Chapter 16

Hyacinthe escorts Suren to the nearly empty dungeons, rough-handling her for show but promising an escape. He jails her beside Madoc, who is wounded and shivering. Suren faints from blood loss. While she lies still, she overhears Oak and Madoc argue: Madoc urges killing Suren; Oak refuses. Their talk reveals Madoc had a broader scheme to turn captivity into advantage.

Food arrives with a hidden key that Suren pockets. After failed lockpicking by Oak, the prisoners rest. Suren unlocks her cell, hides the key for them, and slips through the Citadel to the throne room via a servant tunnel. Finding the reliquary gone, she uses a fallen shard of Mab’s bone and a withered leaf to try to restore her tongue. A violent surge shatters nearby stick soldiers; she blacks out but wakes with her tongue regrown.

Recaptured and brought to Lady Nore’s chamber, Suren tests her voice and binds Nore with precise commands: silence, nonviolence, and obedience. She orders Nore to summon Oak; when a guard hesitates, Oak’s old authority gains their compliance. Oak learns Suren now controls Nore and admits Madoc’s failed plan hinged on winning allies, miscalculated by Hurclaw’s strength.

Suren and Oak strategize to use Tiernan’s scheduled meeting to trap Hurclaw’s forces and leverage the stick creatures. Suren has Nore arm Oak, alert Hyacinthe, and send comforts to Madoc. Doe and Fernwaif dress Suren for the march. Before departure, Suren and Oak trade barbed truths; Suren needles him about his fear of his own bloodlust, while guarding her own vulnerabilities.

The group—Suren, Oak, Lady Nore clutching the reliquary with Lord Jarel’s hands at her throat, and a braced Madoc—leaves the Citadel through the snow toward the rendezvous, Suren determined not to be ruled by fear.