The road narrowed as it climbed toward the quarry. Snow had gathered in the ruts, hiding stones and broken branches beneath a thin white crust. Sevenofknine walked ahead, following a path only she seemed able to see. Luvztospoon kept pace behind her, his injured arm held close to his side. Neither of them spoke for several minutes. The silence was not uncomfortable. It was simply full of things waiting to be said.
For most of the journey north he had imagined the conversation he would have with her if he found her. In one version she was alive, impatient with him for taking so long. In another he never reached her at all. None of the versions had included the blue fire in her eyes or the way her fingers sometimes tightened around the hilt as though holding it required conscious effort. He wanted to ask who had hurt her. The answer was probably longer than the road, and the quarry was already near.
There was a little more weight in his good hand now that hers had been there. It was a foolish thing to notice, and he noticed it anyway. She had been made into something the living feared, just as he had. Yet when she looked back to make certain he was following, the small impatient tilt of her chin belonged entirely to Seven. He had searched so long for that familiarity that finding it almost frightened him.
At last, Sevenofknine glanced over her shoulder.
“How bad is it?”
“My arm?”
“The wound.”
“Bad enough that you keep asking.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
“It will heal.”
“That wasn’t an answer either.”
He smiled despite himself. She turned forward again, but he saw the corner of her mouth lift. The trees thinned near the top of the ridge. Beyond them, the old quarry opened like a wound in the earth. Its stone walls rose on three sides, black and jagged beneath the moonlight. A narrow road descended toward the pit, marked by wagon tracks and the dark stains of old fires. Sevenofknine crouched behind a fallen pine.
Luvztospoon lowered himself beside her.
“There,” she whispered.
At the bottom of the quarry, a lantern moved between the rocks. Then another. A wagon stood near the eastern wall. Two horses pulled it, both alive but trembling in the cold. Three figures guarded the rear, while a fourth stood beside the driver’s seat. Luvztospoon counted the shapes again.
“Four.”
“Five,” Sevenofknine said.
He followed her gaze. A crossbowman crouched on the ledge above the wagon, nearly invisible against the stone.
“Can you reach him?”
“If I climb.”
“You’ll be seen.”
“Then you’ll have to make them look somewhere else.”
He studied the quarry. The road down was too open. The western wall offered cover, but the drainage tunnel lay beneath the eastern side. If they attacked from the ridge, the guards would have time to kill the prisoners. If they approached through the tunnel, they might reach the wagon unseen.
“How many prisoners?”
“Ten, perhaps twelve.”
“Perhaps?”
“The book listed twelve. They may have lost some on the way.”
Her voice tightened around the last words. Luvztospoon looked at her.
“Then we go through the tunnel.”
Sevenofknine nodded. They moved along the ridge until the quarry disappeared behind them. The drainage channel began beneath a shelf of stone, half-covered by snow and dead brush. A narrow stream ran from its mouth, black beneath a skin of ice. Sevenofknine pushed aside the branches. The tunnel beyond was barely wide enough for Luvztospoon’s shoulders.
“You first,” he said.
She gave him a look.
“You’re injured.”
“And you’re taller.”
“That has never stopped you before.”
“It should have.”
She ducked inside. Luvztospoon followed. The tunnel smelled of wet stone and old iron. Water trickled around their boots, cold enough to numb his toes. The ceiling lowered as they went, forcing him to bend his head. Sevenofknine moved quickly, one hand against the wall. After a short distance, she stopped. Voices carried through the stone ahead.
“—said dawn.”
“They’ll be moved before then.”
“Not if the captain wants them alive.”
A chain rattled. Sevenofknine looked back at him. Luvztospoon pointed toward a narrow opening on their right. It led into darkness, but the voices seemed to come from beyond it. She nodded. They squeezed through. The passage opened into a low chamber beneath the quarry. A wooden grate covered the floor above them. Through the gaps, Luvztospoon could see the wagon and the guards. The prisoners were chained together in pairs.
At this distance he could distinguish the chain by its rhythm before he could see each link: an uneven scrape as someone shifted, a brief metallic knock when a neighbor moved, the strained silence that followed. The prisoners were watching the guards instead of one another. They had learned that a wrong glance could bring attention. The little girl seemed too tired even to cry.
Sevenofknine had gone very still. Luvztospoon knew that stillness. He had felt it when an order reached into him and turned choice into something that happened to other people. He put two fingers against the inside of her wrist, where she could feel the pressure through the leather. She answered by resting her hand over his for the space of a breath. Then she pointed toward the weakened grate. There would be time for remembering if they got these people out.
Some sat with their heads bowed. Others leaned against the wagon’s wooden sides. One was a dwarf with blood frozen in his beard. Beside him, a human woman held a child close beneath her coat. Sevenofknine’s hand closed around Luvztospoon’s wrist. He felt her pulse racing. The guard beside the wagon lifted a lantern.
“Check the tunnel.”
Another guard turned toward the drainage channel. Sevenofknine drew her dagger. Luvztospoon shook his head and pointed upward. The grate was old. Its hinges had rusted through. He placed his good hand beneath one of the bars and pushed. The wood groaned. The guard stopped.
“What was that?”
Luvztospoon pushed harder. The grate broke open. He surged through the gap and landed beside the wagon. His sword struck the nearest guard across the chest, knocking him into the wheel. Sevenofknine came after him, rolling beneath the wagon before rising behind the second guard. The man turned too late. She drove her blade into the back of his knee. He fell with a cry. The third guard reached for the prisoners.
Luvztospoon caught him by the collar and pulled him away from the chains. The guard swung wildly. Luvztospoon blocked with his sword, but pain flashed through his wounded arm. The man saw it. He smiled. Then Sevenofknine struck him from behind. The guard collapsed against Luvztospoon’s shoulder.
“Still bad?” she asked.
“Ask me after we’re done.”
Above them, the crossbowman fired. The bolt struck the wagon beside Sevenofknine’s head. She looked up.
“Your turn.”
Luvztospoon seized the fallen guard’s lantern and threw it toward the western wall. The flame shattered against the stone. The quarry plunged into darkness. The crossbowman fired again. Sevenofknine moved toward the sound. Luvztospoon heard boots scraping across the ledge, then a grunt and the sharp crack of someone hitting stone. The prisoners began shouting.
“Quiet!” Luvztospoon called. “We’re here to get you out.”
The dwarf lifted his head.
“Who in the frozen hells are you?”
“People with a key.”
He searched the fallen guards until he found a ring of iron keys. His fingers were stiff from the cold, and the first key slipped from his grasp. The child began to cry.
“Please,” the woman whispered. “They’ll come back.”
“They won’t,” Sevenofknine said.
She emerged from the darkness with the crossbowman’s weapon in one hand and blood on her cheek. Luvztospoon looked at the blood.
“Yours?”
“No.”
He believed her. The key turned in the first lock. The chain fell away. The dwarf stood, rubbing his wrists.
“Where’s the exit?”
“Through the tunnel,” Sevenofknine said.
A horn sounded from the road above. Both of them froze. More voices answered from the ridge. Sevenofknine looked toward the darkness beyond the quarry.
“They know.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
Luvztospoon freed the last pair of prisoners. The woman pulled the child close. The dwarf picked up a fallen sword, though it was too large for him. Sevenofknine pointed toward the tunnel.
“Take them through there. Stay low. Follow the stream until you reach the trees.”
“What about you?” Luvztospoon asked.
She looked toward the road.
“I’ll slow them down.”
“No.”
“Luvz—”
“No.”
The first rider appeared at the top of the quarry. Moonlight caught the edge of his armor. Behind him came three more. Sevenofknine raised the stolen crossbow. Luvztospoon stepped beside her.
“You’re not slowing anyone down alone.”
Her eyes remained on the riders.
“You’re injured.”
“You’ve mentioned that.”
“You can barely lift your sword.”
“Then I’ll use it close to the ground.”
She looked at him then. For a moment, the quarry, the prisoners, and the approaching riders seemed to fall away.
“You always were stubborn.”
“You missed that.”
“I missed everything.”
The first rider charged down the road. Sevenofknine fired. The bolt struck his horse in the throat. The animal collapsed, throwing its rider into the snow. The others spread out, searching for a path around the fallen body.
“Move!” Sevenofknine shouted to the prisoners.
The dwarf led them toward the tunnel. One rider broke away and came straight for Luvztospoon. He waited until the last moment, then stepped aside. The rider’s sword cut through empty air. Luvztospoon caught the man’s arm and used his momentum to throw him against the quarry wall. Pain tore through his injured shoulder. His grip faltered. The rider recovered and swung again. Sevenofknine intercepted the blow. Their blades locked.
The rider shoved her backward. Luvztospoon struck him beneath the helmet. The man fell. Another rider reached the wagon. He grabbed the human woman by the hair and dragged her away from the tunnel. The child screamed. Sevenofknine turned. Luvztospoon saw the opening before she did. The rider raised his sword. Luvztospoon crossed the distance between them and drove his blade through the man’s armor. The rider released the woman.
She stumbled toward the tunnel, clutching her child. Luvztospoon pulled his sword free. The last rider had dismounted and was walking toward them. He wore no helmet. His face was pale, his eyes dark beneath a hood of black fur. Sevenofknine lowered the crossbow.
“Who are you?”
The man smiled.
“Someone who knows what you are.”
Luvztospoon shifted his stance. The stranger’s gaze moved to him.
“And someone who knows what you brought back from the grave.”
Sevenofknine went still. The man reached beneath his coat and withdrew a small object. An iron ring. Not the broken one. This one was larger, marked with the same blue symbols. Luvztospoon felt the air change. Sevenofknine’s breathing stopped. The stranger held the ring between two fingers.
“You thought breaking one chain would free you.”
The blue marks began to glow. Sevenofknine staggered. Luvztospoon caught her before she fell. The stranger raised the ring.
“Rethan was only the keeper.”
Luvztospoon looked toward the tunnel. The prisoners were almost out of sight. Then he looked back at the man.
“Who is the master?”
The stranger’s smile widened.
“You’ll meet him soon.”
The ring flashed. Sevenofknine cried out. Luvztospoon tightened his arms around her and reached for the darkness inside himself. The power answered at once. It rose through the quarry like a storm beneath the earth. The stranger’s smile vanished. Luvztospoon drove the force forward. Stone cracked. Snow lifted from the ground.
The stranger was thrown backward into the quarry wall, but the ring remained in his hand. Blue light spilled across the rocks, twisting into shapes that looked almost like letters. Sevenofknine gripped Luvztospoon’s coat.
“Don’t let him use it.”
“I’m trying.”
“You have to break the ring.”
He looked at the glowing metal. The power inside him strained toward it, hungry and familiar. He understood then why the stranger had come. The ring was not meant to control Sevenofknine alone. It was meant to call something through her. Something that had been waiting beneath the grave. Luvztospoon raised his sword. The stranger pushed himself upright.
“You cannot destroy what has already crossed over.”
“Maybe not,” Luvztospoon said.
He stepped forward.
“But I can destroy the door.”
He struck the ring. The first blow sent blue sparks across the quarry. The stranger shouted and raised his hand. The second blow split the metal. A sound came from beneath the ground. It was not a voice. It was the sound of something enormous waking. Sevenofknine seized Luvztospoon’s arm.
“Now!”
They ran. Behind them, the quarry wall collapsed. Stone thundered into the pit, burying the wagon and the stranger beneath a wave of snow and broken rock. The remaining horses screamed and bolted up the road. Luvztospoon and Sevenofknine reached the tunnel as the ground shook beneath their feet. The prisoners had already escaped into the trees. They followed. For several minutes, they ran without stopping.
Only when the quarry disappeared behind the ridge did Sevenofknine stumble. Luvztospoon caught her. She leaned against him, breathing hard.
“Did you see him?”
“The stranger?”
She nodded.
“He’s alive.”
“I know.”
“He had the ring.”
“Not anymore.”
She looked at his sword. The blade was cracked near the tip.
“Did you destroy it?”
“I broke it.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
The wind moved through the trees. Far behind them, beneath the quarry, something struck the stone. Once. Then again. Sevenofknine heard it too. Her hand found his.
“We need to keep moving.”
“South?”
“Anywhere but here.”
He looked at her pale face, the blood on her cheek, and the hand that trembled despite her efforts to steady it.
What frightened him most was not the stranger's strength. It was the way the ring had reached Seven across the open quarry, undoing her balance before any blade could touch her. He had broken the thing he could see. Whatever remained had not cared. His damaged sword felt unfamiliar in his hand, shortened and badly weighted, and his shoulder throbbed where the last fight had opened it again.
He wanted to promise her that nobody would ever command her again. She would have known he could not promise that. Instead he adjusted his pace to hers, watched the tree line, and saved his breath for the next difficult step.
“Together?”
She turned toward him.
“Side by side.”
They walked into the forest before dawn. Behind them, the old quarry groaned beneath the snow. And deep below the earth, something answered.