The Phoenix and the Crow

One Day You'll Run Out of Tricks

"What if I say no, Brekker?" It was mere posturing, Matthias knew that. The time for protest had long passed. They were already jogging down the gentle slope of the embassy roof toward the druskelle sector, Wylan panting from exertion, Jesper loping along with ease, and Brekker keeping pace despite his crooked gait and lack of cane. Y/N had never wished more in her life than right now to have been born a Healer.

"What if I don't give you this last bit of myself and my honor?" Matthias continued.

"You will, Helvar. Nina is on her way to the White Island right now. Are you really going to leave her stranded?" questioned Kaz.

"You presume a great deal."

"Seems like the perfect amount to me," Y/N snipped.

"These are the law courts, right?" Jesper said as they raced over the roof, catching glimpses of the elegant courtyards below, each built around a burbling fountain and dotted with rustling ice willows. "I guess if you're going to be sentenced to death, this isn't a bad place for it."

"Water everywhere," said Wylan. "Do the fountains symbolize Djel?"

"The wellspring," mused Y/N, "where all sins are washed clean."

"Or where they drown you and make you confess," Wylan said.

Jesper snorted. "Wylan, your thoughts have taken a very dark turn. I fear the Dregs have been a bad influence."

They used a doubled segment of rope and the grappling hook to cross to the roof of the druskelle sector. Wylan had to be looped into a sling, but Jesper, Kaz, and Y/N moved easily across the rope, hand over hand, with unnerving speed. Matthias approached with more caution, and though he didn't show it, he did not like the way the rope creaked and bowed with his weight.

The others pulled him onto the stone of the druskelle roof, and as Matthias stood, he was struck by a wave of vertigo. More than any place in the Ice Court, more than any place in the world, this place felt like home to him. But it was home turned on its head, his life viewed at the wrong angle.

Y/N on the other side of Kaz, stood with her fists clenched. This was the home for all the druskelleand wolves who sought to kill her kind. The home of the men she was raised to view as monsters. In the distance, she could hear the wolves barking and yapping in their kennel by the gatehouse.

Kaz secured another coil of rope to the roof's edge and prepared to rappel down to the shore.

"You know what to do," he said to Jesper and Wylan. "Eleven bells and not before."

"When have I ever been early?" asked Jesper.

Kaz braced himself for the descent and vanished over the side. Matthias waited for Y/N to scale down first before he lowered himself.

The shore surrounding the ice moat was little more than a slender, slippery rind of white stone. Kaz perched there, pressed against the wall and frowning at the moat.

"How do we cross? I don't see anything."

"Because you are not worthy."

Y/N rolled her eyes, "We're also not nearsighted. There's nothing there."

Matthias began edging along the wall, running a hand over the stone at hip level. "On Hringkalla the druskellefinish our initiation," he said. "we go from aspirant to novice druskellein the ceremony at the sacred ash."

"Where the tree talks to you." Y/N scoffed.

Matthias nearly rolled his eyes, "It's where we hope to hear the voice of Djel. But that's the final step. First, we have to cross the ice moat undetected. If we are judged worthy, Djel shows us the path."