Page 44 of Keldori By Daybreak

“He can buy a new one in the morning, but Tiernan needed a new cloak now. Besides, Cade wouldn’t hurt Orla.”

Tiernan’s left boot didn’t quite fit over his swollen ankle, and his new cloak billowed behind Orla as she helped him hobble down the hall ahead of us. She trusted her brother, and we would have to trust her judgment.

“Cade won’t hurt Orla,” Ciarán repeated in my head, “but you would’ve said the same about Ferrin not that long ago.”

“Stop being paranoid.”

Except what annoyed me more than anything was that Ciarán was validating the tiny voice in the back of my head—the voice that was mine and not his—that was screaming that something was off.

It was odd that out of every scholar living in Cade’s corridor, he had been awake. What if it wasn’t Iseult waiting for us at the city entrance, but guards ready to take us back up to the prison suite? Or maybe Ferrin himself would be there.

The corridor opened back up into the Scholar’s Quarters main foyer, and I winced again at the sound of our boots echoing across the obsidian floor.

Maybe our anxieties were wrong, though. Maybe Cade had been telling the truth. Maybe it would be Iseult waiting for us at the Second Sentinel’s entrance. It would make for an easy escape, too, with the stairs down the mountain right there.

I was too lost in my own thoughts to take much notice of the stairs and passageways Orla led us down. It had all started to look the same when the grand entry to the city finally loomed ahead.

An engraved arch extended into a tunnel that provided a straight path from the city heart to the exterior mountain face. Green light danced at the far end of the dark walkway, and a gentle breeze stirred inside, carrying fresh air on its tide.

“If she’s not there—” I started to warn Orla.

“If Cade said Iseult’s there, then she’s there.” She adjusted her grip on Tiernan and set her jaw.

“He said she’s probably there,” Tiernan grunted.

“She’s there,” Orla insisted and pulled Tiernan into the tunnel with her.

I followed close behind with Ciarán at my heels, and the curved ceiling swallowed the patch of night sky that looked down into the mountain city. New stars glittered straight ahead, and I couldn’t bear it any longer. I hurried ahead of Orla and Tiernan, needing to know if Iseult was there or not, with Ciarán right behind me.

I exited into a roughly hewn cavern from between the two, massive stone feet of the Quill statue that towered overhead. Stone lanterns cast jagged green shadows across the floor and up the lava pillars supporting the vaulted ceiling. Green Skal-light fluttered in the breeze that rolled in from the open wall ahead.

There, with her legs dangling through the open wall over the cliff side and her long silver hair shining in the light of the dual moons, a young woman looked out at an expanse of stars hanging over the glittering lake below.

“Iseult!” My relief and surprise brought her name to my lips.

The young woman turned to lock eyes with mine, her hair twisting in the breeze. Her silver knight’s armor clinked as she stood, and her left leg, replaced with a Skal-made prosthetic, cast a silver halo around her.

“You.” She somehow managed to make the single syllable sound like a threat.

“I know.” I looked sideways at the stairs that disappeared into rock. Our exit was so close, but Iseult’s tone implied there was still work to do before we’d be allowed to leave. “I’m back, and you need to come with us. We can explain—”

Iseult didn’t give me a chance to explain. Instead, she charged.

Ciarán intercepted her path, drawing a pair of orange scythes from the air.

“Wait!” I tried to warn him. “She’s a Skalbreaker!”

But Ciarán was already swinging his scythes at Iseult. She grabbed the blades midair, and they dissipated into steam. She pivoted on her right foot to bring her leg of Skal crashing into Ciarán. He tried to hook his arm around her replacement knee, but Skal sizzled against leather and flesh.

He kept his bearings, however, and swept Iseult off her foot, bringing her collapsing to the ground.

“We can knock her out,” Ciarán suggested grimly. “Carry her down the mountain.”

“You killed my grandfather!” Iseult shrieked up at me. I stepped back. If she touched me, I’d dissolve as easily as Ciarán’s scythes had. “You killed Orla!”

“No, she didn’t! I’m right here!” Orla staggered out of the tunnel at the statue’s feet, still supporting most of Tiernan’s weight.

“Orla?” Iseult’s face paled, and her shock was so great that her leg of Skal flickered out of existence. She backpedaled on the heels of her hands, shaking her head. “But that’s not possible. They said—Ferrin—”