Roa motioned to the lock in the door, following Lirabel’s lead. “All the more reason to act quickly. Can you pick it?”
Saf studied her, as if trying to decide whether she should help or not.
The footsteps—and voices now—drew closer.
Maybe it was the idea of scorning Rebekah. Or maybe Safire really did trust Roa. Whatever her reason, Safire slipped something from her boot. Crouching down in front of the door, she slid a pick into the lock, the look on her face one of pure concentration.
The voices grew louder as Saf’s pick ground furiously against the wards.
Hurry!thought Roa.
Suddenly, there was a softclick!
The door swung in.
A dark stairwell yawned upward before them. Safire grabbed Roa and yanked her inside. Lirabel followed, silently shutting the door just as the servants turned the corner.
Roa, Lirabel, and Saf stood shoulder to shoulder, their backs pressed up against the door, holding their collective breath as the servants’ conversation drifted through the wood.
“That’s a lie,” came a girl’s voice.
“I saw them,” came a boy’s lower voice. “A girl with a scarred face riding a one-eyed black dragon.”
The girl scoffed. “It was your imagination.”
“Listen, I know what I saw,” the boy went on. “And if I were the baron, I’d invite her in for tea. I hear the sight of her scar can strike a person dead. I’d like to know if that’s true.”
“She’s a criminal, you halfwit. There’s a fancy price on her head. I bet the only reasonhe’shere is to lure her in. Bait the trap, so to speak.”
Roa’s hands started to sweat. She wiped them on her kaftan. Beside her, Safire—normally a portrait of calm restraint—looked like her heart had fallen out of her chest.
They were speaking about Asha, Safire’s cousin, as well as Kozu—the First Dragon.
If Asha were captured, she’d be sent straight to finish out the death sentence she’d only narrowly escaped.
“What is she thinking?” murmured Saf. “She shouldn’t be anywhere near here.”
Roa thought of Asha’s letter, still lying beneath Dax’s bed in the dragon queen’s abode. Roa had meant to tell him. Shewouldhave told him, if she hadn’t overheard his conversation with Lirabel that day. Between her fury at Dax and Essie’s second disappearance, and then her own guard attacking her...
Guilt pricked Roa. She’d been so preoccupied, she hadn’t given much thought to Torwin or why he hadn’t returned to Asha.
Now she did think of him. Or more specifically, of the price on his head. A price only marginally less than the one onAsha’s. It was the reason the pair were supposed to stay far away from Firgaard. Because if either of them fell into the wrong hands...
Roa shook off the thought. She was here now. She needed to get the knife. Once she had it, she would make sure Torwin and Asha were safe.
“Come on,” said Roa, starting up the steps. “Before someone notices we’re missing.”
Together, they climbed. The red light of dusk slashed across the stone steps, piercing through the window slats. At the top of the staircase stood a simple doorway with a strange symbol carved into the lintel.
The door was ajar, letting dusty-rose light out into the stairwell. Safire pushed it open and Essie flew to perch at the top of the door, a silver-eyed sentinel keeping watch as the three girls stepped inside.
The windows were flung wide, letting in a fresh breeze, and the sweet scent of cedar and roses wafted in from the gardens. Glass cases lined the walls and continued on into the next room and the next. Inside each case were jewels and fabrics, figurines and weapons. Artifacts taken from the four corners of the world.
“What are we looking for?”
“A knife,” said Roa. “The Skyweaver’s knife.”
Lirabel shot her a skeptical look.
