“You’re the very best of friends, Ruru,” I said, squeezing him hard and inhaling his familiar scent of dirt, sweat, and sticky bread.
He gave me a brief hug and backed away. “I wish you had been a better one.”
My heart jerked as if he’d stabbed it. “I hope one day I can be,” I whispered.
“Here.” He brought me my knife brace—loaded with my knives—my sack of gold, and Mother’s knife.
My eyebrows arched. “Were you going to run away with these? Or did you always plan to set me free?” I slipped the knife into my boot without looking at it.
Ruru’s dark eyes were solemn as an owl’s. “I owe you my life, Kiera. I don’t think you saved me to thicken a lie. I think you saved me because that’s who you are. You protect people.” He shrugged. “Sometimes you just protect the wrong people.”
I stilled, my sore fingers halfway through buckling on my knife brace.
The wrong people.He thought my father, Renwell, Korvin, and their allies were the wrong people. And on most counts, he was right.
I finished buckling my brace. “I wanted to tell Aid—everyone the truth. That’s what I meant to do last night. I wanted to protect all of you.”
“I know,” he said, holding my bag of gold out to me. “In case you need to run, too.”
I shook my head. “Keep it. There is no escape for me anymore.”
Ruru’s fingers curved around the gold, and he shoved it in his pocket. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to protect the right people,” I said grimly.Everett and Delysia.“And enforce justice if I can. Will you be all right?”
He gave me a faint version of his usual smile. “I always am. Good luck, Kiera.”
“And you, Ruru.” I clasped his shoulder, then hurried into the empty night.
I wore no cloak, no mask. I carried nothing but my knives.
I ran through the alleys, which were indeed empty, up to the Noble Quarter gate. Two guards paced beneath the torchlight. Wrapping my arms around my waist to cover my knives, I hurried up to it.
“Melaena atThe Silk Dancer,” I said breathlessly.
“No one gets through,” the tall guard said
“You’ve seen me a dozen times! Melaena’s expecting me!”
He leaned closer, pressing his nose between the bars of the gate, and surveyed me. “No onegets through.”
“What’s all the gods-damned noise about?” the other guard demanded. “We heard explosions.”
“I don’t know,” I said impatiently. “But I need to see Melaenaimmediately.”
“Are you deaf or just stupid? We have orders to not let a single person through this gate.”
I kicked the gate, making the guard jerk backward, but then I stilled. “You haven’t let anyone else through this gate all night?”
“No.” The tall guard sneered, hefting his spear. “So, why would we letyouin?”
I whirled and ran back into the shadows. Father must’ve ordered them to keep the gate shut. Had Renwell warned him of a possible attack? There would be more guards if that were the case.
How was Aiden planning to get into the palace, then?
Moments slipped by like a waterfall, too fast for my liking, as I picked the lock on the warehouse and dove into the tunnel. I whisked through the dark, silent club, quiet as a cat, and snuck into the back alley.
I’d almost reached the bridge when my steps slowed. I didn’t have Renwell’s Death token with me. And if the guards at the gate wouldn’t let me through...
