Arc 5: Chapter 10: Crisis and Command
We returned to the castle hours before dawn. Immediately, it became clear something was wrong.
There were more guards at the gate than usual, including a contingent Storm Knights, the elite garrison of the Fulgurkeep. I recognized them by the brassy sheen of their steel plate, treated to give it a hue very near gold, and the sea-blue cloth of their capes and surcoats. Every tower had been festooned with lit braziers and alchemical lights in unison, making the massive castle complex and its bridge gates seem as though they had erupted like a smoldering volcano.
I was stopped at the gate by sentries with hard eyes and twitching hands. After announcing myself and putting them at relative ease, I recognized one of them and grabbed him by the shoulder before going through.
“What’s happening?” I asked. Even as I spoke, a group of armored riders emerged from the gate and tore into the city at speed.
The knight turned his attention to me. Ser Moonbrand was a Karledaler, one of Rosanna’s veterans who’d integrated into the castle’s royal guard in order to help bridge her people and her husband’s. Though he wore the brassy plate and blue cloth of a Storm Knight, the medallion worked into his armor’s heart protector remained emblazoned with the star of House Silvering.
I’d known him since well before his clipped hair had gone fully gray. Moonbrand had an angular face, gaunt cheeks, and a thin mouth almost always set in sour disapproval. Most notable was the scar tissue marring the right side of his face, very similar in color to frostbite. His right eye had a paler color than the left, closer to silver than blue.
Despite his fastidious manners, I knew him to be a fierce man-at-arms. He’d been my first choice to take on Emma’s training, if something were to happen to me. The knight’s mismatched eyes lit up when he saw me.
“Hewer.” He nodded a greeting. “I thought you’d been called back. You haven’t heard?”
“Apparently not,” I said dryly. Somewhere out in the city, bells were ringing. “What is all this?”
“There was an attack,” Ser Moonbrand told me, then corrected himself with a grimace. “Several attacks. We’re still getting reports in, but so far we’ve had news of at least six different assaults across the city.”
“Six?” I asked dumbly. “On who?”