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A rope sailed over Ryn’s balcony, fastened amidst ivies. Knots swung back and forth in even intervals all the way down into the mist, and Ryn leapt over her rail, descending the rope quickly.

A crash sounded down the hall, and Norkin smacked Xerxes’s shoulder. “Hurry, Xerxes, hurry!”

Xerxes hopped off the ledge and caught the rope, causing Ryn to swing below. She kept moving until she disappeared into the thick white mist blanketing the innermost path of the Outer Rings. Xerxes slid from one knot to the next in haste. He caught up to Ryn and hopped off to land on the grass beside her.

“I see why you brought Norkin,” he whispered, eyeing the maze openings. A low hissing sound echoed across the walls, and a sinking feeling formed in Xerxes’s stomach. He noticed Ryn had no sword.

Norkin’s feet hit the ground with a thud, and he tossed the rope aside, waving for them to follow. He ducked beneath an archway laced with closed flower buds and raced past tall stone statues of sphinxes and cobras. Ryn and Xerxes stayed close on his heels as he padded over a cobbled path until they reached a three-way split in the labyrinth. Norkin took Xerxes’s arm with his sweaty hand as he caught his breath.

“Do you remember when we snuck into the orchard behind my palace, and my father’s guards spent two days looking for us?” he said. “Father was so angry when the guards found us lounging by the river and realized we’d been telling each other scary stories, eating apples, and sleeping under the stars.”

Xerxes shook a hand through his hair to cool his scalp. “Vaguely.” He remembered eating apples until his stomach hurt and being reprimanded by his father afterward for making everyone think he and the third Prince of Messa had drowned. But he didn’t remember much else from that time of his life. It was shortly after his father had dumped the fate of Per-Siana onto Xerxes’s lap.

Dimples formed in Norkin’s cheeks. “Every other time I braved this maze, I did it by myself in the dark. So, even if we don’t make it out, I’m lucky to have a friend with me this time.” He dropped Xerxes’s arm and pointed to a path ahead. “Anyway, it’s this way.” Norkin charged, and Ryn glanced between Xerxes and Norkin as if only now realizing they’d known each other before this place.

Norkin jogged over winding moonlit paths, up a tetrad of stone stairs, past a large tree of glowing yellow fruit, and through a cavern of hanging roses. He turned sideways to slide between two walls so close together, a larger person wouldn’t have made it through. He shoved a curtain of green leafed vines up to slide beneath them, then held them up for Ryn to pass. Xerxes hopped out last, coming into a wide clearing.

Norkin turned and pointed to a black wall sticky with moss. A low, bone-rattling hiss lifted from nearby, and Xerxes’s skin pebbled. “The snake is on the other side of that wall. I think I know your plan, Adassah, but just to be sure…” Norkin eyed her pocket. “Show me what you took from that Vafat this morning.”

Xerxes looked at Ryn in surprise as she slid on a pair of gloves, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of red powder. Some slipped off the edge of her glove and fluttered off in the breeze.

Norkin put a hand over his mouth, his grin peeking out at the corners. “I knew you were the right person for this, Commander Adassah. Curse those Vafat for frightening me too much to try it on my own.”

A huff of disbelief left Xerxes as he realized. His lungs prickled at the sight of the red powder, and a muscle feathered in his jaw when he recalled Ryn being swatted at by that Vafat with a scepter. Even if it was her plan to steal the powder, getting struck still wasn’t worth it. “I believe I’ve figured out what’s going on now. Let’s get this over with. I’m in no mood to fight a snake god without a sword. And, Divinities, please keep that red stuff away from me.” Xerxes led the way but made a startled sound, accidentally grabbing Norkin’s hand as they came to a man-sized arch.

The Ring Cobra was red.

Not black as depicted on the B’rei Mira pectorals in the war. Red.

Xerxes couldn’t figure out why that made the creature more horrifying. “Divinities, can that thing eat someone whole?” Xerxes measured its coiled crimson body with his eyes. It could have easily swallowed a horse.

“I have no idea. Isn’t it disgusting?” Norkin made a face toward the walled-in nest. Bones speckled the ground surrounded by piles of black stone as if the creature had slammed itself into the walls and broken the bricks trying to escape. The foul stench of death lifted off everything, and Xerxes plugged his nose.

Norkin dragged his light blue eyes off the snake. “People gossip that the Ring Cobra spoke to Prince Emad when he was little, demanding a human sacrifice, and now he still hears its voice in his sleep. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what kind of evil god would actually require human sacrifices and torment a boy with voices?” Xerxes’s soul slid deep within him, hiding away. “Shouldn’t it be the other way around? If the gods cared about us, they’d fight for us, not against us.” Norkin sighed. “Not demanding human sacrifices. Not turning boys like Emad into fear-stricken statues.” He pulled the green speckled feather out of his pocket. “It’s why I stopped believing in the Divine Bird, even though it’s the deity of my people. That Bird never did anything for us.” He stared at the feather for a long time, then tossed it to the wind and watched it flutter down the path.

Ryn moved before Xerxes could stop her. She crept around the snake, her gloved hand clasped. The snake’s burgundy slit eye swivelled, finding her, and Xerxes’s stomach plummeted. His foot struck a stone when he stepped into the nest, and the snake’s eye darted toward him instead.

Red powder shot through the air, falling onto the snake’s hissing tongue, and the creature recoiled, arching high as it gagged and thrashed. It released a blood-chilling sound; a blast like a screeching horn over the maze that made the walls shake, dust falling from the cracks.

“Curse the birds,” Norkin whispered, looking back toward the palace with pale cheeks. “I think they would have heard that.”

“So much for sneaking out.” Xerxes strode into the snake’s nest as the creature’s eyes slid closed. When it collapsed, the ground shook. Norkin crept around the room, eyeing the snake’s body rising and falling with quiet, hissed breathing. He tiptoed to a tangle of vines draped over an oval in the wall. “Unfortunately, it’s into this hole where the city shoves criminals they want to sacrifice to the Ring Cobra. Sick, isn’t it?” Norkin shoved aside the vines and crawled in.

Xerxes put a hand on his stomach. “You talk too much, Norkin,” he said. He followed Ryn after she climbed into the narrow tunnel, pulling off her gloves and tugging the hood of her cloak on. Her dark hair spilled out, nearly brushing the ground as she crouched. Moonlight poured across a hole at the opposite end as they came out to a narrow platform overlooking a vast city of twinkling lights, distant music, and orange torches lining roads in every direction.

Norkin sniffed as he took it in with glistening eyes, a smile pulling across his face, dimples appearing.

“Ryn,” Xerxes whispered, his hand drifting over and finding hers, interlocking their fingers as a breath of hope moved through him. “We’re going to make it,” he realized. It was the first moment since she showed up at his cell that it dawned on him he might actually see Per-Siana again. That he’d stand before General Reza, Joshua, the rest of Division One, and his entire army and give them orders. That he might actually have a chance to rescue his palace, and maybe El Tsebaoth would use Ryn and him side-by-side to guard the border and keep Alecsander out.

That all those reckless comments he’d made about going back and marrying Ryn before his people might actually come true.

Divinities, three times now.

Since he’d met her at the first Heartstealer trials, Ryn had saved him three times.

Pyriwell smelled of sweet smoke, sour fruit, and dark curses. People hardly looked up as they passed, lost in their own minds as they dragged their sandalled feet along the roadside paths in the dark. Black liners and eye powders made strange styles on women’s faces, along with hooped earrings so heavy they stretched earlobes. Xerxes grimaced at their missing toes, at the metal horns fastened to their heads and dark gold coverings inlaid with chiselled designs and jewels. The city was quieter than he’d expected, which was how he knew they were being hunted. His suspicion was confirmed when clattering armour and eerie Vafat whispers sailed through the dark, followed by growls and flickering torchlight filling the ends of the roads.

“Did they bring the whole army?” Xerxes muttered.