“They’re supposed to be stabled,” said Safire, handing him the empress’s letter.
He arched a dark brow, then motioned to the courtyard around them. “What do you think this is?”
A prison,thought Safire as every slitted pair of eyes followed her and the soldier toward Dax’s golden dragon, Spark. She didn’t dare say it aloud. She’d already caused enough chaos today. Biting her tongue, Safire pulled on Dax’s flight jacket and gloves as she waited for the soldier to unlock the dragon.
As soon as her chains fell off, Spark shook herself out, vibrating with excitement. Safire clicked the commands she’d been taught, and Spark obediently came to her side. Scenting her rider on Safire’s jacket, Spark sniffed her for severalheartbeats, then nuzzled her hip.
Dax doesn’t know,she wanted to tell the dragon, rubbing her scaly forehead.But you can be sure I’ll tell him as soon as we return.
Asha was going to be livid.
With that thought, she mounted Spark, then waited for the soldiers to open the gate at the north end of this courtyard. As the cranks groaned and the iron bars lifted, Safire saw that the light was disappearing with the sunset.
Spark shifted from foot to foot, anxious to be out of here.
You and me both,she thought.
The moment the gate was up, Spark bolted toward the open gardens beyond. She had a gentle, graceful gait and before Safire could blink, they were out of the courtyard and in the sky.
As the citadel fell away, and the cold air made her shiver, Safire felt lighter. Beneath her, Spark hummed with her newfound freedom as they headed south.
She was tempted to not bring her back.
Their flight took longer than it should have, partly because the sun was gone and partly because Safire was looking for lights. The other villages they passed had been speckled with the glow of oil lamps in windowsills, spilling out onto the street.
They passed the village they sought three times before Safire even realized it was there.
When they landed, she could barely make out the shapes of houses in the moonlight. With a clicked command, she told Spark to wait, then started down the overgrown path between homes. It was so silent, her footsteps seemed to echo in her ears. In the light of the moon, she studied each house. The windows of the first one were all broken. The roof of the second had allbut caved in. The door of the third had rotted off its hinges.
Safire stopped.
“No one lives here,” she realized aloud.
The frame of the nearest house groaned in the wind, making her jump. When the silence returned, Safire called into the darkness: “Asha?”
No one answered.
Cupping her hands around her mouth, Safire shouted, “Asha!”
She was about to return to Spark when something rustled in the grass behind her.
Asha?
She felt the heat of the newcomer at her back. Felt the massive bulk of it. For some reason, she thought of the shadow in the empress’s paintings and quickly spun, her heart thudding hard.
Two slitted eyes stared at her through the darkness.
“Kozu?” Safire immediately relaxed. “Is that you?”
But Kozu only had one eye. As the shadow came closer and the moonlight flickered across its scales, Safire saw they were white, not black.
“Sorrow?”
Sorrow clicked, almost pleasantly. As if happy to be remembered by Safire.
Any hope she had was extinguished. She pressed her palms to her eyes as Sorrow studied her. “She’s not here, is she?”
Did that mean Asha found what she needed in this abandoned village and moved on? Or did it mean Eris found her and had taken her to Jemsin?
