Shield of Sparrows

Ransom gave me three days.

Three blissful days in which we didn’t leave my suite. Three days to pretend like the horrors beyond the walls were only a dream. Three days to spend endless hours woven together.

And though we hadn’t spoken the words, three days to say our goodbyes.

Then it was over.

I’d woken up alone this morning. Ransom hadn’t left Ellder yet, but today he was making preparations. And tomorrow, at dawn, he’d ride for Allesaria.

Alone.

He’d warned me last night that he was meeting Zavier in the training area early—I hadn’t been invited. Probably because their conversation would only make me cry or scream or both.

Ransom hadn’t told me specifics, but if I had to guess, they were strategizing. About the monsters. About Ramsey’s army. About what to do if—when—this all turned to shit and Ransom died.

Gods, my heart hurt. So much that it was hard to breathe.

How did I watch him go?

Sunshine streamed through the open window in my bedroom. Part of me wanted to curl up with a pillow and cry for a month. The other part knew no good would come from my tears, so I got dressed for…something.

It was time to do something, even if it was drastic. Like travel across the continent and bargain with my father.

Ramsey wasn’t going to give up on Lyssa. I knew it in my bones. He was intent on weaponizing the infection. And I suspected my father wanted to do the same.

But if I told Father that Lyssa was killing innocent men, that the bigger threat was a crux carrying the infection, maybe he’d change his mind. Maybe he’d see the reason that Ramsey would not.

Father had lived through a migration. He’d kept those paintings and murals in the crux art gallery for a reason. A reminder.

The crux were nothing but death and destruction. We had to stop Lyssa before it turned the horrors of a migration into the end of Calandra.

Whether Ransom wanted to admit it or not, he needed help. He needed an army. If Ramsey wouldn’t give him one, then maybe my father would.

But before I gave Father the location of the capital, he was going to give me open access to his vaults. I’d use every gold coin in his coffers. I’d hire every healer across the realm.

To make a cure to save Ransom’s life.

Luella had her chance. Now it was mine.

While I was making demands of my father, I also wanted information about my mother. Why the Voster had asked about my heritage.

I’d never demanded anything of my father before.

But I was not the same daughter he’d sent away on the Cutter.

It was time to leave Turah, to find my way back to Quentis. Soon. Once Ransom was gone.

I opened the door to leave the suite, to get some fresh air and walk off my nerves, and found a visitor on the walkway.

Evie stood outside, hand poised to knock. The tunic she wore was yellow, embroidered with red and pink flowers at the collar. It was getting too small, and she’d ripped a hole in the elbow. It was time for a new shirt, but this was her favorite, one I saw more than any other. And based on her pout, she’d worn it today to feel a little less sad.

Zavier must have told her he was leaving tomorrow.

While Ransom was going to deal with Ramsey in Allesaria, Zavier, Halston, and their rangers would continue their hunts. There was a pack of bariwolves that needed slaying. A one-eyed beast that had to die.

My exit planning could wait. If everyone, including me, was leaving her behind, another day together first wouldn’t hurt.

“Good morning, little star.” I crouched down, tucking a lock of silky brown hair behind her ear. “How are you today?”

She shrugged.

“I’m kind of sad.”

“Because Papa is leaving?”

“Yeah.”

Evie, like nearly every other person in Calandra, believed I was married to Zavier. I hoped that someday I could tell her the truth. That Ransom and I could be free to be ourselves with his sister. But not yet.

“Want to play with Faze?” I asked her.

She shrugged again. “Or we could play a game. Luella is still gone, and Cathlin said I don’t have to do my lessons today.”

“Lucky girl.”

After Luella’s confession to Ransom, she’d left Ellder again, leaving Evie under Zavier’s, Cathlin’s, and the nanny’s care.

Faze wandered over, nudging his nose against Evie’s hand for a pet.

I swept him into my arms and put a palm over my eyes. “Hide-and-seek? Readysetgo.”

Evie’s giggle was enough to chase away a few of the storm clouds over my heart. Her boots thudded on the walkway, growing distant as she raced down the stairs.

I cracked my fingers, stealing a peek, then kissed Faze’s brow. “Go find her for me.”

He took off with a pounce, tail swishing as he ran for the stairs.

These monsters…

We didn’t understand them, did we? They were more than animals. More than beasts. They truly had magic. Faze was only a baby, but I was constantly surprised by how much he understood. Not just commands but moods. There were times he’d look at me and it was like he knew exactly what I was feeling.

Joy. Anger. Heartache.noveldrama

Like he wanted to say something, but whatever it was, we didn’t speak the same language.

I took off after him, finding him waiting at the door that Evie must have gone through on the main floor.

When I bumped into Evie’s nanny during my search, I promised to take over for the day, and she was more than happy to be excused. As she left for her own quarters, I followed Faze as he weaved through the house, snaking through empty rooms, sniffing and lingering in a few places Evie must have deemed unworthy of a hiding spot.

He nudged open a half-closed door, walking into a room I hadn’t seen before. It was a suite, similar to mine upstairs, with a sitting room and dining table. Through another door was the washroom and bedroom, decorated like the rest of this house. Planked wooden floors. Thick woven rugs in rich hues of maroon, olive, and chocolate. Quilts and blankets in the same shades.

My rooms in Quentis were white and cream and beige and gray. Clean and crisp. But I much preferred this life in bold color.

Faze scampered beneath the bed, and when he found her, she let out another musical peal of laughter.

I dropped to my hands and knees. “Gotcha.”

“You cheated!” She wiggled out from beneath the bed’s frame, popping up to fist her hands on her hips. “This time, Faze comes with me.”

“Deal.” I put a hand on her shoulder before she could run off. “Hold on. Whose room is this?”

“Luella’s.”

“Ah. And are you supposed to be in here?”

“No.” She smiled, crooking her finger so I’d give her my ear. “Wanna see something?”

“Always.”

She snatched my hand, pulling until I was off my feet and following her toward the wall behind the bed. She let me go to push and pull a bedside table, inching it out of our way. Then she splayed her hands on the wall and used all her might to push, grunting as she dug in her heels.

“Evie, what are you—”

The wall cracked.

“Whoa.”

Evie smirked, something she’d clearly learned from Ransom, and shoved the door open wider. She put a finger to her lips and stepped through the doorway. “This is a secret place.”

“Is it?” I picked up the lantern on the bedside table and ignited the flame. Then, with it held against the dark, I followed Evie down a staircase.

The air was dry, the temperature dropping with every step. After ten, I began to count. Fifteen. Twenty. We went farther and farther, the scents of earth and dust tickling my nose, until we reached the bottom. My light flickered over the room’s wooden walls.

The space was a large rectangle with four cots along one wall and shelves along the other. Shelves for supplies. Shelves for food.

A migration cellar.

There were rooms like this in Quentis, too. Rooms where people would shelter for as long as possible. And like in Quentis, oftentimes, the entrances were hidden.

In cellars like this, stockpiled supplies would be rationed. Allocated for exactly the number of people intended to use this room. But the migration didn’t just bring death from the crux.

People would kill for these rooms. For the food and safety they afforded.

I hadn’t checked when we started down the stairs, but there was likely a lock on that secret door. Not to keep people in. To keep people out.

Evie went to the shelves, dragging her fingers across the spines of the books arranged in careless rows and stacks. On the bottom row, below the books, were trinkets and scrolls piled in disarray.

“These are from the dungeon,” I said.

Luella had cleared out the dungeon and brought everything here instead.

“Yep.” Evie’s gaze tracked over my shoulder, like she was checking to make sure no one was listening. “She doesn’t know I saw her bring them down here, but one night when I was supposed to be asleep, I heard some noises so I came to see what she was doing.”

I shook my head, fighting a laugh. “You shouldn’t be spying on people.”

“Why not?”

“It’s rude.”

She cocked her head to the side. “But isn’t it rude to keep secrets?”

“It’s rude to— You know what? Never mind.”

Luella was her mother. She could address the spying at some point.

I walked to the shelves, bending to take in the book’s spines. A few familiar titles jumped out at me but nothing I cared to read.

“Want to see something else?” Evie asked.

At this point, why not? “Sure.”

She skipped past me for the stairs, bending to the lowest step. Her fingers felt along the side, pulling and tugging until the front of the step folded open, revealing a hidden compartment.

“How did you find that?” I went to her side, bending low and setting the lantern on the cold stone floor.

“I came down here yesterday when Cathlin thought I was upstairs playing with Faze.”

“Evangeline,” I scolded, but there wasn’t much heat behind it.

Because inside that compartment were three books. One of which was black leather with the emblem of my necklace.

Luella must have been planning to come back. Otherwise, she would have taken these with her wherever she’d gone. That, or where she’d gone wasn’t safe. I wasn’t sure what the other two books contained, but her tucking them under the stair meant they had to be important.

“We should go.” I urged Evie’s hands aside so I could refit the compartment and close it shut. Then I grabbed the lantern, standing and holding out a hand to lead her up the stairs. “No more sneaking down here, all right? I don’t want something to happen with the door and you be stuck.”

“Fine,” she grumbled as we reached the bedroom.

I closed the door, making sure the compartment was hidden again, that the seams in the wood paneling blended together. Then, as Evie hoisted Faze into her arms for another round of hide-and-seek, I began to count.

“One. Two. Three.” They were gone by the time I made it to five. And by twenty, I forced myself out of Luella’s rooms before I could give in to temptation and steal those books.

Later. Now that I knew where they were hidden, I’d get them later. They were certainly coming with me to Quentis.

Without Faze’s help, it took me a while to find Evie—tucked inside a kitchen cupboard with a stack of wooden bowls. We played a few more rounds before we ventured outside to wander Ellder’s streets. We went to the small toy shop, buying her a fuzzy rabbit with floppy ears to cuddle when she was lonely—she named it Merry.

We ate sweets from the bakery for lunch. We took carrots and apples to the horse paddock, spoiling Freya, Aurinda, and their friends. And when it was time for dinner, we ate together in my suite as Faze, worn out from all the activity, slept on my lap.

Evie was a balm to my heart, as I hoped I was for her. But as nightfall settled over the fortress, Zavier came to collect his daughter, carrying her off to bed.

The suite was too quiet alone, and I was too restless to stay still, so I went outside, hoping that if I killed another hour, when I returned, Ransom would be waiting.

The courtyard was alight with the fires they burned in barrels each night. Windows glowed gold from the lights within. Laughter and music drifted from the tavern three streets from the house. It was all too cheery, too warm. So I made my way toward the gates and a staircase that led to the wall’s ramparts.

The guards stationed at the wall did a double take as I approached, but neither stopped me as I started up the stairs. When I reached the top, a soldier with a broadsword across his shoulders met me with a scowl.

“You can’t be up— Princess Odessa Wolfe.” He bowed. “Apologies, Highness.”

“I was hoping for a few quiet moments alone. If you don’t mind.”

He bowed deeper, backing away as I settled against the wall, my elbows resting on the rough surface of a log as wide as my shoulders.

Torches lit the ramparts, but they were only enough to chase away the shadows. Most of the light came from the twin moons.

These walls stood taller than any treehouse in Treow, giving me a different glimpse of the forest and silhouette of the trees. The sky was a beautiful swirl of gray and blue and twinkling white. It was different than my cliffside in Quentis, but it was a sanctuary of its own.

A breeze blew against my face as I drew the cold night into my lungs, holding the breath until it burned. On my exhale, I felt him. As I felt the wind. As I felt my own heartbeat.

Ransom’s arms wrapped around me, pulling me against his chest.

The only person who might see us together was that soldier, and even if he noticed in the dark, I didn’t care. Not tonight.

I rested my head against Ransom’s shoulder, holding to his arms with my hands. “All ready to go?”

“More or less.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Say you’ll find me again.”

He rested his chin on my head but didn’t speak a word.

“Say it.”

“You deserve your freedom, Odessa. I won’t make you fight for it.”

“Freedom?” I whirled, breaking out of his arms to poke a finger into his chest. “You’re an idiot.”

He chuckled. “Tell me how you really feel.”

“I’m serious, Ransom. You keep talking about my freedom. There is no freedom. I’m not talking about an ancient treaty or blood oath. I’m talking about you and me. I’m talking about this.” I pressed my hand over his heart. “If I died, would you be free?”

Ransom’s hand fitted over mine, holding my palm to his chest. “No.”

“Then you have to come back to me. Or I’ll hate you forever.”

“You already hate me.”

“Yes, I do.” I’d never hated him. Not even in the beginning. Not really. But hate was the safer word to use. Even if we both knew it meant something else.

He leaned in close, his mouth brushing across my forehead. “Don’t forget.”

“Never.” My chin wobbled, tears filling my eyes.

Ransom caught them with his thumbs. “I don’t regret it. Not a moment.”

“Neither do I.”

“I have no right to ask, but I must. I need you to watch over Evie. I’m taking my mother to Allesaria.”

“Wh-what?” Was he really so furious that he’d take her to Ramsey?

“It was her idea,” he said. “She wants to undo what she’s done. And she might be the only person who can convince him that all he’s doing is dooming Turah to death.”

My insides knotted. “But what if your father tries to kill her again?”

“I’ll do what I can to protect her. She knows it’s dangerous, but it’s her choice. She’s had enough stripped from her. I won’t deny her the chance to atone. She just left Cathlin’s place after saying her goodbyes. She went to sleep beside Evie.”

“She can’t leave her behind.” That little girl might lose a mother and a brother before she had the chance to know they were hers.

Ransom took my hands in his, looking down. “Will you take care—”

“Yes.” He didn’t need to finish his question. It would change my plan to leave Ellder, but that was tomorrow’s problem. Tonight, my husband was asking me to watch over someone he loved.

I wasn’t going to say no.

“I’ll look after her,” I promised.

“If something happens to us, to Zavier, get her out of Turah. Take her to Quentis.”

I nodded, heart climbing into my throat. That was not an outcome I wanted to consider. Not a situation I could even fathom at the moment. “I will.”

“Thank you.” He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “Tillia will be here for anything you need. Zavier and Halston will return as soon as they can. Just…be careful. Promise me you won’t do anything reckless.”

“Promise,” I lied.

His eyes changed to a color I hadn’t seen before. They swirled orange and red and yellow. They were both bright and dark at the same time. A color for sadness. A color for goodbye.

If my eyes could change, they’d be the same.

They kept changing, the colors flashing like flames.

Ransom looked over my head, the softness in his expression fading. Those twin lines formed between his eyebrows as he shifted me out of the way so he could stand against the wall.

“What is it?”

He narrowed his gaze, and as I stared at his profile, his eyes were green, shifting slowly to hazel.

It wasn’t a new color I’d seen. It was a reflection.

The sound of hooves echoed through the trees. Then came the clink of metal as the fiery glow of torches gleamed off breastplates and helms. It took a moment to comprehend what I was seeing. When I did, the night swallowed my gasp.

An army marched through the forest, descending upon Ellder.

“Oh, gods,” I whispered at the same time Ransom turned and roared, “Do not open the gates!”