Eris’s chin lifted. She hadn’t expected that. “What?”
The summoner shifted from foot to foot, its feathers ruffling and talons clacking against the ground. As if something had unnerved it. “Leandra made the captain a deal he couldn’t refuse.”
Eris narrowed her eyes, thinking of Jemsin’s meeting with the empress. It was his sole reason for sending Eris to Firgaard. Leandra must have made her proposition then.
“What did she offer him?”
“Full access to her waters—ifJemsin delivers the Namsara.”
Eris whistled, wishing Safire could hear this. What kind of benevolent ruler gives a pirate permission to wreak havoc allover the Star Isles? It was a trade much further in Jemsin’s favor, and it made Eris wonder: What did Asha have that the empress wanted so badly?
And why not justinviteher along with her brother—who was currently on his way to the citadel now?
Unless she had and Asha refused the invitation.
Eris shook her head. All of these questions were starting to give her a headache. What did it matter, anyway? It wasn’t her business. With the ribbon gripped tight in her hand, Eris turned away from the monster.
“Are we finished?” she asked, walking toward the first turn in the labyrinth.
“For now.”
The door creaked open. Eris didn’t wait for it to shut before she continued on. Her feet had long since memorized the way to the heart of this maze. The images on the stained-glass walls were so familiar to her, she often dreamed them in her sleep: seascapes and stormy cliffsides and sleepy little coves. When she arrived at the center, the familiar sight of her loom warmed her just a little.
Eris sank down into the soft white carpet on the floor. Staring up at her empty loom, an image flickered through her mind: Safire with her hair down and her head crowned with blossoms. She leaned over her basket full of skeins, running her fingers gently over colors. Looking for something that matched the ribbon she stole.
The door to Kor’s burned ship was useless to her now and needed replacing. She’d woven that door from torn strips of theSea Mistress’s sails and it had opened onto the ship’s galley. That was the only way the magic would work—using objects from the place she wanted to go. It was Day who told her this. Who taught her how to turn the weavings into doors.
This place will keep you safe,he’d told her.
But that was before he died. Before Jemsin found her. Before she realized Kadenze could hunt her down no matter where she was—even across.
An old sorrow clumped in her throat. She swallowed it down, pushing the memory of Day far away. Where it couldn’t hurt her.
Right now, Eris needed a door that would take her to a person, not a place. She’d never made such a thing before. She didn’t know if it would work.
These were the things she did know, though: Asha, the Namsara, was in the Star Isles. And very soon, Safire would make contact with Asha—to warn her about Eris.
So Eris would make a door that led to Safire. She would keep to the shadows, like she had in Firgaard, waiting and watching. And when Safire made contact, she would unknowingly lead Eris straight to the Namsara.
Eris picked up a light brown skein of wool for the warp and started to unwind it. As she did, the air grew colder. Eris paused, sensing something watching her through the glass. She knew what it was.
She kept unwinding the yarn. But the ghost remained. It was common for it to come and go while she was in the labyrinth, but rarely did it linger.
“What do you think?” Eris asked. “Do these colors match?”
She often talked to the ghost. It never talked back.
Except this time, it did.
“Who hurt you?” Its voice was like wind scratching at a door.
Eris’s hands fell still. Slowly, she set down the skein and looked up. The ghost loomed over her. Black as the night sky and shaped like a man. But it wasn’t a man.
Her heart beat fast.
The ghost stared her down, silent as death. Eris knew that stare. It had watched her for years now, ever since the first time she’d stepped across.
But why talk now when it never had before?
