She heard heavy footsteps, then the shutting of a door, followed by silence. Careful not to make a sound, Eris crept to where the hall ended, then peered around the corner just intime to see Safire—still wearing the blue dress—collapse into a wooden chair. Eris watched as she pressed her face into her hands and began to shake with silent sobs.
The effect on Eris was instantaneous. She immediately forgot about Jemsin. And Kadenze. And the empress. The sound of Safire weeping made Eris want to step into that room and make whatever had broken her heart better.
Before she could, the door opened... and in stepped the key to Eris’s freedom.
TheNamsara.
The first thing Eris noticed was the burn scar that took up nearly half of Asha’s face and neck. Her dark hair was woven into a braid down her back and a knife glinted at her hip. The moment she entered the house, Asha’s black eyes found her cousin and she crossed the room in three steps, dropping to her knees before Safire. “What happened?”
Eris ducked back down the hall, waiting for her chance as Safire told Asha everything: how soldiers had seen her and Eris on the beach. How Dax had come to offer her clemencyifshe handed Eris in. How she’d refused to do it, forcing Dax to strip her of her title. He’d told her to leave the islands, because Lumina soldiers would be coming to arrest her.
Eris listened to all of it, her heart pounding in her chest, as she kept her cheek pressed against the clapboard facing the open window.
Safire had chosen Eris—chosen to protect her—over everything she held dear: her family, her loyalty, her kingdom.
“What if I’ve ruined everything?” Safire asked her cousin.
Suddenly, a blue-black raven flew to the windowsill, stretching its wings as it perched there, its bloodred eyes fixing Eris with a stare.
She would know those eyes anywhere.
Kadenze.Come to ensure she did her job.
Eris grew cold, remembering the way it lunged at Safire in the labyrinth. There was no ghost to intervene and protect Safire this time. Eris knew the price she’d pay if she didn’t see this through.
“Stay here,” Asha said from the room beyond. “I’ll fetch Torwin. We’ll figure out what to do.”
Eris heard the floorboards creak.
“Everything will be all right.”
When the door clicked closed, Eris knew this was her chance. Gripping her dart, she listened as Asha’s footsteps led away from the house.
But her thoughts weren’t on the Namsara. They were on the girl in the room beyond this hall. Safire had protected Eris and was suffering as a result.
Why?
You won’t endanger the life of someone I love,Safire had told her in the labyrinth.That’s not who you are.
Kadenze stared from the windowsill, watching her. If Eris didn’t act, she not only wouldn’t be free, she would be dead. And, from the look in the summoner’s eyes, Safire along with her.
Eris forced her feet to take her to the window. The blue-black raven flew from the sill to the roof. Eris climbed out.Dropping into the bed of poppies, she turned in the direction of the Namsara, who was already disappearing down the path through the tuckamores.
With the summoner circling above, Eris forced Safire from her thoughts. Gripping her scarp dart, she followed the girl into the woods.
Because Safire was wrong.Thiswas what Eris was: someone who would do anything to survive, to escape those who hunted her. She wasn’t noble and soft and respectable like Safire.
The sooner you get this over with, she thought, her heart heavy as a stone in her chest,the sooner you’ll be free.
Eris caught up to the Namsara, her footsteps silent as the wind. She could see Asha was alone and unarmed, except for the knife at her hip.
But despite her efforts to remain unheard and unseen, Asha felt her.
When the path widened, the girl stopped. Turning her face slightly, she called out: “Who’s there?”
It was now or never.
Eris lifted her dart shooter to her lips. She sucked in a breath, about to blow a scarp dart into the soft part of Asha’s shoulder, when the trees rustled up ahead and a man stepped out.
