached the dense tree line that bent and wound around the edges of the tarpits like creeping fingers.
Dax and a troop of guards were following on horseback, but Barrett hadn’t wanted to wait to assess—much to Dax’s chagrin.
“Looks like a few dozen,” I muttered, peeked over a trunk that cut horizontally waist-high across the path. “How long has this been going on?”
“The heretics?” Barrett exhaled. “Centuries. But they usually keep to themselves. It wasn’t until news of a Warrior God became kindling to those against my coronation that they started coming into the cities and became a threat to the larger population. Recruiting more to their sycophantic worship of Bant.”
Barrett and I crouched low, ducking beneath the branches, and crawled on our stomachs to the edge of the tree line. The mud was thick and swampy beneath my elbows, body dragging through the brush, but every connection with the earth only fueled the Mystique blood pumping through my veins.
As we reached the edge, curtains of moss swaying in the late morning light, voices drifted over, the tones a haunting song.
“It’s a bounty prayer to Bant,” Barrett whispered as I shimmied forward.
“What for?” I asked.
He shrugged. “A lot of things. The pools are dangerous—even touching the power within can consume you or kill you, especially someone from another clan. But being near enough where you feel an essence and saying prayers to the Angel offers a euphoric strength.”
That sort of enthralling power was both threatening and damn attractive.
“Where are the guards for the pools?” I asked, and Barrett leveled me with a reproachful look. Right. “Everybody has a price.”
I brushed aside the mossy curtain, and my heart flooded with ice cold rage.
“Fuck, Barrett, there are kids in that crowd. And they’re—” I couldn’t even quite explain what they were doing. “Oh, fucking Angels.”
Four Engrossians stood on the shore of the dark pool, dressed in remnants of armor and torn tunics, the tar ebbing to their toes.
And between them, with her hands bound and feet kicking wildly, a girl, no older than fifteen, was being forced toward the tar.
A strip of fabric was wrapped around her mouth. Long black hair, sweat-drenched and to her waist, flailed in the breeze asshe writhed, as she tried to launch her body back away from the edge, but her captors only raised their song and formed a wall behind her.
“They’re sacrificing her,” I hissed to Barrett.
The prince was on his feet, an ax in each hand. Barrett wasn’t a fighter like Dax, but the fury of a king burned through his stare. And dammit, I was desperate for any kind of battle.
“I promised Dax I would wait,” Barrett said, his gaze slicing to me. “Don’t make me become a liar.”
“What are you saying, Prince?”
“These people are fanatics, but most of them are not killers.” Barrett’s answering smirk was cruel. “Put those pretty words of yours to use and stall, Tolek.”
Then Barrett strode out of the tree line into the swampy air, every step radiating the dominance of a king. He was absolutely insane, but I charged after him, sword in hand.
“Engrossians!” Barrett called, voice deep with power. “I ask that you lay down your anger for a moment so that we may discuss this in truth.”
The crowd whirled toward us, the four heretics near the pool freezing.
“He will not give us the truth!” one shouted. A halo of woven branches sat upon his head, almost like he was a king. For a moment, I waited for an ax toswishthrough the air, but nothing came.
“I have heard and understand your fears, but today, I wish you to listen to the reason of an ally. Of someone who has no cause to lie to you but begs your understanding of the threats put upon all of our lands.” He sighed, dropping a bit of the mask of prince and speaking with sincerity. “Tolek Vincienzo is an esteemed Mystique Warrior, and he has come here out of his own good will to assist in building trust between our people. To answer questions and provide truth.”
