“Time to go,” Rebekah said as four men entered the cell, grabbing Roa.
This time, she didn’t put up a fight, just let them drag her out.
“How much time has passed?”
Rebekah, who walked ahead of her, didn’t answer.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To the city square.”
Roa went rigid. The city square was where Asha’s sentencing would have been carried out. It’s where the chopping block sat.
“Why?” she whispered.
“We’re going to offer the king something he can’t resist.”
Suddenly, Roa could see Rebekah’s next move. Could see just how she would manipulate the pieces on the board to ensure she got the outcome she wanted.
But Dax had proven himself equally good at manipulating pieces on a board. At games of strategy.
“He’ll know it’s a trap,” Roa whispered.
Rebekah smiled back at her so confidently, dread curled within Roa.
Thirty-Five
It was well past midnight when Rebekah and the king’s former councillors dragged Roa through the crowded streets, bound and gagged. All around her, she heard the shocked murmurs, the confused questions.
Where are they taking the queen?
Where is King Dax?
Everyone in the crowd wore Relinquishing masks. Carved of wood. Painted white. Hiding their identities and making it impossible to tell who was who.
Still, Roa searched them, looking for her sister.
You should all be in your homes, locking the doors,she thought as her gaze scanned the masked crowd. It was how she knew the faces behind the masks didn’t belong to scrublanders. Scrublanders would already be gathered around their heart-fires by now, their doors bolted, their lights snuffed.
As they dragged her, Roa heard Rebekah shouting up ahead, leveling her charges against the outlander queen, telling all of Firgaard what she deserved.
Roa didn’t need to hear the charges; she knew what she’d done.
Plotted to kill the king.
Let his enemies into the palace.
Utterly betrayed him and their friends and theirpeople.
Roa knew what she deserved.
Essie, where are you?
From somewhere in the crowd, she thought she heard someone call her name. But when she looked, Roa saw only blank masks, the firelight flickering over them.
“Roa, here!”
She looked again, trying to see. But the masks made everyone look the same.
