Vernon took a small sip. “I suppose you think plying me with ale and talking like we’re steadfast friends will get you what you want to know.”
“Would you prefer the alternative?” She smiled slightly. “I certainly don’t.”
“The methods may differ, but the end result will be the same.”
“Tell me something interesting, Vernon, and maybe it will change.”
His eyes swept over her. “Had I known you’d grow into such a queen, perhaps I would not have bothered to kneel for Adarlan.” A sly smile. “So different from your parents. Did your father ever torture a man?”
Ignoring the taunt, Aelin drank, swishing the ale in her mouth, as if it could wash away the taint of this place. “You tried and failed to win power for yourself. First by stealing it from Elide, then by trying to sell her to Erawan. Morath has sacked Perranth, and no doubt marches on Orynth, and yet we find you here. Hiding.” She drank again. “One might think Erawan’s favor had shifted elsewhere.”
“Perhaps he stationed me here for a reason, Majesty.”
Her magic had already felt him out. To make sure no heart of iron or Wyrdstone beat in his chest.
“I think you were cast aside,” she said, leaning back and crossing her arms. “I think you outlived your usefulness, especially after you failed to recapture Elide, and Erawan didn’t feel like entirely ridding himself of a lackey, but also didn’t want you skulking about. So here you are.” She waved a hand to the chamber, the mountain above them. “The lovely Ferian Gap.”
“It’s beautiful in the spring,” Vernon said.
Aelin smiled. “Again, tell me something interesting, and perhaps you’ll live to see it.”
“Do you swear it? On your throne? That you shall not kill me?” A glance toward Fenrys and Gavriel, stone-faced behind her. “Nor any of your companions?”
Aelin snorted. “I was hoping you’d hold out longer before showing your hand.” She drained the rest of her ale. “But yes. I swear that neither me nor any of my companions will kill you if you tell us what you know.”
Fenrys started. All the confirmation Vernon needed that she meant it—that they had not planned it.
Vernon drank deeply from his ale. Then said, “Maeve has come to Morath.”
Aelin was glad she was sitting. She kept her face bored, bland. “To see Erawan?”
“To unite with him.”
CHAPTER 80
The room was spinning slightly. Even the droplet of her mother’s magic couldn’t steady her.
Worse. Worse than anything Aelin had imagined hearing from Vernon’s lips.
“Did Maeve bring her army?” Her cool, unruffled voice sounded far, far away.
“She brought no one but herself.”
“No army—none at all?”
Vernon drank again. “Not that I saw before Erawan packed me off on a wyvern in the dead of night. Claimed I had asked too many questions and I was better suited to be stationed here.”
Erawan or Maeve had to have known. Somehow. That they’d wind up here, and planted Vernon in their path. To tell them this.
“Did she say where her army was?” Not Terrasen—if it had gone ahead to Terrasen …
“She did not, but I assumed her forces had been left near the coast, to await orders on where to sail.”
Aelin shoved aside her rising nausea. “Did you learn what Maeve and Erawan plan to do?”
“Face you, I’d wager.”
She made herself lean back in her seat, her face bored, casual. “Do you know where Erawan keeps the third Wyrdkey?”
“What’s that?”
Not a misleading question. “A sliver of black stone—like the one planted in Kaltain Rompier’s arm.”
Vernon’s eyes shuttered. “She had the fire gift, too, you know. I tremble to think what might happen if Erawan put the stone within your arm.”
She ignored him. “Well?”
Vernon finished his ale. “I don’t know if he had another beyond what was in Kaltain’s arm.”
“He did. He does.”
“Then I don’t know where it is, do I? I only knew of the one my cunning little niece stole.”
Aelin refrained from grinding her teeth. Maeve and Erawan—united. And not a whisper of where Dorian and Manon were with the two other keys.
She didn’t acknowledge the walls that began pressing in, the cold sweat again sliding down her back. “Why did Maeve ally with Erawan?”
“I was not privy to that discussion. I was dispatched here quickly.” A flash of annoyance. “But Maeve somehow has … influence over Erawan.”
“What happened to the Ironteeth stationed here at the Gap?”
“Called northward. To Terrasen. They were given orders to join with the legion already on its way after routing the army at the border, then at Perranth.”
Oh gods. It took all her training to think past the roaring in her head.
“One hundred thousand soldiers march on Orynth,” Vernon said, chuckling. “Will that fire of yours be enough to stop them?”
Aelin put a hand on Goldryn’s hilt, her heart thundering. “How far are they from the city?”
Vernon shrugged. “They were already within a few days’ march when the Ironteeth legion left here.”
Aelin calculated the distance, the terrain, the size of their own army. They were two weeks away at best—if the weather didn’t hinder them. Two weeks through dense forest and enemy territory.
They’d never make it in time.
“Do Maeve and Erawan go to join them?”
“I’d assume so. Not with the initial group, for reasons I was not told, but they will go to Orynth. And face you there.”
Her mouth turned dry. Aelin rose.
Vernon frowned at her. “Don’t you wish to ask if I know of Erawan’s weaknesses, or any surprises in store for you?”
“I have everything I need to know.” She jerked her chin to Fenrys and Gavriel and the former peeled away from the wall to open the door. The latter, however, began tightening Vernon’s chains once more. Anchoring him to the chair, binding his hands to the arms.
“Aren’t you going to unchain me?” Vernon demanded. “I gave you what you wished.”
Aelin took a step into the hall, noting the fury on Lorcan’s face. He’d heard every word—including her oath not to let him slaughter Vernon.
Aelin threw Vernon a crooked smile over her shoulder. “I said nothing about unchaining you.”
Vernon went still.
Aelin shrugged. “I said none of us would kill you. It’s not our fault if you can’t get out of those chains, is it?”
The blood drained from Vernon’s face.
Aelin said quietly, “You chained and locked my friend in a tower for ten years. Let’s see how you enjoy the experience.” She let her smile turn vicious. “Though, once the trainers here are dealt with, I don’t think there will be anyone left to feed you. Or bring you water. Or even hear your screaming. So I doubt you’ll make it to ten years before the end claims you, but two days? Three? I can accept that, I think.”
“Please,” Vernon said as Gavriel reached for the door handle—to seal the man inside.
“Marion saved my life,” Aelin said, holding the man’s gaze. “And you gleefully bowed to the man who killed her. Perhaps even told the King of Adarlan where to find us. All of us.”
“Please!” Vernon shrieked.
“You should have conserved that tankard of ale,” was all Aelin said before she nodded to Gavriel.
Vernon began screaming as the door shut. And Aelin turned the key.
Silence filled the hall.
Aelin met Elide’s wide-eyed stare, Lorcan savagely satisfied at her side.
“It won’t be quick this way,” Aelin said, extending the key to Elide. The rest of the question hung there.
Vernon kept screaming, pleading for them to come back, to unchain him.
Elide studied the sealed door. The desperate man behind it.
The Lady of Perranth took the outstretched key. Pocketed it. “We should find a better way to seal that room.”