Chapter 12: What He Gave Her
Kael led me down.
Not through the great hall, not through the corridors I had walked yesterday with Oryn, but down, through a narrow stairwell behind the war room that spiralled into the dark like a corkscrew into the body of the kingdom. The stones grew colder as we descended. The torchlight thinned. The air took on the dry, mineral smell of a place that did not see the sun.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"The old vault." His voice was quiet ahead of me, his hand still warm in mine. "There is something in it that has been waiting for you longer than you have been alive."
The stairs ended at an iron door. Kael pushed it open with one hand.
The room beyond was round, low-ceilinged, lit by oil lamps set into the stone. Wooden racks lined the curved walls, h
