Page 109 of Zenith Tower

Caspian stood with his arms raised while Marrow went through his coat, turned out both pockets, and ran a hand along the seams of his trousers. A second steward examined the soles of his boots. They found a snapped length of crate rope, two wood splinters, and a smear of inventory chalk across one cuff.

“Productive afternoon?” Kieran asked from the bench beneath the false window.

Marrow looked at him. “Do you require something?”

“A chair with a back. Better bread. An explanation for why Ashford smells like onions.”

“The dock stores provisions.”

“There it is. One mystery solved.”

Marrow returned Caspian’s coat and ordered him into his room.

Caspian obeyed without looking at me.

The fear under my wrist did not ease.

I waited through the evening meal and the healer’s examination of Kieran. The stewards changed at the western junction shortly afterward. The new pair began sending us through the washroom before the night locks were set.

Caspian went first.

I waited until the sound of the water told me he had reached the washroom.

When the steward called my name, Caspian was still at the long stone trough, rinsing dust from his hands. Water rushed from four narrow spouts and disappeared through a channel in the floor. The sound filled the chamber.

The steward remained outside the open door.

I took the place beside Caspian and reached for the soap.

He kept his eyes on his hands. “Lior kept every letter Delphine sent him.”

The soap slipped against my palm.

Caspian caught it before it struck the stone and set it between us.

“He remembers what they said,” he continued, barely audible beneath the water. “He still has the letter warning him to stay away from Zenith Hall.”

I put both hands beneath the nearest stream. The water was cold enough to hurt.

“Does he know she’s alive?”

“He knew she entered the Tower. I told the courier she survived it.”

I looked at him then.

A shallow cut crossed the base of his thumb. Dock gritremained in the creases of his knuckles, dark against skin reddened by cold water.

“Who was the courier?”

“A man who warned me not to trust him. I listened anyway.” Caspian shifted closer, his shoulder blocking the steward’s view of our hands. “Rev and Cosima are free. Juno is delaying Council orders from inside the Hall. They’re building a record for a hearing, but they need evidence from the Tower.”

“And Lior?”

“He wants Delphine home.”

The cold water kept running over my fingers.

I remembered Delphine in the west antechamber at Zenith Hall, slipping half her breakfast onto my plate because I had been too frightened to eat in front of anyone. I remembered the letter the school had held in the gate office after it took her through the west door. Rev had lifted it from the drawer, carried it out beneath her shirt, and sent it with the flour wagon.Ask after me loudly. Ask what this school does with the girls it subtracts.