“And don’t even consider telling anyone.” Anees’s eyes flashed with warning as she threw the words over her shoulder. “Leadership is paying attention to the ashlings. They notice who of their colors is missing when the door is locked.”
There goes hope,Lory thought to herself, her gaze ahead on the bright spot at the end of the tunnel and her frustration building with every new secret unveiled.
“Did you say something?” Anees didn’t turn her head this time, but her shoulders had tensed as if she was ready to fight.
A glance at the two short swords hanging at the woman’s hips told Lory Anees was ready for battle.
Before Lory could let Anees know she hadn’t uttered a word, the end of the tunnel spat them out into an antechamber of the mess hall, on the same side as the exit the dead bodies took after the daily stabbing. Lory had never noticed this small room either, it’s entrance expertly hidden between the columns on the side of the room, and the gigantic stained glass window panels, displaying war scenes and leonthors, allowed light into the room only in one direction, which veiled the gap in the wall in shadows.
She’d need to pay more attention to details in this pyramid, Lory decided. Perhaps answers were hidden in plain sight—just like the leonthors on the window and the scribbled notes in Aiden’s old book.
As they walked into the room, Hadrian stopped and inclined his head first at Anees, then at Lory, in the same manner the gentlemen at the dance had, and a roguish grin lit up the phantom’s face.
“You’re sitting with us today,” Anees informed Lory as she was steering for her usual table, spotting the three faces she’d been looking for.
Thal, Tabi, and Jarek were already sitting there, whispering among themselves, and Lory’s chest ached to join them. “Why can’t I sit with them?”
Anees rolled her eyes. “Because you’re no longer a blue. Thornlings are brown and sit with other thornlings. Wait a few more days, and you’ll have them back—if they all make it through their trials.”
Lory’s stomach tightened. “Are they being sent to the mountains, too?”
At that, Anees shook her head. “Only those the Triad don’t trust are sent there as ashlings. The rest undergo more humane tests.” Anees gestured at a table closer to the front of the room, where Bleek was already taking a seat next to Perredin Washings, another phantom.
Lory glanced between the table so close to the scrutiny of leadership and the one hosting her friends. As her eyes landed on Tabi, the woman’s eyes snapped up, and a smile spread on her lips as she waved.
I wish I could join you,Lory thought, already turning away when she noticed Tabi’s eyes widen and her smile slip.
“Not in the best mood, are they?” Bleek noted as he pulled the bench back half a foot and climbed over it, settling in across from Anees and next to Washings. When Lory gave him a doubtful look, he amended, “Your former fellow blues. They know their trials are coming up, and it won’t be pretty.”
“Still better than being slaughtered before breakfast.” Lory didn’t turn away from Tabi as she sat next to Anees, holding her friend’s gaze with a silent prayer to the Guardians on her lips.
Now that she knew how the ashlings who’d die were chosen, Lory could no longer rely on her friends’ impeccable punctuality. If the Triad decided they were suspicious, their timely arrival would be sabotaged tomakethem late. She needed to warn them not to put their noses into the rebels’ business, or they wouldn’t live to enter their final trials. Afterall, Jarek’s sister Maes had been friends with the girl who’d shouted pamphlets about Ashthorn from that dais at the front of that very room.
“What’s on the agenda for today?” she casually asked Anees, hoping whatever was planned for her own training would keep her head busy so she wouldn’t spiral.
The phantom shrugged. “Khay is heading out to a mission this afternoon, so I guess it will fall to Bleek and me to oversee your training.”
Lory wasn’t sure whether she should be excited or terrified. If Hadrian Bleek was going to attempt to educate her in Gilded once more, she just might scream.
“Don’t worry,” the latter said with a wink, his easy smile making Lory wish she could read people better.
Everyone seemed to wear a mask within these walls; only some chose to smile while others kept emotions wiped from their faces. Lory wasn’t sure what terrified her more. Especially since Princeton Nahrit had caught her attention from his table on the dais, his face kind and collected as always.
He had given her the tonic to better handle her exhaustion, a gift to help out a student, and he was probably the only one on that dais who’d ever done something nice for a student.
Her gaze skipped from Nahrit Princeton to Hand Sil, to Dunveil, to Ycken and Brunn, finally lingering on the empty seat that was Khayrivven’s.
“He’ll be there in a moment,” Anees reassured her. Only, it wasn’t in the slightest reassuring, knowing that he’d enter the room from the side door, a student at the tip of his blade, and executing the verdict of the Triad.
Now she knew that the Triad was hunting rebels and sympathizers and that Khayrivven was putting his own life at risk by trying to save them.
Maybe not all of the Triad was as ruthless as Lenya, doing the king’s bidding not out of duty, but out of what seemed like genuine delight. Thank the Guardians, the Master of Whispers wasn’t there that morning.
“Lenya is out on a mission of his own,” Bleek provided, shoving his dark-blond waves back with a quick hand as he leaned across the table and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Falcrest gave him the details of your findings from last night’s mission.”
In Lory’s head, her thoughts swirled like a kaleidoscope of horrors. Her father… Elina… The bargain Ulder had offered…
“The magic wielders who set off the explosions,” Bleek supplied when Lory didn’t react with more than a few rapid blinks.
