AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wait. I’m sorry. I don’t know the answer to that. I believe that I left Kathor without their notice, but it’s possible they have spies at the docks in Ravinia. I haven’t led them here intentionally, but I can’t answer your question with complete certainty.”
Dahvid didn’t swing. He shrugged over at Nevelyn instead. “The answer is too complicated. The sword might cut through her by accident. Ask something else.”
What he meant is that even the smallest, most unintended lie would result in a lost limb. Nevelyn considered her next question. “What do you really want?”
Ren stared back at her. “I want to remove the Broods from power and take over their estate. I plan to use their wealth as a foundation for eliminating the other great houses. That includes the houses that helped the Broods raid your home and destroy your family.”
Dahvid swung—and even Nevelyn saw the hesitation in the blow—like he was worried she was lying and this was all about to end in a bloody mess. But the sword hissed straight through the air again. Nevelyn took note that Ren’s hatred extended beyond the Broods, to all the great houses. She did not point out that they’d once been exactly that.
“Why would you choose to work with us?”
“The Broods have mastered Kathor. It is their game board. They know all the players and control all the potential outcomes. But the two of you are pieces they aren’t familiar with. You are unknown quantities with unknown abilities. Dahvid, of course, is an image-bearer… but Nevelyn, you possess powers as well. You used them on my mother this morning.”
Nevelyn offered no reaction to that. No denial or confirmation. Her throat bobbed slightly, because it was a secret that even Dahvid did not fully understand about her. She’d been too cavalier if she’d allowed this stranger into some knowledge of her gift. Unlucky, really, that there had been a secondary witness to the small spell she’d performed this morning. The nature of her gift was that the person she used it on normally forgot, but she could not extend her spell to a party that she hadn’t known was there. Clearly, she’d been too reckless.
Ren continued. “The two of you are my best chance at surprising them. I want to introduce an entirely new game. I want to make my own rules. I’m pretty sure that’s the only way to beat them.”
Dahvid didn’t swing. He was too busy listening.
“Are you using us?” Nevelyn probed. “For your own benefit?”
“Of course.”
Again, Dahvid didn’t move. Her answer was clear, almost too blunt.
“Then how could we ever fully trust you?”
“You can’t. I am going to use you,” she said. “And you are going to use me. It’s that simple. I don’t think I can take down House Brood without help, but neither can you.”
Once more, the answer was clear. It did not need to be put to the test. At the very least, Ren Monroe was good at making promises. Nevelyn had just one more question.
“Theo Brood. You said you don’t love him.”
Ren remained silent. At first, Nevelyn thought she’d finally trapped her. The one snag in this perfect presentation. But then she realized she hadn’t actually asked a question. She turned over the words in her mind. She would have to frame it just so.
“Will you stand aside? If we have to kill him?”
“If it means the destruction of House Brood?” Ren said, altering the question slightly. “I will stand aside.”
Dahvid swung his great sword one more time. Nevelyn closed her eyes. There was no sound of iron biting into flesh. None of the gut-wrenching noises she’d become accustomed to hearing down in the gladiator pits. Ren Monroe was telling them the truth. Finally, a proper ally. Dahvid let his sword whisper out of existence. Nevelyn blinked against the afterimage of it hanging in the air. Ren Monroe allowed herself a triumphant smile.
“Now it’s my turn. I have no moral sword to test you, but my concern has less to do with truth. I need to know you’re the right investment to make. You both possess unique abilities. I am quite adept at magic myself, but talent will only get us so far. I would like to know what you were planning to do. What revenge did you have in mind?”
Nevelyn knew it was a fair question to ask them, but it grated against every instinct they’d followed over the past decade. Even Cath didn’t know the entirety of their plan. Just the parts they’d allowed her to know. She felt goose bumps crawling down the back of her neck.
This path had been carefully determined. Years of painstaking effort. Starvation, sacrifices, and loss. Inviting someone else into those secrets felt like kissing disaster right on the lips. But she knew there were choke points in their plan where a lack of money could ruin everything. An infusion of capital would smooth those rougher edges, and Ren Monroe had just proven herself worthy of their trust. Dahvid usually left these decisions to her. She was the careful planner, their great architect. But this felt like a matter of the heart. All instinct. And that was his domain.
The two of them locked eyes. Dahvid nodded his approval.
“Follow me,” Nevelyn said.
It was a short distance. She led Ren to the lonely closet on the other side of the flat. A variety of clothing samples hung there, on which Nevelyn had been practicing dyeing techniques. She shoved them aside and stepped back. Ren Monroe actually gaped at what she saw.
The wall was covered—floor to ceiling—with their research. Every article that had ever mentioned the Broods, carefully highlighted and organized. Maps they’d stolen from architects they’d gotten drunk. Sketches of family trees with each name written in Cath’s precise handwriting. It was the collective effort of seven years of rigorous study. Nevelyn took a deep breath before crossing over to where a larger map of their continent hung. All of Delvea stretched out before them. She had to stand on the tips of her toes to set a finger on Ravinia, the northernmost port of the continent. Patiently, she began dragging it down and to the right. She paused before reaching Kathor. At nearly the halfway point between the two cities, slightly inland, sitting in the shadow of the great mountains there.
“Our plan begins here,” Nevelyn said. “Have you ever heard of a town called Nostra?”
Ren Monroe surprised them with another loud laugh. There was a little madness in the sound. Nevelyn waited for the strange noise to fade. Dahvid didn’t look concerned. He was grinning in the doorway as if he was already in on the joke.
