Chapter 76. Night Between Teeth

The first envoy came at full dark with a flag and a lie.

He wore the Regent’s black and needle, his hair slicked, his hands soft enough to make me trust him less. He stopped at bowshot and called for parley with a voice trained to skim stone.

Syra and I went to the lip. Kael took one step behind me and to the left—habit and choice.

“Lady Shadowfang,” the envoy called, as if I’d been born to it. “The Sable Regent offers you clemency.”

“From what,” I asked. “My own home?”

“From a longer sorrow than this.” He smiled like someone who had practiced in a mirror. “Lay down the artifact. Step aside from the wall. Give us three names. We will take them and go. Your people will eat. Your bond will remain… untroubled.”

A low growl ran through the men on the parapet. Kael didn’t move; his rage sits very still when it’s thinking.

“Three names,” I repeated. “Which three?”

“Yours,” he said pleasantly. “The Ashfall Crone. The boy with the white eyes.”