Both their smiles faltered the slightest bit. Niemi kept Fie’s face iron-still, but inside, Fie was screaming. The last time he’d said those words, he’d called her the girl he loved, he’d sworn he would find her no matter how long it took. And from his flinch, he remembered.
It just didn’t matter anymore.
She waited until Tavin and his escorts were gone, then sank into the shadows, trying to swallow down the tears burning in her throat. Then she called a Vulture tooth, found Viimo’s charm-bead, and traced its path.
Viimo was still in her cell, pacing west, east, west, east. She stopped in the west. That meantReturn to home base.
Fie switched to a Sparrow witch-tooth, the one near burned out from her trip to the royal quarters two nights earlier. Once it had wiped her from sight, she hiked up her skirts and sprinted across the palace grounds.
“I can’t believe,” Khoda was saying as Fie burst into the sick rooms, “that she named the damn—ah—tiger Ambra.”
“Sorry.” Jasimir paused from dabbing a sharp-smelling green paste onto the gashes on Khoda’s face. He looked up at Fie with a strained smile. “We have a code word for the door, you know.”
Yula closed the door behind Fie. “We’ve put out word that the people in here have a very contagious fungus. You won’t get many folks barging in.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t stop her,” Fie blurted out. “I didn’t—I couldn’t—”
“Youshouldn’t,” Khoda said so sharply that Barf sat up from where she was curled in his lap, ears flattening until he gave her a pat. “You both did exactly what you needed to, which was to keep your cover.You”—he pointed at Fie—“have the ability to assume disguises at will and to memorize and reproduce so much information, it’s not even funny. If you ever get tired of working for the Crows you should talk to me about a career in espionage. And you—” He turned to Jasimir just as the prince was reaching to dab more paste on a scratch. Instead, it smudged over the tip of Khoda’s nose. “Er.”
“Sorry,” Jasimir mumbled, and handed him a rag.
Khoda waved it off, then wiped his nose. “As I was saying,youare literally the only person who has the training, the temperament, and the lineage to take the throne. You, Tavin, and Rhusomir are the only living descendants of Ambra now who aren’t sworn to the Phoenix Priesthood.” He scowled and muttered, “Istillcan’t believe the tiger. Of all the gall.”
“And you thought I was joking about Jas being named for his pa’s dog,” Fie said.
“That would have been preferable,” Khoda scoffed. “The point is, you’re the best candidate for the throne. It’s my job to keep you alive at any cost.”
“Notany cost,” Jasimir said, suddenly irate. “I asked that of Tavin once, and I have never been so ashamed as when I got it.”
Khoda shrugged. “Get used to shame. You’re going to be a king. Anyway, neither of us needs to be spying in the parties anymore. Fie, you may have to keep going as Lady Sakar if we can’t get you an excuse, but they’ll be useless for scouting for defectors now. No one in their right mind will do anything but blow smoke up Rhusana’s”—he coughed—“face. Yula, is there any particular role that will give us free run of the palace?”
She frowned at the ceiling, then snapped her fingers. “Oh!” Her face fell. “But it… it’s beneath His Highness.”
“I’m willing to test that,” Jasimir said, grim. “Chamber pot duty?”
Yula shook her gray-streaked head. “Pest control. There isn’t a corner of this palace that mice won’t get into, and the tabby there seems to have a shine for you. We’ll round up a few more mousers, and then you can be our new cat-masters. Well, one of you is cat-master. The others are deputy cat-masters.”
Khoda gave a resigned sigh. “Brightest Eye help me, if these scar over”—he gingerly tapped a cheekbone between the scores and winced—“I’ll have the whiskers for it. Cat-masters it is.”
“Deputycat-masters,” Fie corrected. “Jas is obviously the ranking cat-master.”
Khoda scowled at her but was interrupted by a knock at the door.
“Food for the sick,” Ebrim grunted outside.
“See? Password,” Khoda hissed at Fie, then called, “Come in.”
Ebrim slid in, then caught the door before Yula could close it. “Hold on. We have a visitor for the patients.”
A man slid in behind him. He was a lanky fellow, looked to be in his late thirties, wearing Pigeon grays with surprisingly long sleeves.He was sweating, and from the way he fidgeted with those sleeves, Fie reckoned it wasn’t just from the heat.
Ebrim closed the door, then motioned for them all to huddle in the middle of the room, as far from the window and the hall as possible. Barf mewed in protest as Khoda moved her from his lap, then curled up on his pillow instead.
“This is one of our missing Sparrows,” Ebrim said in a low whisper. “What do you want us to call you?”
The man’s mouth wobbled. “Just… just Sparrow will do.”
Ebrim patted the man on the back. “Sparrow here sought me out. He still remembers what happened when the qu—” Sparrow flinched, and Ebrim stopped. “Whenshecalled for him. Will you tell them, or should I?”
