The world was a blur of screaming horses and Nymera's fading cries.
Kael ran.
He didn't feel the branches whipping his face or the bile rising in his throat. He didn't see the cliff's edge until the ground vanished beneath his boots.
Then-air.
He tumbled down the rocky slope, bones cracking against stone, until he came to rest in a heap of bruised flesh and broken resolve. Snow seeped into his clothes. The pain was a distant thing, drowned out by the memory of Nymera's outstretched hand.
A familiar scent cut through the metallic tang of blood-rosemary.
Kael lifted his head.
Liora's grave stood before him, the wooden marker weathered but upright. A single snowdrop clung to its base, defiant against the frost.
"Mama," he whispered.
The wind sighed through the trees, carrying a voice that wasn't there: "Protect her."
Kael's fingers dug into the earth. "I will."
Thorne found him at dusk.
He didn't speak as he hauled Kael onto his back, didn't flitch when his son's blood soaked his shirt. They passed the "Black Boar Tavern", its windows glowing like a predator's eyes.
Inside, voices roared: "Double or nothing, Maltheris!" "Your girl's pretty enough for the Ironmarket blocks!"
Thorne's grip tightened. He kicked open the tavern door.
"Garrick", the owner, lounged by the fire, picking his teeth with a knife. Six slavers flanked him-the same ones who'd taken Nymera.
"Well, well." Garrick smiled. "Come to pay your tab, Thorny?"
Kael thrashed. "You bastard-"
Thorne silenced him with a look. Then he did something Kael had never seen:
"He knelt."
"Take me instead," Thorne growled. "My back's still strong. I'll work your quarry 'til I drop."
Garrick laughed. "You're worth half what you owe." He leaned forward. "But... pay double the debt by next moon, and I'll return the girl."
A murmur ran through the room. Thorne's jaw worked.
Done.
The walk home was agony. Every jostle sent fire lancing through Kael's ankle, but he bit his tongue until it bled rather than cry out. Nymera's absence yawned between them, wider than the Blackroot Fens.
The village healer came, her mouth pinched as she splinted Kael's leg. "No walking for a month," she warned, pressing a bitter tonic into his hands.
Kael hurled it against the wall.
Thome's back stiffened. For a moment, the hut trembled with unsaid things. Then-
"They'll give her back."
Kael's breath caught.
Thorne wouldn't meet his eyes. "i am sorry."
Next day at dawn painted the hut in pale light as Thorne left for work.
Kael watched through the cracked shutter as his father limped toward the mill, shoulders bowed under an invisible weight. For three weeks, he tracked Thorne's slow unraveling:
The way he traded their last iron pot for a vial of poppy's milk to dull Kael's pain.
The nights he returned with hands raw from labor, only to vanish into the dark-to Liora's grave, to beg forgiveness or strength.
The morning Kael found him slumped at the table, a half-carved snowdrop in his grip-Nymera's favorite flower.
The rage in Kael's chest flickered.
Then the village children came "Your father told us to come," announced Marta, the baker's daughter, as she helped Kael into a makeshift wheelchair. "Said you needed air."
They took him to the high meadow where the first snowdrops pushed through the thawing earth. Nymera had loved this place had filled their mother's apron pockets with wildflowers until the seams burst.
Kael plucked a single bloom, twirling it between his fingers. Somewhere to the south, Nymera might be seeing these same flowers. Might be wondering if he'd abandoned her.
A shadow passed over the sun.
Kael looked up as the ravens returned not three this time, but dozens, their wings beating the air like a war drum.
Then the world exploded.
The boom shook the earth, sending birds screaming from the trees. In the distance, black smoke curled into the sky.
"Run its an attack!" someone screamed. "They're burning the village!"
Marta grabbed the wheelchair handles, but Kael was already moving, using his good leg to push himself upright. He
stumbled, fell, crawled.
The children fled.
The ravens circled.
And Kael Maltheris dragged himself toward the flames.