The message came at midnight.
William found it tucked under his door—a scrap of parchment, folded once, sealed with a crude wax stamp. No words. Just a symbol. A tree with silver leaves.
Kaelen's mark.
He burned the message in the hearth and walked out into the dark.
---
The meeting place was in the Underbelly.
Not the tunnels where the Rust had grown, but deeper. Lower. A chamber that had been sealed for decades, hidden behind a collapsed staircase. William had to crawl through a gap in the stones to enter.
Kaelen was waiting inside.
She was not alone.
Twenty people sat in a circle around a fire—easterners, by the look of their clothes. Hard faces. Calloused hands. Eyes that had seen too much.
"You came alone," Kaelen said.
"You said to come alone."
"I also said to trust no on
