‘Let us not jump to conclusions.’

Aluri stood by his husband, Mindu, one hand resting on the man’s shoulder. They were sitting in the shade of the circle of stones, all of them: Reynard, walking up and down, Darine, sitting with her legs crossed, resting her head to one of the stone slabs, Mindu, sitting on a broken rock, sinking into thoughtful silence, Maeve, standing, hands clasped, and Amodh and Nash sitting behind her.

‘Let us not jump to conclusions, lest it shrouds our judgement,’ said Aluri, the Whisperer of Winds, wife to the Stormwalker. ‘You know these people, master Reynard. They could not have conspired with the enemy, for they’d had no knowledge of those demons of yours. Correct me if I’m mistaken.’

‘You are not, Lady of Winds,’ Reynard muttered and stopped. He fixed her gaze on Nehlia, chained to the wide stone table at the centre of the circle, along with her cohorts, two soldiers of the Army. The former Army Commander did not speak, she stared back at everyone with unfamiliar defiance, flashing out her teeth on occasions. ‘Unless there is a conspiracy involved beyond any imagination, I deem Nehlia Anterlyn innocent on the matter.’

‘Very well. I, myself, think that these poor souls have been the first results of what may await the fallen.’

‘We shall free their souls, help them through the Veil,’ Mindu murmured.

Maeve felt too weak to interrupt.

‘It might prove to be the final solution,’ nodded Aluri. ‘Lady Hethlaw, we must turn to your advice.’

Darine made to stand, but then a voice came from behind one of the stones.

‘If it’s advice you seek, perhaps you should turn to someone who’s well-versed in the matter.’

The knight stepped closer, daylight glistening on her immaculate armour, her deep green cloak wrapped around her left. She moved like water; all her gestures seemed coordinated and perfectly in harmony with each other. Even as small a movement as a step gave the impression of her dancing on the surface of a lake.

Aluri pursed her lips, but soon regained composure.

‘Lord Lyn, we sincerely thank you for your service. You did not only reveal that the enemy potentially seeped unto our lands beyond the barrier but caught and brought them all here. Single-handedly.’ The last word felt demanding, almost like a challenge.

Lyn shrugged. ‘I’ve fought worse.’

She walked up to Nehlia, staring down at the woman. Nehlia sneered and opened her mouth, showing her newly gained canines. The knight crouched, then all of a sudden, her hand jerked and grabbed the commander at the throat, pulling her face close to hers. Reynard instinctively stepped closer; Maeve swallowed.

‘No humanity abides in them anymore,’ the knight said. ‘Nothing to save, nothing to rekindle, nothing to heal. They are hollow, vacuous, just as all the vermin the Gods bore upon us.’ Her head snapped at Maeve’s direction, eyes squinting. ‘You feel it, too.’

Maeve blinked when all gazes fell on her. Then she slowly nodded. If she were to try and heal Nehlia of her wounds, the faelin could not find a way to her being; Maeve felt no pulses of life from her, nor from the two soldiers.

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Darine frowned, eyes flashing between the both of them.

‘Thus,’ Lyn continued, turning her head back to Nehlia, ‘I suggest we get rid of them the same way we would get rid of any such vermin. With one,’ her grip tightened on the woman’s neck, ‘quick,’ Nehlia groaned, ‘strong,’ the Army Commander’s heels kicked at the ground as she tried to escape, ‘stab at their heart.’ Nehlia whimpered as a stray dog. Maeve recoiled in repugnance; it indeed sounded like an animal trapped and caged.

‘Enough, Lyn!’ snapped Mindu. The knight let go of Nehlia’s throat, and the woman, on all fours, briskly crawled away from her captor, as much as the chain let her do so.

‘At your command,’ Lyn bowed her head, then turned, and left without uttering a single word.

Aluri sighed. ‘Darine?’

The redhead Reborn scoffed. ‘Perhaps we should ask Merv.’

‘It’s Maeve,’ Amodh growled in an instant. Darine’s brow raced to her hairline. She blinked, then slowly smiled.

‘But of course. What’s your opinion, Maeve?’

Something warm began to unfold in Maeve’s chest as she felt inexplicable gratitude for Amodh.

‘It is true that I don’t sense the same … want for life as I do in all of you. I can’t explain it, but I’m afraid … they are doomed.’

‘I suggest we avoid taking hasty measures,’ Reynard said quickly as Mindu rose. ‘It might be valuable to examine them further, that’s all I say.’

‘I wonder who you’d send to examine them, hunter,’ Mindu shook his head. ‘They are dangerous. As such, we cannot let them go, but we cannot let them live among us either. Death, it is.’

Maeve straightened and stepped closer to the Stormwalker. The only logical solution was to end the half-demons’ pain, quick, as Lyn said; but taking a glance at Nehlia, rabid as she seemed, Maeve just could not see the former Army Commander being culled as a cow.

‘I know we need to accept the facts,’ she said. ‘But I still ask you, I beg you, Stormwalker, please, let these souls live. They are likely to be doomed, there might be hardly any chance to reverse this. But if there is a way, I will find it. I will find the thinnest of threads of life in them.’

Mindu watched the prisoners in contemplating silence. Then, he turned to his wife, a question untold, conveyed only through his eyes. Aluri clenched her jaws, then nodded.

‘Very well. The prisoners are to be dealt with as prisoners, for that is what they are now. But we will not kill them.’

‘There is only one more thing we need to talk about,’ Aluri said. ‘They managed to get through the barrier. Sooner or later, the others will find a way, too. The question is, what then?’

‘There’s the chamber below the sanctuary,’ Mindu said softly. Darine sighed.

‘I’ve told you a dozen times I cannot get it working. That’s a dead end if Bryne doesn’t show up eventually.’

Aluri’s eyes widened and whirled to face her husband, but Mindu held his hand. ‘They know all about it.’ Then, he turned to Darine. ‘Two are more than one.’

Darine smirked, looking at Maeve, incredulous. ‘That’s not always the case.’

‘What’s this about?’ Reynard asked.

‘If your Reborn is willing to cooperate—’

‘Lady Maeve is not my Reborn. She’s free to decide as she sees fit.’

‘Understood. If she is willing to cooperate, we might have a chance to flee when it comes to blows. Or even before.’

‘Is there any place safer on this Isle than the Ridge?’

‘No,’ Mindu smiled.

‘I can’t follow you, Stormwalker.’

‘We would abandon Boar Isle. We could travel to any of the isles. We could even go straight to Grospan.’