Even if my hand was puppeted by another, it had been my thorn that pierced his heart.
My eyes burned at the memory of his slight weight in my arms.
A witch had given them the ring and had told them who I really was. The witches of River had mostly fled our court when Salt had taken over.
But I knew there was one still in Charvellan City.
I walked across the glass bridge from the River Palace toward the city, which hugged the stretch of riverbank to the north. The bustling bazaar stretched down the center of the street, filled with vendors and those shopping for wares.
It was market day, which meant I’d be more likely to find the churail, if she was selling her bargains and spells.
I tried to make myself as inconspicuous as possible, but it was less feasible than I wanted after working for a murderous dictator.
When I walked toward a peri with blue braided hair and polished gold skin, she hastily closed up shop, lowering the curtain around her stall, not meeting my eyes.
I winced, remembering my days running barefoot through the bazaar, stealing food where I could and hiding behind the hag stalls to avoid getting caught by the Salt soldiers.
Now I wore the same blue coat, with the silver three-pointed crystal emblazoned on the shoulder that they did.
I was now the thing I despised.
But that was what I wanted, wasn’t it? To be one of them, to have their trust, to make them think I was on their side, so much that I had become shunned by everyone else.
Until I could finally take back what was ours.
Hiding was not something that came naturally to me, and yet I’d had to do it most of my life.
I nodded to Salt soldiers as I passed them, stopping to talk briefly about rebel activity, asking if they’d noticed anything. It had been a while since my guards had patrolled the bazaar of Charvellan, and if word got back to General Faisal or the Viceroy about my presence here, I wanted it to be as innocuous as possible.
And then I saw something I wasn’t expecting—the human girl was at the bazaar with a peri named Ramishah who worked in the kitchens at the River Palace. They walked away from the stall of a night hag after buying a bushel of vegetables. Ramishah was talking animatedly, and the human nodded alongside her.
The human’s wild hair was braided today in a thick plait over her shoulder, and for some reason my fingers itched to unravel it, to see the untamed strands run free, looking like the storm of curls I’d first seen.
I glanced at her hands to check if she was wearing the haath phool, but the only jewelry she had on were two thick bangles on one wrist. They weren’t ornate like the Queen’s jewelry but still looked simple and elegant on her arm.
Not for the first time did I wonder what she was doing in the River Court. An unknown human, wearing ancient fae magic? She must have been a spy from another court—that was the only explanation I could think of.
In any case, I shouldn’t be imagining running my hands through her hair.
My hand pressed the key under my tunic, the metal biting into my skin alongside my sister’s ring. A reminder that I had bigger things to concern myself with than an intriguing human girl.
But despite that, I continued to follow the human and Ramishah through the market.
They stopped at another stall, this time a potion conjurer who had several jashtan heads hanging from the edge of her stall, the shrunken pixie skulls warning away anyone who would cheat her.
I watched them from a distance, hanging back by a River peri who sold Tashuna gold amulets which apparently provided protection against curses.
I caught snatches of their conversation, with the girl peppering the interaction with various questions of how the potion conjurer brewed her concoctions.
“This one will turn your enemy into a mongoose,” Ramishah pronounced, holding the dark green vial up into the sunlight.
“What an odd punishment. I’d rather my enemy not have the power to rip my throat out with spiny teeth, thanks,” the human responded with a shudder.
I laughed in spite of myself, thinking that is exactly what General Faisal would try and do if I turned him into a mongoose.
“Spying on females at the market, now, brother? I thought your job was hunting down members of the Red Jasmine.”
My dagger slid into my palm, the blade ready before I could exhale, ready before I could even think.
