Kingdom of Ash

said. Yet his fingers paused on her foot. “For
what it’s worth, he deserved it.” His dark
power rumbled through the room.
“Of course you’d say that.”
He shrugged, not bothering to deny it.
“Perranth will recover, you know,” he offered.
“From Morath’s sacking. And all Vernon did
to it before now.”
That had been the other thought that
weighed heavily with each mile northward.
That her city, her father and mother’s city,
had been decimated. That Finnula, her
nursemaid, might be among the dead. That
any of its people might be suffering.
“That’s if we win this war,” Elide said.
Lorcan resumed his soothing strokes.
“Perranth will be rebuilt,” was all he said.
“We’ll see that it is.”
“Have you ever done it? Rebuilt a city?”
“No,” he admitted, his thumbs coaxing the