“Yeah,” she said when she was near. “This should do you quite nicely. At least until I have time to make you something decent. Not that there’s anything wrong with this. I mean, for a human, you did a pretty okay job. Excellent for a human, really. Now all I did was . . . you all right, luv?”

Keeley couldn’t hear her, though. She was too busy looking at her hammer. The hammer that now glowed like some fabled weapon held by a god. Her knees buckled and the king’s guard caught her and helped her sit on a bench before she could hit the floor.

“You didn’t feed her, Mundric?”

“We ate! I fed her while we waited and gave her drink too. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I hope it isn’t catching. You know how diseased these humans are. A sniffle and before you know it, they’ve spread a plague that wipes out half the earth!”

“I’m fine,” Keeley said. “I’m fine. It’s just . . .”

Keeley forced herself to raise her eyes to the dwarven royals.

“I’ve just never seen anything so beautiful, Queen Vulfegundis.”

The queen looked down at the hammer. “You mean this?”

Keeley reached out to touch it but was afraid her hands were too dirty.

“Such exquisite workmanship. I can only dream of ever being this good.”

“That’s the truth,” the king muttered. “Owwww! Watcha hit me for, female?”

Vulfegundis placed the hammer into Keeley’s hands. “Take it. And give it a few practice swings.”

She pulled Keeley to her feet. “I’ll be right back.”

The queen rushed off and Keeley closed her eyes and took several breaths. She did that so she wouldn’t burst into tears. She knew the dwarves would be shocked and disgusted by such a display from a blacksmith. But the beauty of what she held . . . How could they not understand? Were they simply so used to having such beautiful things lying around? How spoiled they all were.

Determined to do what she would do with any weapon that had been modified, Keeley held the hammer in her hand. She held it at her side for a few moments, then she began to swing it a few times. Just as quickly she stopped, turning in astonishment to the king.

“How . . . how did she make it lighter? She didn’t remove anything, but she made it lighter.”

“Are you going to be all right? You look like ya might pass out. Don’t pass out.”

“I won’t. I promise I won’t.” Keeley took control and again focused on the king. “Got anything I can hit?”

The king and his guards all moved back, leaving just one poor bloke standing there.

The dwarf’s eyes grew wide and he shook his head. “That beast of a woman’s not hitting me!”

The king rolled his eyes. “Not you, idiot! Move!”

The idiot scrambled out of the way, revealing a large block of stone that had come up directly from the ground where it still stood. It had to be thousands of years old, and since it had never been destroyed despite its proximity to all these busy dwarves, Keeley assumed that it couldn’t be.

“Perfect,” Keeley said.

She stood in front of the stone and loosened up her shoulders; took a few practice swings with her hammer. When she felt comfortable, she grabbed the weapon’s handle with both hands, swung it back, delighting in how easy it was now that the hammer was just a bit lighter.

Grinning, Keeley swung the hammer forward just as she heard “wait!” in the distance, but it was too late. Her arm was already in motion and the distance was simply too short to pull back in time.

The hammer hit the stone and Keeley had to shut her eyes as it exploded into a thousand shards. Pieces of rock cut her face and neck, her bare arms and hands.

Keeley stumbled back and immediately began to shake the stone dust from her hair, terrified to open her eyes.

“What the fuck did you do to her hammer?” she heard Mundric yell.

“Not nearly as much as you think, ya dumb bastard!” Vulfegundis yelled back.

Hands grabbed Keeley and led her to another bench. Stone shards and dust were brushed away from her face and eyes so that she could finally see again.

“I am so sorry,” she said when she could look at the king and queen.

“Not your fault, darlin’ girl,” Vulfegundis said. “It was this old fool.”

“I didn’t know you made my hammer so powerful.”

Vulfegundis laughed. “That wasn’t the hammer. That was you.”

“But . . .”

“All I did was use our metals to make it lighter, so you don’t have to put as much power behind your swings and so that human magicks can’t destroy it. Oh! And it can absorb magicks. Can’t really do anything with them, but it’ll keep them off you during a fight.” She shrugged. “But that was it.”

Keeley pointed at the designs. “But these runes.”

“Old dwarf runes. I think they look nice, and the sight will terrify your human mages. But that’s about it. Didn’t want to use anything truly magickal.”

Now Keeley pointed at where the ancient rock had once stood. “Then how did I . . .”

“Since you were exerting less power to swing the hammer, you had more power to unleash on the stone, which me husband should have known.”

“How was I supposed to know that?”

“Just look at her! That’s ages of blacksmith breeding there! Och!” She dismissed the king with a wave. “Be careful with that hammer now,” she warned Keeley. “Until you get used to it. Understand?”

Keeley nodded. Still in shock.

“And I wanted to give you this.” She handed over chainmail, but it was not made of steel. “Don’t worry. It’s not magickal either. Should fit you well enough. Well, it might be tight in the shoulders, but it’ll do you a bit better than that centaur shit you’ve currently got on.”

“Be nice. They made this for me.”

Vulfegundis snorted, but Keeley couldn’t be too mad at the queen. Not after the hammer.

“How do I ever repay you for this?”

“Your firstborn,” Vulfegundis replied. But when Keeley’s eyes grew wide in panic, Vulfegundis laughed and said, “I’m only kidding. I wouldn’t want that half-centaur baby. No one would.”

“I’ve had such a lovely day—I’m going to go before you ruin it.”

“Okay. Try not to get killed.”

Knowing that was the best she would ever get out of the dwarves, Keeley simply nodded and returned to Caid and Laila with her new treasures.

* * *

Gemma didn’t know why she bothered to hide her tunic under her cape. Several religious factions had come to King Marius’s territory for protection, and they wore their robes and colors quite boldly. And she doubted she’d find her sister out here among the rabble. Beatrix barely associated with the people she’d grown up with all her life, including her own family. It was doubtful she’d care to meet the peasants lucky enough to be allowed near the castle where she slept.

But Gemma still kept the hood of her cape pulled low over her face just in case. No use taking risks this late in the game.

On the last two days of their ride here, they’d come up with a plan. Perhaps not the best plan but a plan nonetheless. It was better than nothing and it would do for now.

Gemma tugged on Quinn’s sleeve. “Where’s my sister?” she asked.

“Keeley?” he whispered back.

“No!” She couldn’t believe he’d utter that name here. Now. Was he mad?

“Ainsley. I just realized we didn’t really give her a task, and we should give her something to do.”

Quinn didn’t stop walking but his head dropped.

“What?”

“Ainsley’s with your sister. Kee—”

She snapped her fingers to stop him from saying that name. “She is?”

“Yes. She asked you both which sister she should go with, and you both ignored her, so she decided where she should go herself.”

“Oh.” Gemma grimaced. “I guess we do forget her sometimes.”

“All the time. You forget her all the time. I don’t know why. She’s a lovely girl with incredible bow skills. And if you’re not careful, Ragna is going to take advantage of the way you ignore her.”

“Would it be so bad if she joined the brotherhood?”

“Only you can answer that. But there’s the brotherhood and there’s Ragna’s loyal monk-knights. I’m not sure you want her joining them.”

He had a point.

“Speaking of which... what does that mean for us?” Quinn asked.

“What does what mean for us?”

“What does your precious membership in the brotherhood mean for us? Will we have to sneak around? Will you ever be able to show your adoration of me to others? Will you always have to pretend you loathe me even though it’s not true?”

“I feel like this is one-sided, but we’ll focus on that later. I won’t say that relationships aren’t complicated in the Order of Righteous Valor, because they can be, but not as complicated as they are in other orders. For instance, Joshua had a wife. She lived near the monastery and they loved each other and were loyal to each other until her death about a decade ago. Brother Thomassin, however, was much happier on his own. And that’s how he stayed. Things were a little more complicated for Brother Bartholemew and Brother Brín because relationships were not allowed with fellow brothers. You know, because of the complications.”

“Understandable. Who did they love?”

“Each other.”

“Oh. Oh! Okay. Awww. So they died together in battle. That’s nice.”

“The brotherhood does not involve itself with who is doing what to whom as long as it doesn’t disrupt the workings of the brotherhood.”

“So, in other words, your love for me will never die.”

Gemma started to say something but realized it wouldn’t really make much of a difference and walked on instead.