Enemies of Dax’s...
Roa shook her head. He had the wrong idea entirely. “There is nous,” she whispered, pulling free. “As much as I loathe him, Dax is the king. Plotting against him is treason. I would be betraying every scrublander who ever believed in me. Every scrublander who believed that my marrying him would make a difference for our people.”
Theo scowled in the dark. “And what differencehasit made?”
Roa’s heart fell.
None at all.
But that would soon change. Once they arrived back in Firgaard, she would use the treaty tomakeDax uphold his promises.
“Listen to me.” He took her shoulders in his hands, gripping firmly. “Every Firgaardian king is a monster. If Dax isn’t one yet, he will be. We need to act swiftly. We don’t have time for you to give him any more chances.”
Roa shook her head and looked away, into the dark garden around them. Anyone could be out here, listening. He would get himself killed saying these things. “Theo—”
“Just... hear me out. It’s the least you can do.”
Roa gritted her teeth, relenting. “Then the leastyoucan do is keep your voice down.”
Theo breathed in, then let out the breath. His hands fell away from her shoulders as he scanned the garden.
“I told you I’ve located the Skyweaver’s knife.”
Not this again,thought Roa, remembering their long-ago hunts for the blade that cut far deeper than flesh. For a weapon that could trade one soul for another.
Roa was about to protest. To say once again that it was a myth. But Theo continued before she could.
“I found the former owner of it. The woman who sold it to the baron in Firgaard. She, like you, lost someone she loved.”
Roa paused, then nodded for him to go on.
“Years ago, her best friend was convicted of a horrible crime: she’d poisoned her father in order to gain her inheritance. It was decided that her punishment should match her crime, and so she was sentenced to death by poison. Even though theyburned her body and said the rites, she didn’t pass into the world beyond this one. Her soul stayed behind.”
Roa stepped closer, enrapt now.
Theo continued: “Year after year, she didn’t cross. Each Relinquishing, she became less and less herself. As if her death call was getting stronger, taking part of her with it each time. As if she were fading away.
“Before she faded completely, she told her friend a secret: shehadn’tkilled her father. It was her husband who wanted the inheritance, and so he framed her for the crime. It should have been him who took the punishment. It should have been him who died.Thiswas why she was trapped.
“The woman swore to avenge her friend. She knew the story of Sunder, and the knife that carved out his soul in exchange for his daughter’s life. She knew if there was any chance to save her friend, she needed to find that knife.
“She tracked it down and found it in the posssession of a merchant who was happy to sell it to her. He told her how to use it, and that she needed to wait until the Relinquishing. On that night, if she plunged the knife into the one who’d eluded death, the Skyweaver would take his soul instead... and her friend’s life would be restored.”
“And?” Roa asked. She’d been leaning closer and closer as Theo spoke. She was now a mere breath away.
“And that’s what she did.”
“Did it work?”
The wind whispered through the garden. The night bugs chirped around them.
“Yes,” he finally said. “It worked.”
“And you’re sure the knife is in Firgaard?”
He nodded.
Roa stepped away from him, her feet moving in time with her thoughts. Back and forth, she paced. Thinking of what it meant:Essie, restored.And what it would require:killing the one responsible for her death, on the night of the Relinquishing.
