MasukKael’s PovThe assault slowed before I reached the northern gate again. Word travels through an army the way water moves through cracked stone and something had shifted in the Old Guard camp even before any formal news reached them. Warriors were pulling back from ladder positions on their own. Officers were standing still instead of relaying orders. The pressure we had been holding against all day went loose and then looser and by the time I reached the gate the fight was clearly ending.A white flag came out of the camp before the sun reached the horizon.Not the same rider as the parley. This was one of Harken's senior officers and he came forward alone and he had the look of a man walking out of somewhere dark into daylight and still adjusting to the difference."Lord Harken is requesting to speak with the king," he said. "He is asking for terms."I went to the gate.Harken came forward on foot and alone and
Kael’s PovI felt the wave from the throne room even standing at the northern gate a full district away. It came through the stone under my feet and through the air at the same time and every warrior near me went still for a breath like they were waiting for something they did not have a word for yet.Then the Changeling came out of the palace corridor entrance at the far end of the district and it was running.It was not running like Morgana. The angles were wrong and it was moving too fast for a human body and the face it had been wearing was not fully Morgana's face anymore. Something underneath was starting to show through at the edges. Something that had no human shape."Hold," I said and nobody moved.The Changeling hit the edge of the district and stopped hard. It hit something invisible and pulled back from it and then tried the same spot again and stopped again in the same place.Eldric was still standing in the ruined street. He looked like he had been through the hardest th
Elvanya’s PovI heard the street collapse from three floors up and I knew Eldric was still out there but I also knew from the sounds that the Changeling had gotten through. I grabbed Luna from the crib and told Mira to lock the door and I ran.The corridor was empty. Most of the guards had been pulled to the walls or to the street where Eldric was fighting and there was no one left in this part of the palace. I moved fast with Luna against my chest and her moon mark warm through my shirt.I needed somewhere to go. Going back to Mira's room made no sense because if the Changeling got past Eldric that was the first place it would look. I kept moving toward the far end of the corridor and took the staircase down to the lower hall.Between the first and second time I heard the palace sounds change I had maybe two minutes to move. I knew that and I moved as fast as I could while holding a nine month old baby and trying not to fall down a staircase. The lower corridor smelled like smoke fro
Kael's Pov The assault came the morning after the parley. I had expected it. After the Changeling came to the gate and Elvanya refused it I knew we were not getting another day of the same slow siege. The parley was the last patient thing it was willing to try and now it was done being patient.Twenty thousand warriors hit all four walls at first light. Not the rolling waves we had been managing since the siege began. Everything at once from every direction with no rest between pushes and the Changeling on the northern line using stolen power directly against the wall structure itself. No replacement catapults needed. It was doing what the catapults had been doing and it was doing it better.I was on the northern wall when it started. I stayed there."It is targeting the wall from the inside out," Eldric said from beside me. His wards were up and fully extended and the air around him had pressure to it I could feel through my boots.
Elvanya's Pov The white flag came to the northern gate two mornings after Lira told Kael about the scout. A single rider came forward under it carrying a sealed message. The message was addressed to me by name in handwriting that looked close enough to Morgana's to make my skin go cold.Lira brought it to me unopened.I read it twice before I set it down."She is asking for a parley," I said. "And she wants me specifically. Not Kael. Not Lira. Me.""Yes," Lira said."Then I will go," I said.Kael was out of bed by this point and moving carefully but he was moving. When I told him what the message said he went very still in the way he did when he was working to keep his face neutral."You are not going alone," he said."Twelve guards and Lira at the gate," I said. "Not outside the walls. At the gate. I will speak to it through the bars.""It wants you close for a reaso
Kael's Pov Lira told me about Morgana while I was still in bed. She sat in the chair beside me and laid it out plainly and watched my face the whole time she did it.I listened to all of it and then I said "How certain is the scout.""Certain enough that he came directly to me and asked to speak alone," she said. "He did not tell anyone else before he told me. That is not a man raising a false alarm.""No," I said. "It is not."I tried to sit up and Elvanya put her hand flat on my chest and looked at me without saying anything. I stayed where I was."Morgana was exiled," I said. "She left the kingdom. We stood at the road and watched her go.""We watched someone go," Lira said. "Whether that someone was actually Morgana is the question we should have been asking sooner."I thought about that. I thought about the dark magic Eldric had been tracking from the first morning of the siege. Organ
Kael's PovLira reached me just before dawn and I knew something was terribly wrong the moment I saw her face. She had ridden hard and her horse was breathing heavy but she barely slowed down before jumping off."You need to come right now" she said. "It is Elvanya.""What happened" I demanded. I w
Kael's Pov When I got to the palace, I went straight to check on Eldric. He was in the healing wing covered in bandages from the burns the dark mage had given him but he was sitting up in bed surrounded by open books and loose papers.
Kael's PovThe healers worked on Elvanya for hours while I stood there helpless and terrified. They gave her medicines and used healing magic and tried everything they could to stop the bleeding and stabilize the baby. But nothing was working well enough."We
Kael’s Pov"The queen's condition is getting worse" Matilda said. Her voice was strained and I could see exhaustion in every line of her face. "The baby's heartbeat is becoming irregular. We might not have as much time as I thought we would.""How long" I asked. My thr







