They left before dawn.

  Iliana led the way, her cloak fluttering in the morning breeze, the edges trimmed in silver in the breaking dark. Behind her rode David, the others followed, each astride a horse bred for speed and stamina. Two of Balorn’s soldiers followed close behind, their armor dull but polished, their expressions unreadable.

  The city gates opened with an aged groan. There was no fanfare, no soldiers lining to salute as they galloped away. David felt like a thief escaping into the night.

  Past the city walls, the world changed. The road beneath them turned from polished stone to fissured dirt, laced with old wagon tracks and the footprints of marching boots. The landscape was jagged—distant cliffs, wind-warped trees that sloped upward like fingers trying to scratch the sky.

  They rode fast, but not urgently. Iliana kept a steady pace, speaking little. David let the rhythm of the horse lull his thoughts until the distant hum of that familiar power made his eyes snap open wider. No one spoke as they got closer, but David knew they all felt it.

  This was a different machination from what they were used to. David could recognize the working of essence whenever and wherever he saw it. But this was different. And he could see the effect of it as they got closer. It tugged at the edges of his perception, wrong and wild, like a wound torn open, oozing and infecting everything around it.

  “The Gate,” Iliana called back, breaking her silence. “We’re almost there.”

  The wind picked up as they crested a hill. It left a foul taste in his throat. Made him want to spit. His belly churned, and if he wasn’t protecting himself with essence, he would have fallen off his mount. He glanced back to find Elisha protecting Gis and Carlos. Chloe rode with Zoey, and she hummed a tune as they followed.

  He didn’t need the light of dawn to know that it had changed the landscape, too. But as sunlight speared through the clouds, sprinkling lights of dawn, David saw all the signs. Darkened leaves still clinging to branches, and the branches carrying spots of sickness. They rode past the remains of the dead, humans and beasts.

  Then all of the sickness seemed to ebb until the air was good to breathe again, confounding David.

  A shimmer in the air shone in the distance.

  Tents filled the clearing, scattered about in clusters. Hundreds, David thought. He could see soldiers waking already. He could hear the sound of a horn waking up the soldiers for the day’s task. Tents lined the outskirts, and a few siege wagons stood abandoned.

  David frowned once he could see the welcoming party waiting for them a few paces away from the main camp. From the way the soldiers stood, David could tell they were not welcome there. But he didn’t care about how they felt or what they wanted. He was tired of playing by their rules. Yet, he let Iliana lead. He would let her rein in her people or he’d walk over them.

  One figure stood apart from the others. The woman was older than Iliana, but not so aged. Her dark hair was braided back tightly, and her face carried the frown of one who thought they had better things to do. Power wrapped around her like coiled mist. At first glance, she looked unarmed, but David’s eyes caught the glint of gemstones embedded across her breastplate and left gauntlet. Each pulsed with the steady thrum of the warden’s power. It still amazed David how Ishkar had managed to do it. But it explained their absolute devotion and reliance.

  She turned as they approached, and her gaze went past Iliana and David and fell on Elisha. David saw the look of shock pass her face, then it was quickly masked and hidden. She snapped back into place.

  “You brought outsiders to the Gate,” she said, her voice flat, like a disappointed parent.

  Iliana dismounted and bowed to the woman. “Commander, I was charged to bring them by the First Hand. I have the king’s seal.”

  The woman’s lips thinned. “So the King still clings to the illusion that we will be freed by whatever is in there?” She shook her head, then took the seal Iliana offered her with glaring annoyance. David slid off his horse. His thighs were sore, but soon he didn’t feel the stings anymore. Instead, his eyes veered past the tents to the fissure in space beyond the camp. It shimmered again, casting a flash of silver light. And as it did, he felt the power within the gateway surge roughly. The air gained a sudden chill that quickly ended.

  David stepped forward, drawn by the impossible shimmer of the Gate. Two soldiers stepped into his path, their eyes daring him to push past them. Their armor clinked as they moved—worn, dull iron layered expertly. David stopped, eyeing them without fear.

  “Step aside,” he said.

  They didn’t move. Behind them, the Commander was still studying the King’s seal. Her eyes flicked over the parchment slowly, as though she expected it to change under her scrutiny. She finally looked up with a deep frown, her lips pulling back in a hiss.

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  “I haven’t given permission yet,” she said.

  David turned fully to face her. “Then hurry. We need to begin as soon as possible.”

  “The faster you leave my camp, the better it is for all of us anyway,” the Commander muttered, rolling the seal and tossing it back to Iliana. “But I’ll do my duty. You should know that no one who has gone through that Gate has ever come out.”

  David nodded patiently. “We have heard that.”

  The Commander’s eyes lingered on him for a beat longer. Then she turned to bark an order to a nearby soldier. “Ready my horse. And you should do the same.” The last part she said to David.

  Iliana stepped toward David. Her eyes were strangely soft, as if she wanted to say something and yet thought it wrong.

  “You’ll leave now?” she asked.

  David nodded.

  “Then my task here is done.”

  She didn’t wait for a response, only looked at him once more with what David interpreted as pity, before she turned, mounted her horse, and galloped away.

  David watched her go, then turned back to the Commander. “There’s something I need to ask before we go through.”

  “Speak.”

  “The Gate’s corruption… it lessened the closer we came. Why?”

  “No one knows,” she replied with a shrug. “Some believe it’s the Gate’s way of keeping people out, like a warning. The sickness sits around it, but never touches the core.”

  That sounded like something made specifically. David’s frown deepened as he contemplated her answer. Then turned his thoughts inward. “Vith?”

  “You think someone created it?” The fragment said. “You are right. They made it look like an accident, but you can see the intent in the flow of essence.”

  “The power leaking through the Gate… It’s incompatible?”

  “Exactly. The tear is bleeding into this place, slowly eroding it.”

  A thread of cold settled across David’s skin.

  [Your connection with Vith (Essence) has increased]

  He exhaled sharply. That explained the warping trees. The dead. The decay. And why the city was slowly fading away.

  “Mount up!” the Commander called.

  David nodded to the others. Gis still looked pale, but she climbed into her saddle without complaint. Carlos kept close to her side. Zoey helped Chloe onto their shared mount. Elisha remained quiet, his armor of shadow a silent cloud around him.

  The Commander mounted with an ease born of repetition, then pointed toward the Gate.

  “Let’s move,” she ordered.

  As they rode, the Gate grew. Its shimmer no longer flickered like a distant mirage—it now loomed like a veil ripped in two. Its edges flared and twitched. The air around it warped, curling and stretching as if reality held its breath.

  David pulled his horse to a slow stop as they neared the threshold. Now that he was close, he could see that the fissure wasn’t a smooth tear—it had texture, depth, and… layers. Like a wound that had scabbed over and cracked again. The silver light it emitted wasn’t warm. It was cold and constant, like moonlight shining through ice.

  He dismounted, his boots crunching the brittle ground.

  Power radiated from the Gate, but it didn’t carry a scent of evil or corruption. And yet… the world around it was unraveling to it. The ground was gray and brittle. The very air carried no weight.

  “This wasn’t made with essence,” he whispered.

  “What?” The Commander asked, matching beside him. She didn’t want to get close to it, David could see it in the way she leaned away. As if distance would change what it was?

  “Nothing,” he said quickly. “We’re not rushing in.”

  The Commander turned sharply. “Why not? You’ve come all this way. The sooner you enter, the sooner this ends.”

  “We’re not scouts! This isn’t a raid. I need to understand what’s on the other side before we step through.”

  They both heard it then. Hooves. Fast and many.

  He turned toward the west, the commander moving with him. A look of severe displeasure masked her already contoured expression. Dust rose over the ridge.

  Then they all saw the banners—silver trimmed in blue, marked with the symbol of a praying woman. And behind the banners came a wave of riders.

  “Qael Dorei,” the Commander hissed, voice sharp with fury. “Of all the cursed times—”

  The camp stirred as horns echoed in the morning air. Soldiers moved like clockwork, grabbing weapons, shouting orders. The horn didn’t end until its low note echoed into the hills.

  David stepped forward, studying the riders. They weren’t charging, not yet. But they came with speed and numbers.

  The Commander spat a curse. “They come whenever they see us get close to the gate. To perch and watch and quarrel.”

  Zoey came to stand beside David. “Friends of ours?”

  “Not even a little,” he muttered.

  “Do we run?” Carlos asked.

  “No,” David said. “They are not our problem.”

  The Commander turned to him, fury burning in her eyes. “You’ll go through that Gate now, before they force us to defend it. If the Qael Dorei see you, they might make trouble. They’ll break the truce.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Elisha said quietly.

  The Commander clenched her jaw. “The Qael Dorei doesn’t deal with sense. They are only interested in what benefits them.”

  David looked again at the Gate. The tear shimmered, its silver light dancing all over the surface, as if aware of the rising threat behind them. It pulsed—once, twice. Then it went still again.

  He took a breath.

  “Ready yourselves,” he said to the others. “We’re going in.”