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Not anything forceful, at least…
A glimmer of an idea lights in my head. Esmae nearly had me at her mercy without a single cutting word or blade.
Without letting myself second-guess the inspiration, I let out a light laugh and step toward my harasser.
“Oh, Anya, let’s stop jerking our poor schoolmates around. They’ve got plenty of other things to worry about beyond us pretending we’re at each other’s throats. It’s been a lot of fun while it lasted, but I think the charade has run its course. You’ve been fantastic at it, friend.”
Anya stares at me as if I actually did stab her. Probably she’d have had a better idea how to respond in that circumstance.
Ignoring the revulsion twisting through my body, I grasp her arm and pull her into a friendly hug. With a bob on my toes, I bring my mouth close to her ear.
“Play along and make nice,” I murmur so only she can hear, “or I’ll let Ster. Stavros drag you in front of the royal family as a traitor like he’s been itching to ever since you poisoned me. Even assistant teaching staff are delegates of the crown, you know.”
Anya’s posture stiffens. Then she lets out a chuckle that’s only slightly strained and brings her arms up to return the embrace.
Ah. So I gambled right, and she was the one who tampered with my dinner that night.
I can feel that she’s hating every second of the clinch, but that’s all right. So am I.
I draw back from her with a triumphant smile.
“I really do have an errand to take care of, but we’ll have to catch up properly soon. Take care of yourself!”
“You too,” Anya says in a dazed tone. She eases to the side, and I stride on to the gate with nothing following me but several dozen startled gazes.
By the time I reach the wall, the students behind me have already fallen back into their previous buzz of conversation. There’ll be a bit of talk about the con Anya and I supposedly pulled, pretending to be strangers and enemies, but people who like each other is not that interesting. The mutterings should fade soon.
Julita makes a noise of disbelief.I think that ploy actually worked. But you had tohugher.
“We all make sacrifices for the greater good,” I mutter under my breath as I slip beneath the archway.
I skirt the side of the Temple of the Crown where it stands just ahead of the college walls, through the thrum of its ever-present magic. The sensation is even more unnerving than usual now, while the knowledge of what I’m about to do simmers inside me.
I come around the front of the temple and gaze up the short flight of broad marble steps to the grand public doorway that’s open as always to worshippers. A few are ambling out right now, their expressions soft with peace in the fading daylight.
A lump rises in my throat. My heart is already thumping hard against my ribs.
Peace is the last sensation I’m going to feel stepping into that building.
I fled to the streets the morning of my twelfth birthday specifically so my parents wouldn’t fulfill their obligation to bring me to my dedication ceremony.
Going into Inganne’s temple was bad enough. The structure before me is the most exalted place of worship in the country, blessed by all nine godlen and perhaps the All-Giver as well.
Will the divinities see me the second I step through that doorway? See me all the way down to my broken soul?
My hand comes to rest on the folds of my skirt. I pull out the locket, flip it open, and press my thumb to the inner surface.
A tingle of magic tells me it’s worked. The men will know I’ve found something—they’ll follow the call here.
I could simply wait outside and let them do the rest. Stavros—and maybe the others too—might even prefer that.
But as I stare up at the sublime building with dread pooling in my gut, a tremor shakes the ground all the way to the cobblestones I’m standing on.
One of the nobles who just exited the temple startles with a little gasp. My chest constricts.
The trouble is spreading. Whatever the scourge sorcerers are doing, their influence is creeping far beyond the college walls.
How much more might be destroyed if I just stand here when I could have tried to stop them?
