Page 118 of The Faceless Queen

“Help me!” It was Rowan. “Help!” he roared. More voices joined him.

I reached for my cloak, and swung it over my shoulders as I left my room and dashed out of the lodge into the clearing. A bonfire had been lit in the center where, just after dinner, a dozen nobles had gathered, listening to a minstrel and drinking wine.

They spread out, jumping out of their seats and racing toward the returning knights, yelling out for help.

Three of the hunters were carrying a man with dark hair, his body stretched out across a blue cape. Several moonstags soared above, their eagle wings spread wide and their movements frantic. They were riderless, all of them.

“They ambushed us!” Rowan cried.

I pushed my way into the crowd. King Dairen and Queen Noemay shouted out in horror, their emotions beginning to burst with love and worry and concern and fear, but none of it was being directed at me.

I moved closer, dread moving like a shadow across my heart, until I could clearly see the man on the cloak, being laid down on the grass, groaning in pain.

Kienan, Olivay’s cousin.

It looked like his armor had been torn in half, ripped right down the center. And oozing from his slashed tunic was blood.

“What happened?” King Tirian demanded. “Where are the others? Where’s my son?”

My heart lurched. Brennan. Where was Brennan?

“Chimera,” Rowan gasped, tears streaming down his face. “It was chimera. We-we managed to kill one. But we lost three men.” He looked up at the riderless moonstags.

“You killed one chimera?” the king asked.

Rowan nodded, his chest heaving. “We did. Fuck, it took all of us, but two more arrived and began dividing us, herding us into groups.”

Two more! There’d been three? Three chimera?

“Where is the prince!” the king roared.

“And my son!” yelled Lady Alena. She’d been at the bonfire, wearing a red and gray shawl in the colors of House Bathiner, her pale hair braided around the crown of her head.

“Brennan and Jaron are still down there with their men, fighting, they sent us back to get help, to save Kienan.”

Brennan stayed back.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

I didn’t need to hear anymore. Brennan hadn’t returned and was facing off against the chimera.

I slipped back from the crowd as the shouts started. Nobles of House Bathiner yelling out for Jaron, accusing King Tirian of failing to keep him safe. Accusing him of sending him into danger, while others shouted that we had to find the prince at once, as well as the rest of the missing knights.

The knights who remained at the lodge for us, the ones who’d stayed behind to protect the king, split in half. Those who weren’t now surrounding their sovereign, took off into the night, heading in the direction Rowan pointed.

And then, when no one was looking at me, when the chaos and fear were at their peak, I shifted my shoes into boots, my skirts into black riding pants, and the bodice of my gown became a dark tunic, the same one I transformed into the last time I fought the chimera. Finally, my riding cloak began unthreading and reshaping into a black cape with a long hood to further conceal me.

I pulled it over my head, hiding my hair, my face, my eyes, and then I ran into the night, vanishing into the shadows after the guards. Running toward Brennan.

My arms pumped at my sides as I made small adjustments to my body with every step. I thinned my waist and legs, thickened my calves, enlarged my eyes, and sent a wave of magic to enhance my hearing. I needed to run faster. I needed to see more, hear everything.

Find Brennan.

But as I raced down a hill, scrambling through brambles and branches, I realized that most of the magic I’d sent out through my body had been shallow. My hearing was enhanced, but not enough, and I was running faster, but nowhere near what I knew I was capable of with more power. I was going to have to rely as much as I could on my natural instincts. As I tore down a hill, my vision not quite what I needed it to be, I threw out my hands in front of me, and I listened.

I could hear birds chittering and chirping back and forth. And beyond that, a swoosh of air that belonged to the flight of a moonstag. I stepped forward carefully, trying to still my breath and listen more closely. There were soldiers running, the clink of their armor sounding in the distance, the heavy breaths of their exertion battling the buzzing of bugs.

Ahead there was a small river, the current moving slowly, and beyond it, if I ran far enough, there was another clearing. The clearing.