Page 111

Lyr makes a soft squeak of surprise as Damon opens his eyes. He looks at them all and Lyr says quickly, “Do not try to rise. You are badly hurt.”

Damon does as Lyr bids him. Ferra moves close to the bed with a brass bowl of rose water and starts carefully dabbing a soaked linen cloth on Damon’s brow.

Kerik watches her. He has known Ferra for years. Known her as his half sister. She is weak, delicate and frequently ill. But since she left with them for the north, she has been growing noticeably stronger. There’s even a little pink in her cheeks. Perhaps Inez’s attentive care as Lady-in-Waiting is good for her. Although Kerik knows his courtly roles well enough to understand that Inez, as Empress of Azuria, should surely have Princess Ferra attending her.

When Ferra takes the cloth away, Damon shakes his head and tries to sit up and Lyr pushes him down, saying, “No. Just lie still.” It doesn’t seem to take much force at all.

Lukas says, “And what of this battle?”

Kerik pulls his shoulder back. “If Damon cannot fight, then we fight without Damon. He is one man. We still have many fighters. Harok and I can command.”

Trysta says,“Not enough fighters. The Imperial army will not turn for us without Damon. He is what they are loyal to. Not us. Him.”

“Perhaps we can have Damon,” Tobi says. And he slips into his impersonation of Damon’s voice, “If we need to produce Damon for the Imperial Army.”

“Little Beast Tamer,” Trysta says fondly, “no one would take you for Damon Darekul.”

But Kerik looks at Tobi. “What if he were glamoured?” he says.

“You have the power for that?” Perl, as ever, sounds uncertain about using magic. “We have not been in the forest long enough for you to have absorbed much power.”

“Not me,” says Kerik. He points at Lyr. “But he does. Just look at him. Yaelin’s ritual has given him more power than I have ever felt.”

Perl looks. He inhales sharply when he sees what Kerik does. Power shines out of Lyr like he’s a lantern. Kerik is certain that if he touched Lyr now it would be like touching a flame.

Tobi looks at Kerik with excitement painted on his face. “You can glamour me to look like Damon?”

“Oh yes,” says Kerik, only a little boastfully. “And with your skills you will be able to pass for him easily. With the voice, the behaviour, the way you stand. We will have Damon on the field with us as soon as the sun rises.”

43

TOBI

Snow falls lightly around Tobi as he stands in the yard behind Urynwud, weighing the Amber Blade in his hands. He knows it is heavy, but with Kerik’s magic, his arms are strong in a way he’s never experienced before. Every part of him is different. He is taller. Significantly so.

But it is strange, because although he knows he looks different. He feels exactly the same. When Harok approaches Tobi can see the strange smirk on his face. “Suskara?” he says.

Tobi laughs, “You know it's me. You saw them do it.”

“It is a strange sight,” Harok says. He does not touch Tobi as he usually would. “I will be glad when they change you back.”

“You do not want the One Man Army in your bed?” Tobi says in Damon’s voice, standing proudly with his back straight. He is eye-to-eye with Harok and it’s unnerving.

Harok looks quite pained, perhaps he finds Tobi looking him in the eye equally odd. “This magic is far more potent than any I have known. It is fae magic, not magic of the forest. I would not take it into my bed.”

Tobi feels a little stung by this, as if Harok is somehow upset that he has allowed himself to be glamoured. But there is no time to discuss it further.

Baby comes loping across the yard and makes straight for Tobi, “At least she knows me,” Tobi says, bending down to pet her.

When he straightens, Harok steps closer. Perhaps it is seeing Tobi with Baby that has convinced him that this truly is his Suskara. He does touch Tobi, only a little more cautiously than usual, sliding a hand around his waist. He pushes his face into Tobi’s neck. “You still smell the same,” he says in soft, dark Ambolk, before he kisses Tobi’s neck. Tobi realises that even his stronger legs can feel soft and weak when Harok kisses him.

But there is no time for more. Even if Harok did wish to take Tobi while he was glamoured to look like Damon.

War horns are sounding, breaking the cold air that is greying into dawn.

Tobi mounts a large horse. One of Urynwud’s vast stable. It feels strange not to be riding with Harok as he always does, but this beast is well-trained and easy to control.

He walks her around to the front of Urynwud, to the gates that lead out into the forest.