Before Eris could turn and face her enemies, they had her by the shoulders.
This can’t be happening, she thought, staring at the broken loom, thinking of the dying words on Day’s lips.
When the enemy surrounds me...
They forced Eris to her knees, checking her for weapons. She felt the cold kiss of stardust steel as they locked her wrists in manacles.
... I know your hands hold the threads of my soul...
They growled an order. But Eris didn’t hear them.
... and there is nothing to fear.
Except the goddess of souls wasn’t here. She wasn’t where she should be: at her loom, spinning souls into stars.
Day’s prayer was a lie.
The Skyweaver had forsaken them all.
Forty
They dragged Eris down the citadel halls and up several sets of stairs, stopping sharply before a cylindrical room where two teak doors carved with frothing waves were thrown wide open.
“Wait,” hissed the soldier who held Eris’s arm in his meaty grip, halting her before the doors.
The walls of the room beyond them were deepest blue, like the depths of the sea, and painted with all manner of creatures: from crabs and spiny urchins to schools of shimmering fish to majestic humpback whales. In the center of the room, the slender white steps of a throne twisted upward like a conch shell, to where the empress sat on a cushion the color of seafoam.
At the base of the throne stood a young man in a golden tunic, his back to Eris.
“... I told her if she insisted on keeping company with fugitives, I couldn’t have her commanding my soldiers.”
“And?” came the empress’s voice, cold as the sea. “Where is she, then?”
“She fled,” he said. “I’m here to take her place. I accept full responsibility for Safire’s actions.”
Eris’s heart thumped at that name. She knew who this was, suddenly recognizing his tall stature, broad shoulders, and dark curls. It was King Dax before the empress’s throne.
“You’re here to take herplace?” The empress’s voice trembled with barely restrained anger. “You had time to speak with her, demote her, but not detain her?”
“My cousin doesn’t make errors in judgment, Empress. She has impeccable instincts. It’s why I made her my commandant. So perhaps you can help me understand why she would believe in Eris’s innocence so resolutely.” Dax’s voice was perfectly calm, belying the rising tension in the room. “Is it true that Eris was only a child when the scrin burned?”
“Thatchildwas a danger to us all.” Leandra’s voice trembled through the room. “If you knew what she was, you would fear her. You would dread the thing she can unleash on the world.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” he said softly.
The empress rose to her feet, then slowly descended the steps of her white throne. A hush fell over the room as the sound of her boots echoed eerily through the silence.
“I’m disappointed in you, King Dax,” she said, standing before the dragon king now. “I invite you into my home. I promise to help your people. I look the other way when your cousin flouts my laws and opposes my soldiers...”
“Your soldiers were beating a civilian to death in an alley,” said Dax, his voice tightening with restraint. “If I had been there, I would have opposed them alongside her.”
“I see,” she whispered, studying him. There was a sparklingsilence. To her captain, she said: “Caspian? Arrest this man.”
All of Dax’s guards drew their weapons in unison.
“Detain them,” the empress ordered without looking away from the king, who said nothing. He made no move to fight her. Eris watched the Lumina descend on Dax’s soldiers, who were outnumbered and easily overpowered.
“You have no idea what I am,” the empress told Dax. “Nor the things I’m capable of.”
