(Rudina Vision)
Rudina ran through the smoke with a baby pressed against her chest, her silver crown broken and bloody inside one hand.
Her hair was loose, her white dress burned at the hem, and blood marked every step she took across the nursery stones.
Behind her, men shouted.
Blackfang men.
Blood Feather servants.
A woman with Ashina’s eyes stood by the south gate, smiling while royal guards choked on poisoned wine.
Sassaba.
I knew her without being told.
Rudina stumbled near the center stone, clutching the child tighter when a blade struck her shoulder from behind.
“Give the girl to Blackfang,” a man said, and his voice made my blood turn cold because it carried Bardolph’s family pride before Bardolph was born.
Bardolph’s father stepped into the red moonlight, young, beautif
