“None of you will go against Safire,” muttered Roa.
The things Rebekah said in the Assembly were true: Daxdidlose half his army by appointing his cousin commandant, because most soldats didn’t trust a young woman with skral blood running through her veins to lead them.
What most people didn’t know was that every soldat who questioned Safire’s authority was given a choice: fight her or leave. Those Safire fought, she bested. And in besting them,won their admiration.
The army might be half as large as it once was, but it was twice as loyal.
As Roa studied all four of her guards now, standing straight in their steel morions with the king’s emblem on their chests, she knew none of them would defy their commandant.
Well, maybe notnoneof them...
Roa turned to Sirin, who was watching her. Sirin, Roa had long ago taken note, was a little too attractive for a soldat. It made him bold and flirtatious. Even with Roa.
If she were honest, Sirin had always made her uncomfortable.
“What about you?” she said.
“Me?” Sirin asked, his eyebrows shooting upward.
“Will you also choose your commandant over your queen?”
“We have a duty to uphold the rules,” he said.
“Anda duty to keep me safe.”
Sirin smiled, seeing what she was doing. “That, too.”
“So if I told you I was going out into the city, you wouldn’t want me to go alone, would you? That would be unsafe.”
Sirin’s smile widened. “Indeed, it would.”
“Well, then.” Roa turned back, continuing on.
“How will you convince them to open the gate?” he called after her.
Roa slowed. If the soldats at the gate were as loyal to Saf as Roa’s other three guards, she wouldn’t convince them.
Sirin caught up to her, the scabbard of his sword clinking against the buckles at the top of his boots. “Don’t worry, my queen.” He shot a look back at the other three guards, whoappeared anxious as they watched their comrade break the rules. “There’s a guard on duty who owes me a favor.”
True to his word, Sirin got them through the gate. Roa watched him reach into the pocket of his tunic, pull something out, then show it to the guard in charge. A whispered conversation passed between them as Sirin tucked the object out of sight again.
Roa didn’t know the nature of the exchange, only that the gazes of both boys slid over her in a way that made her uneasy.
She suddenly wondered if Sirin had the wrong idea about their trip into the city.
But Roa needed to see Theo. So she let Sirin think what he liked. After all, she had Essie’s knife sheathed at her calf. If she needed to, she would put him in his place.
Together, Roa and her guard took the dark and desolate streets to one of the city’s seedier guesthouses. It gleamed white as alabaster in the light of the rising moon, starkly contrasted against the black sky. Roa stopped at the back door—where Theo had told her to enter—pulling her sandskarf farther over her head to keep her face in shadow.
“Wait here,” she told Sirin.
“And if someone recognizes you?” He shook his head. “I’ll come with you.”
She lifted her hand, warning him back. “No,” she said. “You won’t.”
His eyes flashed in the darkness. But it was so fast, and the smile that replaced it so easy, Roa thought she might have mistaken it, so she let it go.
“I won’t be long.” Opening the door, she stepped through. It led straight into a narrow hallway smelling of roasted meat and spices. She heard the crash of pots and pans. Cooks in smeared aprons held steaming platters of food above their heads and cursed as they pushed past her into the main floor of the guesthouse.
