Thirty-Six
I’ve never failed him before.
Eris’s words rang through Safire’s mind as she and Sorrow flew through the cloudless sky.
She’d been naïve to think the Death Dancer would give up her hunt for Asha. Jemsin had made Eris a deal, and Safire now knew what would happen if Eris didn’t come through on it. She’d thought she could protect Eris. But in the face of that creature, his bloodred eyes and snapping jaws, she suddenly realized what Eris was up against.
She should have returned to the citadel and reported to Dax. Instead she and Sorrow flew straight to the cove where Asha was hidden.
Dagan lives in the yellow house on the point,Asha had told her.You can find us there.
But when she walked through the door of the house, it wasn’t Asha who stood within it. It was the king.
He stood at the window facing the sea with his hands linked behind his back.
“Dax...” She shut the door behind her. “I’m so glad you’re here. Where’s—”
“You were seen,” he said without looking at her.
Safire’s footsteps paused, heart skipping. “What?”
“This morning,” he said. “On the beach.”
Safire frowned, confused.The beach?
Finally, Dax turned to her. It was then that she knew something was wrong. Her cousin was staring at her as if she were a stranger. “The empress had soldiers watching the scrin. In case the Death Dancer returned.” His normally warm brown eyes were full of anguish. “They saw you with her on the beach.”
Safire swallowed, realizing what he was saying.
“The empress has postponed the warrant for your arrest.” He looked away from her, as if it were difficult to get the words out. Like it wasn’t Dax, her cousin and her friend, who was speaking them. But someone else entirely. Someone who needed to distance himself from her.
“I’ve asked her for leniency,” he said. “If I can convince you to hand over the fugitive”—Why was he calling Eris that? He knew her name—“Leandra will overlook this transgression.”
Safire stared at him. This was the king she helped put on the throne. The friend she sought first when she needed advice. Dax was the person in her life whose good opinion mattered most. And he hadn’t even asked herwhy.He didn’t trust her enough to have a good reason for being on that beach. Because he thought she was being manipulated. That she was too weak to see Eris for what she really was.
She forced the words out: “And if I refuse you?”
Dax jerked his gaze back to her. “Are you considering such a thing?”
Safire said nothing, waiting for his answer.
“You’ll be arrested, Safire. The empress will consider it a breach of our alliance.” He turned fully toward her, his voice pleading. “If you don’t turn the fugitive in, Leandra won’t give us the seeds she promised us. Scrublanders will die. Roa’s family will starve to death. Don’t you understand?”
Safire’s heart squeezed inside her chest.The seeds.She understood perfectly.
“Either I deliver Eris to a death she doesn’t deserve,” she said, “or I deny the scrublands the seeds they need to keep from starving. That’s the choice you’re giving me.”
“It’s a choice you’ve given yourself,” he said, eyes dark.
Safire stepped toward him, defiant. “Eris might be a thief, but she’s not a murderer. She was only a child when the scrin burned. The people inside those walls wereprotectingher. It’s the empress who killed them all.”
“Is that what she told you?” said Dax, keeping his distance. Seeing the answer in her eyes, his fists clenched. “It doesn’t make any sense, Saf. Why would the empress want to burn down a temple full of weavers?”
“I don’t know,” said Safire. But she intended to find out.
“Can’t you see what’s happening here? You’re in league with a criminal. She’susingyou.”
Safire studied her king, standing at the window, illuminated by the afternoon sunlight.He has to believe her, she realized. The scrubland’s salvation was in those seeds. If Dax didn’t believeLeandra, he would fail the scrublands. He would let the blight push Roa’s people into further starvation and poverty and death.
