“Got one!” hissed a voice by my ear.
The speaker was female. She sounded young. My mind seemed to seize. That voice…it was familiar.
We were quickly surrounded. Torches were held high. A manstepped in front of me and tugged down his hood—bright gold hair roughly caught in a low bun, days-old stubble, a face startlingly handsome. The last time I’d seen those cornflower-blue eyes, they’d been glinting at me from behind a lion mask.
“Kielty,” I said. It came out as a rushed breath.
He moved toward me, clapped a hand onto my shoulder. “It’s you. Good. I got your note.” He cocked an eyebrow. “You gave us the shock of our lives, you know. Well. Now I have one for you.”
His gaze moved deliberately to the girl restraining me.
She let me go, took a few steps backward. As I turned, she slowly lowered her hood.
Round, tan cheeks picked out by torchlight. Dark eyes I’d looked into so many times. Even in the dimness, I knew that face. I knew that hair, pulled up into bunches. I knew that figure, compact and springy.
“Corith,” came that voice again.
And all at once, everything crashed down on me.
36
I staggeredforward, nearly slipping in my haste.
I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even say her name. My chest was bursting; my breath snared in my throat. As Zennia fell toward me and we clutched each other’s shoulders, she gazed into my face, eyes roving my features.
“You—you’re—” The words wouldn’t come to me.
“I’m sorry,” she was saying fiercely. “Corith, I’msorry.”
I gripped my friend hard. I could hardly believe that she was here, that I was touching her. Then the scene seemed to come into focus around me: Zennia. Alive. With members of theCage.
I studied her. Her face was leaner, the skin on her lips chapped. I saw now that her eyes were pricked with tears.
“Beautiful reunion,” said Kielty behind us. “But I’d rather like to ask you—what inhellsis going on out here?”
I turned reluctantly, still grasping Zennia. “You—you let me believe she was dead,” I said. “You said you had nothing to do with her disappearance—”
For the first time, his cheery demeanor faltered. “I’m sorry about that,” he said, frowning. “I truly am. Leadership’s orders—we didn’t know you. This one”—he jerked his chin toward Zennia—“tried to persuade us to tell you everything, but we couldn’t risk it. We had to…test you. And besides,” he added, eyes twinkling now, “I believe I said, ‘We played no part in the death of your friend.’ Technically true.” He lifted a shoulder.
“Test me?” I whispered. “Bribe me, you mean? Dangle the truth about her like a carrot on a stick?” I turned back to Zennia, wide-eyed, disbelieving.
“I’m so, so sorry,” she said, face crumpling. “I tried. But they said you might report us.”
Us.
I felt like a puppet again. Like my legs might give out at any moment.
“You’re with the Cage,” I said dully. “You…joined them. How?”
She nodded. “It was all Instructor Rhama. He’s a cuckoo, like Kielty, but I didn’t know he was with them, not till the night before my exam…And Corith, I’m so sorry, I had no chance to talk to you. Rhama said not to—”
Kielty moved toward us. By now the rest of the group were clustering around us with hard, narrow gazes. “Explanations later. I’m going to have to insist. Before whatever’s happening up there comes down here.” He lifted an eyebrow at the distant castle, where fires flared and faint yells sounded.
“It’s House Crake,” I told him, scrubbing dampness from my cheeks. I hadn’t even noticed my eyes were leaking. “Arrived in the night. A hundred men. I thought they wereyou…” I gave a hollow laugh.
Zennia slid in next to me, arm tight around my shoulders. She was staring at my face as though trying to read there everything that had happened in the last few weeks.
An angry murmur fizzled through the group. Kielty shook his head. “We’ll have to abandon ship. Send a crow back to Pen Aryn, say we were beaten to the punch.” He stared fixedly at the castle. “We’ll lie low here for now. See how this pans out. We don’t really have much choice.”
