“Safire!” came Asha’s voice at her back. Safire turned to find her cousin standing in the knee-high grass. “How... ?”
The orange glow of the lantern flame illuminated the Namsara’s black eyes and scarred face. At her side stood Torwin and a bearded, bowlegged man. His windswept dark hair was peppered with gray. Behind them, Kozu tilted his curious head at Sorrow.
At the sight of them, Safire felt a weight lift from her. She ran, the grass hushing against her legs, and threw her arms around Asha, squeezing her tight, breathing in her smoky scent.
“Are you all right?” Asha murmured, squeezing her back.
Safire swallowed. “I missed you.”
“Are youlinked?” Torwin interrupted. When Safire pulled away, she found him studying Sorrow. His hair was mussed and his cheeks were pink from the cold.
As they watched the white dragon, who was already shying away, moving to more barren ground, Safire said, “I would feel it, wouldn’t I? If we were?”
Asha nodded.
“That’s all right,” Torwin said, his smile sliding away.
“Safire, this is Dagan.” Asha gestured to the man with them. He tipped his head to her. “He was just in the middle of showing us something. Come, I want you to see....” Asha reached for her arm, already turning.
Safire braced herself. “Asha, no, we need to leave. You’re in grave danger.”
All of them turned to look at her.
“What?” said Torwin.
Asha frowned. “What danger?”
Safire quickly told them everything. Starting with being kidnapped by the Death Dancer—the very thief she tried to catch in Firgaard—to losing that same thief in Axis. She made it clear that Asha was next on the Death Dancer’s list of things to steal.
Asha frowned. “Even if she couldstealme, she doesn’t know where I am. And Kozu would be here in a heartbeat if I called him. And I havethis.” She tapped the hilt of the Skyweaver’s knife where it hung from her belt. More like a dagger than a knife, the blade was hidden in a silver sheath embossed with strange symbols.
But none of those things would stop Eris. Eris and her poisonous scarp thistles that could make a person sleep with a single prick. Eris, who could disappear and reappear somewhere else, taking someone with her.
Asha could be drugged and dragged halfway across the world before she even realized the Death Dancer was in the room with her.
Safire told her as much.
“You need to come with me.”
Asha’s dark eyes narrowed and her mouth turned down. “And where would I go?”
Safire was about to saythe citadelbecause that’s where Eris wouldn’t set foot. Except Eris had disproved that theory tonight when she walked straight into the middle of the empress’s ballroom.
“If she’s so formidable, why would I be any safer anywhere else?”
Safire opened her mouth to respond, only to realize Asha had a point. Was there anywhere safe from a girl who moved like wind and walked through walls?
“You’ve warned me, and I’ll be vigilant. Now come. I want to show you something.”
Safire went to protest, but Asha grabbed her arm and pulled her.
“Dagan has been telling us about a girl who used to live in this cove, centuries ago.” As she talked, her eager pace quickened and Torwin and Dagan fell behind. “She’s become a kind of myth in these islands, and there seem to be different versions of the story. All of them begin with her falling in love with a god. But some end with the god killing her, while others end with him giving her immortality. In all the stories, though, she disappears and her body is never found.”
Safire slowed. This sounded familiar. “Skye,” she murmured.
Asha stared at her. “Yes. How did you know?”
Raif had told her something similar when they arrived in Axis yesterday.
