“Kadenze,” said Crow’s melodic voice. “Pirate’s pet now, are you?”
The summoner’s claws clenched and unclenched. It looked from Crow to the labyrinth around him, sneering through its teeth. “So this is where she caged you.”
Crow’s eyes flashed silver at those words. “Leave,” he told the summoner, the look on his face inhuman. “Or when I’m free, I’ll hunt you down and rip you into as many pieces as there are drops in the sea.”
“You’ll never be free,” Kadenze hissed. But it stepped back. As if it wasn’t quite sure of the words it spoke. And then, looking over its shoulder, it said to Eris, “You have two days to bring Jemsin what he wants. You know what happens if you fail.”
“I’ve never failed him before,” said Eris.
Gathering its cloak of feathers around it, the summoner’s monstrous shape dissolved into the form of a blue-black raven. Eris ducked as it soared past her, its wings shuffling air, and disappeared into the darkness beyond.
Crow, too, was losing his form. No longer a man but a hunching shadow.
So this is where she caged you.
What did that mean?
“Wait!” Eris rose to her feet, her head throbbing.
But the ghost in the labyrinth was already gone, leaving Safire and Eris alone.
Safire gripped her throwing knife in her hand. “What was that?” Her voice shook as she stared into the empty space where two ancient creatures stood mere heartbeats before.
“Thatwas Jemsin’s summoner.” Eris got to her feet and moved quickly past her. The other creature, though—the ghost called Crow? She didn’t know. Back at the scrin, Day used to tell her a story every night before bed. His favorite was theSkyweaver’s defeat of the Shadow God. She thought of it now as she returned to the loom, her hands moving quickly as she cut the new tapestry from the wooden frame, half afraid the summoner would return.
Skyweaver spun a web made of starlight to catch him. She bound him up tight in her threads....
She knew the story by heart. Everyone in the Star Isles knew it. Skyweaver kills the Shadow God and in doing so, saves the islands from his reign of terror. But as Eris rolled up the tapestry, she remembered her conversation with the sea spirit.
The Shadow God grows stronger,it said.Once he’s free, he’ll come for her.
Eris paused, thinking of the night the scrin burned. Of the god of souls who never came down from her tower.
We thought you’d want to know.
“But why wouldIwant to know?” she whispered, unable to make sense of it.
“Know what?”
Eris spun to face Safire, who was watching her from the doorway, her arms crossed against her chest.
Eris needed to get her out of here. The sooner she did, the sooner she could find the Namsara.
They’re just stories, she told herself.And you have a bargain to uphold.
Tucking the tapestry beneath her arm, she grabbed Safire’s arm and pulled her through the twisting maze and toward a purple door. One that led to Firgaard.
Halting before it, her hands worked quickly, taking the pinsfrom the hinges and pulling off the door that led to Safire’s home. Safire sucked in a breath as it transformed back into a tapestry, one tied with items Eris had stolen from the palace so she could return, again and again: a piece of the queen’s curtains, a key to one of the king’s rooms, a sliver of painted wood chipped from the chair in Safire’s office.
Eris set it aside and lifted the new tapestry into the frame, where it, too, shifted and changed—this time into a door the color of last night’s sunset. Grabbing hold of Safire’s hand, she reached for the crystal doorknob, opened the new door, and stepped through, dragging the commandant with her.
They stepped out onto that same creamy sand beach. The sun was setting over the boreal forest at their backs, and from the long shadows it cast, Eris knew it was late afternoon. That skittish white dragon was waiting. At their sudden appearance, he rose up from the sand, black eyes on them, his spiked tail thrashing warily. Eris let go of Safire’s hand and drew out her spindle.
Disoriented, Safire turned. “No, wait....” She reached for Eris. But Eris had already drawn a silver line in the sand. Was already stepping through the mist and back across.
She didn’t want to know what Safire had to say. She couldn’t let whatever was between them get in the way of the job. Because succeed or fail, it would be her last job, and she only had two more days.
Eris left Safire on the sand and didn’t look back.
