Page 32 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

His brows drew together as he relented.

“We’ll give them a few minutes to see if they turn up. If they returned to Dharati before the end of their shift, I’ll have them stripped of their rank.”

“You do that,” Zarya said as she once again surveyed their surroundings.

“I can’t believe Row kept you living out here in the wilds, with this field of death spreading all around you,” Yasen said.

“The area around our house was protected,” she said. “And it was quite lovely if you forgot it was basically a prison. But yeah, it didn’t make for the most welcoming environment.”

“What did you do all the time?” he asked.

“I read a lot of books,” she said, and Yasen laughed.

“Right. I should have guessed.”

“It was all I had,” she said softly, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tugged her closer.

“Then I’m glad you had them.”

She looked up, blinking back the threat of tears.

“But please don’t cry again.”

“I’m not,” she said, wiping the corner of her eye.

He dropped his arm and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the ledge.

“We’ll have to let Vik know this tower has been compromised when we get back. It must be recent.”

His eyes wandered towards the city, the light of worry reflecting in their stormy depths. She knew what he was looking at—the creeping border between the blight and the untouched plain beyond the wall.

The dark side and the light side.

The line between safety and ruin.

This vantage made it even more apparent just how little space remained between the blight and Dharati.

“How long do you think we have until it reaches the city?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not long enough. I don’t think it will ever be enough.”

“What will we do, Yas? Where will we all go?”

“I’m not sure. Evacuate Daragaab. Leave it to the monsters? Try to fight back until no one is left?”

“It won’t stop here,” Zarya said, certain of that.

“No, it won’t,” he agreed. “I’m hoping that we can actually fight back with Amrita as queen.”

“What do you mean?”

Yasen gave her a wry look. “While Rani Vasvi was very benevolent and all, she wasn’t good for much beyond blinking her eyes and bestowing everyone with patient smiles.”

“Yasen! That was your queen you’re talking about.”

“I know,” he said, not sounding at all sorry about it. “But she was a figurehead. She had to be dragged into any sort of action.”

Zarya remembered Amrita sharing similar sentiments.