Page 129 of The Dragon and the Dove

‘One eve while I was fretting beneath a chestnut tree,

A dove came soft and cooing and perched alongside me.

Calmed by her gentle presence, my worrying did cease,

And there inside the forest glade, I found a ray of peace.’

As the Necromancer’s voice wafted all the way to the rooftops and the people of Fantome listened in a starry-eyed stupor that had nothing at all to do with magic, Andreas’s plan crystallized before Seraphine. ‘He’s charming them. The old-fashioned way.’

And it was … working. The parade was a marvellous spectacle. Andreas had dredged the east plains for their farmers and villagers, and sent them dancing down Merchant’s Way. To the untrained eye they looked happy, giddy. The bannermen were grinning, their motto rippling in the rising wind.

Let peace dance across the plains of Valterre

On the Bridge of Tears, Ransom and Anouk straddled the railings. It was there that Ransom’s beast had taken shape only moments ago.

A dragon.

Larger than anything he had ever conjured before. And far more terrifying.

How long had he been working on making such a creature?

And what was it taking from his soul?

Ransom’s dragon opened its terrible wings.

A pit yawned in Sera’s stomach.

There were golems too. An entire horde of stone giants assembling along the riverbank.

‘This is not a good look,’ muttered Val.

No need for truth magic now. Anyone with eyes could see who the true and prescient threat was.

On the other side of the Verne, Paola dissolved her storm clouds, Tobias scattered his gulls and Theo lowered his crossbow.

The Strix weren’t coming. Nor was Andreas’s army.

The Silver-tongue had something else in mind.

Doubt nagged at Sera. They had pored over every possible eventuality, but not this. They had planned for war, not a parade. For terror, not peace. Or at least the illusion of it.

Confined to the rooftops, the Order of Flames could only watch in mounting horror as the Hale siblings wrestled with the dark pull of their magic.

And all the while the people sang:

‘When again I went there walking, a hunter I did meet,

In greed he came to kill my dove and take her heart to eat.

Deep in her breast the arrow struck, his prize was all but won,

Yet to my shock, the dove took flight and soared into the sun.’

Anouk’s golems sprang to life.

Ransom’s dragon lifted into flight.

‘All hell.’ Val dropped her crossbow with a violent clatter. ‘Are we the monsters?’