Page 86 of Queen of Shadows and Ruin

Urvi opened her mouth and then closed it. “I’m not sure I can lie to His Majesty.” Her gaze slid to Rabin and back to Zarya.

“It’s okay,” Zarya said. “This is a safe space. You can be honest with us. We would never do anything to get you in trouble.”

“His Majesty has a way of finding out the truth. All the servants agree. Any time they’ve tried to lie about something, he knows.”

Zarya huffed out a breath. She wasn’t all that surprised to hear it.

“Okay, just do your best, and we’ll be as quick as possible.”

“We could do it after,” Rabin said, and she shook her head.

“I can’t. I need to see now.”

“Okay,” he replied, probably knowing that would be her answer. “Then let’s go.”

They headed for the vanshaj wing, using Urvi’s drawing as a guide through the twisting, narrow corridors. Her map wasn’t quite to scale, and the wing was much larger than Zarya had initially imagined.

She kept getting lost and having to double back while Rabin quietly followed her.

She stopped in the middle of a hall and turned around as he approached her. “I’m worried about Urvi,” she said. “What if he catches her in a lie? You saw how scared she was.”

“We should go,” he said, a warm hand settling on her lower back.

“I want to keep looking for a little longer. Would you go and check on her?”

His mouth firmed into a hard line.

“I’ll be fine,” she promised. “Please? It would make me feel better.”

“I’d prefer not to leave you.”

She laid a hand on his bicep and squeezed. “I’ll look for exactly ten more minutes, and if I don’t find anything else, I’ll come back, okay? I don’t want her getting in trouble because of us.”

His gaze narrowed before he shook his head. “Ten minutes. You swear?”

She held up a hand in a promise. “I swear.”

He looked around the hall, peering left and right. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”

He leaned down to peck her on the cheek, then turned to walk away. Zarya watched until he rounded a corner and then resumed her search.

He didn’t like it, but Rabin headed towards Abishek’s library. He trusted Zarya would keep her word, but this mystery was consuming her, and he worried that she’d do something reckless.

But they couldn’t abandon Urvi to the king for the sake of their lies.

He strode through the halls, passing tall arched windows opening to the sky. The blizzard continued, dusting the world with ice and driving snow. He was more than ready to leave. It was strange how quickly Ishaan had started feeling like home when for so long he’d felt sure his place was in Andhera. Maybe it was Zarya. Or maybe it was the resistance and fighting for something he’d always believed in. Likely a little of both.

He turned into the hall leading towards Abishek’s study and strode down its length. The sentries bowed as he entered. Inside, he found Abishek and Kishore conferring in low voices at the worktable. At his entrance, they both looked up.

“Where’s Zarya?” Abishek asked.

“She’s on her way,” he answered. Rabin scanned the room for Urvi. “Someone should have told you.”

Abishek nodded. “Yes. I was informed.”

His gaze slid to the corner, where Urvi sat crouched against the wall with her arms wrapped around her legs and tears staining her cheeks. She looked at Rabin with a worried expression in her glassy gaze.

Rabin turned to the king with his senses firing in warning. “What’s going on?”