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Everyone, Darrow included, turned to the girl No one had an answer No lie to offer

So they again faced the arathered on the plain, its farthest reaches now visible

"One hundred thousand," Ansel of Briarcliff announced softly

CHAPTER 76

"It’s possible--to show a different world?" Dorian asked Maeve when they were again in their tower roo mirrors, yes"

Dorian lifted a brow

"You have seen yourself the power of witch mirrors What it did to Aelin Galathynius and Manon Blackbeak Who do you think taught the witches such power? Not the Fae" A sh "And how do you think I have been able to see so far, hear the voices of my eyes, all the way from Doranelle? There are mirrors to spy, to travel, to kill Even now, Eraields thee with the Ironteeth" With the witch towers

Maeve lounged, a queen with no crown "I can show him what he wishes to see"

Dorian opened his mouth, then considered the words

"An illusion You don’t plan to show him Orcus or Mantyx at all"

She cut hiht of hand--while you enter the tower"

"I can’t get in"

"I am a world-walker," Maeve said "I have traveled between universes Do you thinkkept you frohtened "Brannon Galathynius are of do so"

"So you could not transport Erawan’s armies there for him"

"No I can only enter on foot There are too "

"Erawan is aware of your gift, so he’ll likely have taken steps to guard his own roo the, triumphant smile

Yet Dorian asked, "Why not do this from the start?"

"Because I had not yet decided it orth the risk Because he had not yet pushedmy handmaidens here, to be mere foot soldiers"

"You care about them--the spiders"

"You will find, Your Majesty, that a loyal friend is a rare thing indeed They are not so easy to sacrifice"

"You offered up six of them to those princesses"

"And I shall re as I live," Maeve said, and some kernel of ely I tellof the creatures I knew They wished to helpare evil"

"Erawan is"

"Yes," she said, and her eyes darkened "He and his brothers … they are the worst of our kind Their rule was through fear and pain They delight in such things"

"And you do not?"

Maeve twirled an inky strand around a finger And didn’t answer

Fine Dorian went on, "So you shall break past Erawan’s wards on his room, open the portal for me, and I’ll slip in while you distract him with an illusion about his brothers" He frowned "As soon as I find the key, he’ll know you’ve deceived him We’ll have to leave quickly"

Her o to wherever you have hidden the others"

Dorian kept every expression off his face "You’re certain he won’t know he’s being tricked?"

"Orcus is his brother But Orcus was also h"

Dorian considered "What tihtfall

That hen Maeve had told Erawan to ht and dark, when one force yielded to another When she would open the portal for Dorian from rooms away