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"I know," Rowan said He shouldn’t have pushed "I’m sorry"

Fenrys just nodded "I haven’t been able to stoain," he said, and repeated, "I’ he’d ht not have even found hihtened "He could be anywhere"

"He could be dead," mur to the wall’s edge to survey the battlefield below and distant daazed toward it as well, her blood-soaked hair ripping free of its braid in the harsh wind Flowing toward those mountains, the destruction that would soon be unleashed

She said nothing Had done nothing since Nesryn and Sartaq brought the news Her exact sort of nightmare, he realized, to be unable to help, to be forced to watch while others suffered No words could comfort her, no words could fix this Stop this

"I could try to track him," Gavriel offered

Rowan shook off his creeping dread "I’ll fly out, try to pinpoint hinal back to you--"

"Don’t bother," said Princess Hasar, and Roas about to snarl his retort when she pointed to the battlefield "She’s already ahead of you"

Rohirled, the others following suit

"No," Fenrys breathed

There, galloping across the plain on a familiar black horse, was Elide

"Farasha," Chaolas if he ht jump off the battlements and chase after her "She’ll be--"

Farasha leaped over fallen bodies, weaving between the injured and dead, Elide twisting this way and that in the saddle And fro, shouting one word, one nao down there," Hasar warned, "you’ll be killed, too"

It went against every instinct, against the centuries of training and fighting he’d done with Lorcan, but the princess was right To lose one life was better than several Especially when he would need his cadre so badly during the rest of this war

Lorcan would agree--had taught Rowan to make those sorts of hard calls

Still Aelin remained silent, as if she’d descended deep within herself, and gazed at the battlefield

At the s across it

Farasha was a tempest beneath her, but the mare did not seek to unseat Elide as they thundered across the body-strewn plain

"Lorcan!"

Her shout ed by the wind, by the screa soldiers and people, by the shriek of the ruks above "Lorcan!"

She searched every corpse she passed for a hint of that shining black hair, that harsh face So many The field of the dead stretched on forever, bodies piled several deep

Farasha leaped over the sharp turns as Elide pivoted to look and look and look

Darghan horses and riders ran past So the horizon Farasha wove between the at those in her path

"Lorcan!" How small her cry sounded, how feeble

Still the dam held

I will always find you

And her words, her stupid, hateful words to hiod to do this?

Her words had all melted away the moment she’d realized he was not on the battlements The past few , Farasha keptin the wind

The daht him back to the keep

So Elide did not stop, did not look toward the doo to be unleashed

She rode, and rode, and rode

Atop the battlement, Chaol didn’t knohat to watch: the da Lady of Perranth, racing across the battlefield atop his horse

A warm hand settled on his shoulder, and he kneas Yrene without turning "I just heard about the dam I’d sent Elide to see if you were …" His wife’s words trailed off as she beheld the lone rider charging away fro for the keep