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But he’d spent years schooling his expression against the headache-inducing perfumes his mother’s courtiers wore How far away that world see music Had they not resisted Eraould he have allowed it to still exist? Had they bowed to hiton and ruled as ataking their toll Manon and Asterin lurked nearby, hidden in the snow and stone They no doubt ates

His parting words with Manon had been brief Terse

He’d dropped the two Wyrdkeys into her awaiting palainst her iron nails Only a fool would bring theht not be your priority," Dorian said, "but they remain vital to our success"

Manon’s eyes had narrowed as she pocketed the keys, utterly unfazed at holding in her jacket a power great enough to level kingdoms "You think I’d toss them away like rubbish?"

Asterin suddenly found the snow to be in need of her careful attention

Dorian shrugged, and unbuckled Damaris, the sword too fine for a mere wyvern trainer He passed it to Manon, too An ordinary dagger would be his only weapon--and the ic in his veins "If I don’t come back," he said while she tied the ancient blade to her belt, "the keys o to Terrasen" It was the only place he could think of--even if Aelin wasn’t there to take them

"You’ll come back," Manon said It sounded like

Dorian smirked "Would you miss me if I didn’t?"

Manon didn’t reply He didn’t knohy he expected her to

He’d taken all of a step, when Asterin clasped his shoulder "In and out, quick as you can," she warned hiold-flecked black eyes

Dorian bowed his head "With rasped the dangling reins He didn’t fail to ratitude that softened Asterin’s features Or that Manon had already turned away from him

A fool to start down this path with her He should have known better

The guards’ faces became clear Dorian embraced the portrait of a tired, bored handler

He waited for the questioning, but it never cah, equally tired and bored And cold

Asterin had given hia across fro hallway Wyvern bellows and grunts sounded all around, and that rotting scent stuffed itself up his nose

But he found the stables precisely where Asterin said they’d be, the blue mare patient while he loosely tied her chains to the anchor in the wall

Dorian left Narene with a soothing pat to her neck, and went to see what the Ferian Gap est of Manon’s existence

From anticipation, she told herself Of what she had to do

Abraxos, unsurprisingly, found thele he’d no doubt waged and ith Sorrel He waited, however, beside Manon in silence, wholly focused upon the gate where Dorian and Narene had vanished

Tiht at her side

She cursed herself for needing to prove--to hio into Morath for practical, ordinary reasons Eraasn’t at the Ferian Gap It’d be safer

Soone To learn if they were To see if Petrah truly commanded the host there, and how many Ironteeth were present

He had not been trained as a spy, but he’d grown up in a court where people wielded smiles and clothes like weapons He kne to blend in, how to listen How to make people see what they wished to see

She’d sent Elide into the dungeons of Morath, Darkness da of Adarlan into the Ferian Gap was no different

It didn’t stop her breath fro the sky As if he heard so they couldn’t