Eight years ago, everything changed for Devlin…
We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Emily Victoria’s Silver in the Mist, a YA fantasy out from Inkyard Press on November 1st.
Eight years ago, everything changed for Devlin: Her country was attacked. Her father was killed. And her mother became the Whisperer of Aris, the head of the spies, retreating into her position away from everyone… even her daughter.
Joining the spy ranks herself, Dev sees her mother only when receiving assignments. She wants more, but she understands the peril their country, Aris, is in. The malevolent magic force of The Mists is swallowing Aris’s edges, their country is vulnerable to another attack from their wealthier neighbor, and the magic casters who protect them from both are burning out.
Dev has known strength and survival her whole life, but with a dangerous new assignment of infiltrating the royal court of their neighbor country Cerena to steal the magic they need, she learns that not all that glitters is weak. And not all stories are true.
We might technically work for the crown, but it’s our job to make sure no one knows that, including the first group of soldiers we run into once we’re back over the wall. While most of them head off to report, the remaining two take us into custody for being suspicious.
So now we sit in the barracks at the palace, not two wings over from our rooms, each with an arm cuffed to a chair. Lochlan slouches beside me. They reach for their cuff with their free hand and I knock it away.
“Don’t pick the lock,” I hiss. I give a warning glance to the two soldiers who are currently hunched in discussion. No doubt about what we saw.
“We could have already been out the window by now,” Lochlan mutters. “And they wouldn’t have noticed.”
“If the Whisperer wants us to break out, she’ll indicate so. It’s the soldiers and the casters who contain the phantoms. If we’re needed here to report on what we saw, then here’s where we’ll stay.”
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Silver in the Mist
Lochlan groans and sinks lower into their seat. “Can’t you break just one of her rules?”
That stings. I don’t particularly like being cuffed to a chair either, especially when gaining our own freedom would be so mind-bogglingly easy.
But then I see Lochlan’s knee bouncing up and down, and how thin their lips are. They’re like me. Normally they know how to hide. The fact that their emotions are slipping onto their face means they’re really worried. I’m not used to them being the worried one. “It’s going to be okay,” I say quietly. “We stopped it.”
They tug on the shard of filigree at their neck. “It shouldn’t have been there, Dev. We both know that. What if something is wrong with the barrier? Really wrong? I’m not a caster anymore. If something happens, I won’t be able to—”
They cut off, staring down at their hand so forcefully it’s a wonder magic doesn’t bloom from their fingers through sheer force of will.
My cuff just lets me reach over and squeeze Lochlan’s hand. Looking at them now, thinking of what almost could have happened in the Broken City, I’m so scared of losing them. Lochlan knows me better than anyone. They’ve seen so many of my sides that I hide from everyone else.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “About before. I shouldn’t have said those things. I shouldn’t have gotten angry at you when you were just trying to help.”
Lochlan looks at me for a moment. Then they squeeze back.
“It’s all right. I know my incredibly wise life advice comes off as intimidating to some.”
I choke down my laugh. “You’re lucky these cuffs aren’t long enough for me to smack you.”
The door swings open and I straighten as a captain of the guard steps into the room, with my mother right behind her.
The captain nods at her men. “Unchain the witnesses. We’re handing them over to the Whisperer.”
The soldiers unlock us, and Lochlan offers them a sickly sweet smile before stretching.
“Come,” the Whisperer says.
We follow her as we leave the barracks and go to our own hallways. My bed is a siren’s call but it will be hours before I can collapse into it.
Only then the Whisperer stops before the dormitories. “Lochlan, return to your room. I want to speak to my daughter alone.”
Both of us freeze. The last time my mother called me her daughter, out loud, before witnesses, was eight years ago.
Lochlan gives me a worried glance, but heads off to their room. The Whisperer keeps going, and I follow her back to her office.
Reinolds is organizing papers in one of the bookshelves. When he sees me, nothing in his face changes, yet I catch the sudden shift in his posture. The tension.
My mother must too.
She walks over to her desk. “If you have something to say, Reinolds, say it.”
If it was me, I don’t think I’d be brave enough to say anything. But he does, accentuating his words with a respectful nod. “You know my thoughts, Whisperer. I still worry about the risk.”
My mother’s back is to me. I can’t see her expression. But her words are clear in the quiet office. “Sometimes there is no perfect choice, Reinolds. You merely have to go with the best option available to you.”
Reinolds pauses, but this time he chooses not to say anything else. “Yes, Whisperer.” He leaves.
My mother sits at her desk and I step forward. I want to ask what that was about, but that would be insolent.
She picks up a quill. Puts it back down. “You could have been killed out there,” she finally says.
I wasn’t expecting those words. A small burn of hope enters into my heart.
“You know we have no people to spare right now,” she continues. “You should have been more careful.”
The hope snuffs out. I think of the words Lochlan had said to me just this morning. Could I ever be that bold in front of her? “I wasn’t killed, Whisperer. I stopped the phantom. I did what I was trained to do.”
The Whisperer tilts her head, studying me.
This time, I look back, trying to be the person I’m out there in the field. Because I’m tired of her looking right through me when all I want is for her to truly see me for who I am.
“I have a mission for you.”
After what the Whisperer had just said to me, those were absolutely the last words I expected to hear from her. They throw me.
“A mission for me and Lochlan, you mean?” We always run missions in pairs.
“No. They won’t be joining you this time. You’ll be traveling to Cerena, where you will coordinate with our people who are already there.”
I know we have agents in Cerena. The only one I can name, though, is Layde Elirra, a spy who was once close to both of my parents. She’s a legend who moved to Cerena decades ago and who’s worked her way up to the highest strata of the Cerenian court.
“Devlin, understand that this is not like your previous missions. You will not be merely going somewhere to steal something and then to return. You will be undercover for weeks and if you are discovered, you will most certainly be executed.”
Executed.
It’s not that I’ve never faced risk before, even the risk of a painful death. But sneaking into an enemy camp is a far cry from going undercover in the capital, and facing the full wrath of the Cerenian monarch’s whims.
As soon as I have the thought, I shove it away. This is what I wanted. A chance to prove myself to my mother. If this is as important as she’s making this sound, if she’s trusting me with this, then surely…
I straighten, clasping my hands behind my back. “What is it that you want me to do, Whisperer?”
She nods. “I want you to go to Cerena and kidnap the great caster, Layde Alyse.”
Excerpted from Silver in the Mist. Copyright © 2022 by Emily Victoria. Published by Inkyard Press.
