Danger—this came from the arion in the western stables, the one Effrax had affectionately dubbed ‘Pesky.’
Show me, she implored again. The arion, recognizing her mental signature, obliged her with an image smeared with the color of fear. Roxanne’s blood turned to frigid sludge.
“Effrax,” she hissed, shaking his shoulder. “Get up!”
Effrax groaned and rolled over in his sleep. Roxanne, who was now fully awake, ripped the blankets from the bed and hurled them aside.
“Get up! The palace is under attack—shadowbeasts have surrounded the grounds!”
Instantly he was awake, his eyes round as saucers in the dimness. Roxanne threw him his shirt from where he’d dropped it as she pulled on the green silk trousers Taeleia had gifted her for the audience with Stonestryker. Her other set of hardy trav
