Jasimir looked up and grinned, tapping a new-minted badge on his Sparrow uniform. “Cat-master,” he said brightly. Then his grin slipped. “What’s wrong?”
“What happened in the catacombs?” Khoda asked.
Fie sat in one of the overstuffed chairs. A small cat with a tortoiseshell coat immediately leapt onto her lap and curled up. She buried her face in its fur. “I didn’t hear anything. It all made me sick, there were too many bones, I just—” Fie made herself lift her head and take a breath. “In the Tomb of Monarchs, I touched Ambra’s skull.” Khoda tensed. “It wasn’t supposed to—bones aren’t supposed to do aught unless I ask, but it did, it showed me Ambra’s life.”
“Why would it show you that?” Jasimir asked, bewildered.
She didn’t want to say it out loud; it was the same as the feeling from the Well of Grace, from Little Witness’s watchtower, the same droning dread. She said it anyway.
“Last moon, I went to the watchtower of Little Witness. The shrine-keeper thereisLittle Witness reborn, and she remembers everything. She told me the Crows have a Birthright, but it was stolen. That if I wanted to get it back, I had to keep my oath. I thought she meantouroath, Jas. I thought getting you to Draga wasn’t enough, that I had to put you on the throne. But Ambra… Her skullgrabbedme, and I saw her—I saw her swear a Covenant oath with Crows, to save her life.”
“But she didn’t keep it,” Khoda finished, quiet. “And now it’s yours.”
Jasimir twisted to look between him and Fie, letting the black-and-white cat in his lap go. “What are you saying?”
“Fie is Ambra reborn. Well, the latest one, that is.” Khoda leaned back, trying to sound casual. “Congratulations. You’re now in onanother of those secrets the master-general mentioned. You know, the kind that holds nations together.”
Jasimir and Fie both stared at him.
“The Black Swans keep count of witches, right?” Khoda continued. “When they first started, the numbers didn’t add up. A witch of one caste would die, but we wouldn’t see another witch born to take their place. It took a few decades to figure it out, but every one of them had died of the Sinner’s Plague, and a few years later… a new Crow witch would be registered. Eventually they get sent back, after a life or two with the Crows. But Ambra has stayed. Most of the nation thinks Ambra’s rebirth is supposed to set off an era of peace. It’s already happened”—he did a quick tally on his fingers—“thirteen times, I think? That we know of?”
“You knew this whole time?” Fie asked, numb. “You knew who I really was?”
Khoda pursed his lips and didn’t answer for a moment. “I wasn’t lying when I said we thought Rhusana would target you. But this is part of why. You have every right to be angry with me for keeping it from you, let’s just get that out of the way. But what good would it have done if I told you? What would it change?”
“What would it change?” Jasimir exploded. “It makes her the heir to the fucking throne! The rightful queen of Sabor!”
“No.” Fie pushed herself back into the chair. “I don’t want it. You can’t make me.”
You don’t want to be queen?Niemi demanded.What’s wrong with you?
Khoda was shaking his head. “Even if you did want it, it doesn’t matter. You have to keep your oath.”
The oath… Fie’s belly sank. “Ambra swore to give up her crown and join the Crows. How am I supposed to keepthat?”
“You need a crown to give one up,” Jasimir said.
Khoda scowled at him. “It’s not happening.”
Jasimir ran his hands through his hair. “Khoda, you’ve told me for the last week that all the gentry care about is that the crown goes to a descendant of Ambra. Tav, Fie, and I almost died,many times, in order to convince people Imightbe Ambra reborn. Now we have the real thing, and suddenly it doesn’t matter?”
Khoda didn’t answer.
Fie did for him. “It doesn’t, because I’m a Crow.”
She heard Little Witness’s final words to her:You are not what you were.
She also heard Niemi’s:We could be the queen, you insufferable fool!
“Because you don’t have proof,” Khoda corrected. “How are you going to convince the Peacocks? The Hawks? The rest of Sabor?”
Jasimir’s face went stony. “She can’t be killed by the plague,like Ambra.She can control fire and keep from being burned,like Ambra.That’s all it would take for anyone to believeIwas Ambra reborn.”
“You know it’s not that simple,” Khoda snapped, getting to his feet. “And I can’t believe you’re willing to just throw your throne away.”
“It’s not throwing it away!” Jasimir stood as well. “I’ve giveneverythingto make myself the best king I could be for Sabor. Do you think I’d give that up for anything less? But if the Crows have a Birthright and this returns it, it’s not just about Ambra. It’s about helping my people—ourpeople. You can’t tell me that doesn’t give Fie the right to the throne.”
“It’s not justhavingthe right to the throne!” Khoda was angrier than Fie had ever seen him. “It’sbeingright for the throne!”
