Chapter 54: Cain.

What in the goddess's name am I doing?

Lyros is standing just beside me and I can't get my hands to work properly. His voice is like cold ice down my back.

"You seem nervous, Cain."

I nod and grip the pencil tighter.

"I'll be fine."

I can do this.

I've done this a million times and I've never been this unfocused. The map is on the table in front of me and I set to work. Scouting enemy territory is something I've done for as long as I can remember.

I know of the passageways that lie under King Galan's home and I know of the ones under Alizadeh's.

I know of the walls King Rafie has around his city and I know of the evacuation ships docked at their borders.

The world that separates us from that of the humans is a world on its own. Some parts closest to the barrier have been touched by modernity, some others that still lie inland, that lie way inland, have not smelt anything like technology. They have seen it and rejected it, deciding instead to be trapped in what the humans would call t