Where were the soldats?
“Do you know how to get to the gate from here?”
Roa tapped her head. “Your brother’s map is in here.”
Asha shook her head. “Don’t take the main streets.” She sank to a crouch, holding the glow of her torch just above the floor while she drew a rough map in the dust. “This way will take more time, but more streets branch off it.” Roa crouched with her, watching silently as she drew. “You’ll have more escape routes this way, if you need them. And no one will expect you to take the most cumbersome way.”
Roa’s eyes memorized the path made by Asha’s fingertip.
Asha handed over the torch. “You’ll need it for your arrows.”
Dipping her head in the barest of nods, Roa said, “May the Old One guide your steps.”
Asha climbed out the window and into the branches of the pomegranate tree, then quickly glanced back.
“Roa?”
The girl in the window paused.
“Don’t break my brother’s heart.”
Roa smiled a small smile. “Is that a threat, Iskari?” And then she raised her fist over her own heart in a silent salute.
Asha dropped to the street below. Gathering the darkness around her like a cloak, she crept through the shadows, making her way to the palace alone. And all the while, she felt Kozu in her mind. Restless. Pacing. Wondering where she was.
Forty-Seven
Devoid of marching soldats and the sounds and smells of the night market, the city seemed lifeless. No donkeys brayed. No beggars sat with outstretched palms. No water sellers wandered or called. The night was silent around Asha. The thud of her own boots on dusty streets and tiled rooftops echoed loudly in her ears, so she took them off and left them behind, continuing barefoot.
It felt like walking into a trap.
Asha had walked into a trap once before. She’d been hunting down a very old dragon and, after two days, found herself going in circles. It was on the third day that she realized the dragon was leading her in those circles.Itwas trackingher, keeping to the shadows, just out of sight.
The only reason Asha defeated it was because she pretended not to know. She played its game, walked into its trap, and when the dragon had her cornered and alone, Asha revealed just how unoblivious she was... and how sharp her claws were.
The trap waiting for her now was not so different from that dragon’s. The only thing to do was step right into it.
Swinging herself down from the roof and into one of the palace’s covered walkways, Asha paused in the arched window to scan the shadows. She was about to jump down when the sound of voices stopped her.
Asha heard Dax’s voice first, followed by her father’s. She lowered her bare feet to the marble floor, following their voices in the direction of her father’s largest courtyard. The same courtyard where Elorma first called her.
“I won’t,” Dax said.
“Then I’ll start killing them, one by one. Starting with this one.”
Asha stepped into the archway. The walls were lit with torches burning in their sconces. Their light glinted off a familiar black blade, gripped in the dragon king’s hand. It was one of her slayers. The last time she’d seen them, she’d been defending Kozu in the meadow.
Her father pressed its edge to a throat.
Torwin’sthroat.
“Stop!”
The dragon king looked to the archway. “There you are.” Her father sounded strangely relieved. As if, in spite of everything, the sight of his Iskari was a salve for his soul.
Dax turned. His hands were tied behind his back and the two soldats guarding him had his weapons.
“Asha,” Dax said, “I told you not to—”
