“Eh! Mishah, the chai!” a stern older woman shouted at the girl beside me, and Mishah rushed over to the pot. She stirred the chai frantically, some liquid sloshing over the side. Then she added some cardamom pods and mint leaves to the tea from the stash we’d brought.
The older fae woman turned her gaze to me.
“Who are you?” She planted her hands on her hips and reminded me so much of Nani I nearly laughed. But my humor faded to a dull ache when I remembered the last time I’d seen her—afraid, wild-eyed and with Citadel guns pointed at her.
I was in the land of peris now, and I couldn’t forget why and what it had cost me.
“This is Yaseema, Zafreen. She’s here for the scullery position.” Mishah continued stirring the chai, not looking up.
“Thank the River,” Zafreen huffed out a breath. “We need extra hands here.” She gave me a stern look as she examined me. “Never had a human work in the kitchens before, but I suppose you’re as good as a River peri since we’ve barely got magic anymore anyway. Can you start tonight?”
My shoulder still ached from earlier, I was pretty sure I looked disgusting, and I had no idea what anyone did in a scullery, especially in a fae kitchen, but none of that mattered.
If I wanted information, if I wanted to find clues to the Queen’s crown, the palace seemed like the best place to get it.
“Yes. I can start tonight.”
Zafreen had me scrubbing the tables and cleaning out pots until my fingers were raw.
Finally, Mishah showed me to my room, which was a shared bunk next to hers. I was glad of it, because I could likely get more information about the peris from her.
I peeled off my filthy clothes, still damp from the river water, and washed the mud and halmasti blood off my skin with a bowl of cold water. It felt good to finally scrub off the dirt on my face, and Mishah had a fresh nightshirt and smock laid out for me.
“Thank you,” I said with a sigh as I slipped it over my head. It was scratchy, but it was clean, and that feeling was worth everything.
If my plan was to subtly interrogate Ramishah about Peristan and the Court of River while we lay in our beds, But I failed, because as soon as my head hit the pillow and I closed my eyes against the longest day of my life, the world went dark.
Chapter 17
The other River orphans and I fight in the pits in Charvellan—the only way we can earn money to survive.
And when my hands are dark with Salt blood, all I can think about is the way they murdered Baba, and the blood that poured from him, staining the forest floor.
And all I know is that one day the earth will be red with theirs.
—Letter from Kiyan to his family, unsent
Kiyan
Take me to the mountains.
I studied the key in the morning light, the inscription repeating itself in my mind. There were two major mountain ranges in River, and I could only hope this message meant one of them and not mountains from another Court.
Especially not the crystal mountains in the Court of Salt, which I had no desire to ever visit.
I looked out my office window at the tall mountain in the distance, the one I looked at several times a day that housed the Golden Palace I hadn’t been able to enter in over ten years.
Tirich Mir.King of Darkness.The mountain’s name rang through my mind, sitting in my chest, as familiar as the steady thump of my heartbeat.
Take me to the mountains.
Though I didn’t know what lock this key opened, there was another way I could find out more about it.
A churail gave it to me.
I closed my eyes and remembered the desperation on the boy’s face, his eyes haunted—already hollowed out by the Salt Court.
And I had killed him.
