Roa looked at the golden dragon Kozu left behind. Sensing danger, it spread its elegant wings wide. Yet it waited, perfectly still, for its rider’s command. As Rebekah shouted and her men swarmed, Dax hesitated from atop its back, looking to one person only. As if it broke his heart to leave her behind.
The sound of drawn steel made him tear his gaze from Roa. Dax bent low to the creature’s shoulder, clicking softly.
The dragon vaulted them into the sky.
Thirty-Four
“First you kill my men, then you let Daxget away?”
While Rebekah circled her, Roa stood in the middle of the carnage, exhausted and heartbroken and wanting her sister.
Rebekah’s fists were tight and trembling. Her hair hung limp along her face. And there were deep hollows carved beneath her eyes.
Unfortunately for Roa, one of the men had survived her attack and told Rebekah everything.
“What are you playing at?”
Roa hardly heard Rebekah. She was thinking of how she’d let Dax walk away. In letting him go, had she doomed Essie?
What have I done?
“I want to see my sister,” she said, turning to leave the garden.
Four armed men immediately blocked her way out.
“Seize her,” said Rebekah.
Roa drew the Skyweaver’s knife—her last remaining blade.
When they grabbed her arms, Roa tried to fight them off.She used her elbows and knees. She slammed her heels into their shins. But there were so many more of them, and they held her firm, prying the Skyweaver’s knife from her fingers. It fell to the earth with a thud.
“Let me go,”she hissed.
Rebekah picked up the knife, tucking it into her sash.
Just then, a pair of frantic footsteps sounded in the arcade. Hands went to hilts. All eyes turned to the sound, ready for a fight.
But it was just one of Rebekah’s men: a young man with light brown hair cropped close to his head. “Mistress.” He was out of breath and doubled over. “It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?” Rebekah’s voice was razor-sharp.
“I think... I think you should come and see.”
They dragged Roa back through the empty royal quarters. She didn’t fight this time. There was no point. Rebekah had the Skyweaver’s knife, and Roa was surrounded and overpowered. She would have to wait for the right moment to escape and find Essie.
Torches burned in their sconces while the early-morning sunlight crept in, chasing the shadows out of the corridors. They passed the throne room and stopped when they came to the hall of fonts.
Seven fountains flowed throughout this roofless court. Between them grew geometrical gardens, full of trees and shrubs and flowers of all kinds. They stopped at the largest fountain, surrounded by a circle of bright yellow hibiscus in full bloom and half-shrouded by tall cedars.
As the gentle sound of falling water echoed through the hall, Rebekah stopped sharp.
Roa peered around her.
Essie’s cage lay before them. Only something was wrong.
It was mangled, the black bars twisted back, gaping open like the splayed rib cage of an animal.
Empty.
