“Ellina.”
She aimed a punch at his throat.
“Stop.”
She kicked him in the gut. She was wild, she was reckless, she was seeing white. Ellina watched Raffan dodge two more blows, but she did not really see him. She saw corpses rising from the earth. She saw an army of undead crawling out of the shadows like cockroaches.
“Enough,” said Farah.
Ellina spun to find her sister standing a few paces back.
“Bring it to me,” Farah said. Ellina stood dumbly, not understanding, until Raffan stooped to pick up the note Ellina had dropped. She watched, almost as if from a distance, as Raffan handed the letter to Farah. In the low light of dawn, the slip of paper looked pale and yellow. It was thin, it was nothing, no more menacing than a feather.
All the blood rose to Ellina’s face as Farah unfolded the parchment. She watched her sister read the letter. “What is this?” Farah asked in elvish.
There was a tense, terrible silence.No, Ellina thought. Her mind revolted, it slipped and spun. This could not be happening. For months Ellina had plotted and planned, always careful, always one step ahead. She did not make mistakes. She was too smart for mistakes, and certainly forthiskind of mistake. The impossibility of her situation made Ellina do the worst thing. She lied. “I do not know,” Ellina replied in elvish. “It is not mine.”
Farah’s gaze dropped to the letter, then came up again. Her eyes glowed in the everpool’s silvery light. “But…it is.” Farah’s voice sounded strange. Ellina could see the thoughts swirling behind her gaze. “This is your handwriting. It is your letter. You lied. You can lie in elvish?”
Ellina went cold. Somewhere over the distant mountains, a hawk cried her hunting call.
“I had heard the rumors,” Farah continued softly. “The wildings once told of such a thing. But those elves are superstitious. Full of whim. I never truly thought…” A pause. A small shake of her head. Ellina did not understand how Farah could be so calm, not when she felt like screaming. Around them, the dawn continued to break.
Farah said, “You have dark hair.”
It was over. Farah knew the truth, had the proof of it there on that scrap of paper. And Ellina was weaponless, defenseless, trapped on this palace island with nowhere to hide, nowhere to run.
She ran anyway.
She bolted, sliding past Farah and Raffan, disappearing into the garden’s stony maze. She heard Farah’s muffledseize her, followed by the sound of her sister’s hollers, a call of her guards to arms. Ellina sprinted faster, crashing through turns, twisting and winding. She had no idea where she was going, no real sense of where this maze would take her. It did not matter. She had a sudden vision of Ermese trapped in his prison. Her mother, stabbed through the stomach. Ellina could not end up like them. She couldnot.
Gasps tore at her throat. It was, for several seconds, the only sound she heard.
Then: footfalls. The swift cadence of boots gaining ground behind her. Ellina risked a glance back to see Raffan closing in, her dagger in his hand. She heard the huff of his breath as he skidded to a stop, followed by the awful silence that could only mean he was taking aim, cocking his arm to throw.
She looked up at the sky. Wind-tears slipped from the corner of her eyes. The morning’s stars winked their final goodbye.
The dagger pierced Ellina’s back, up in the shoulder. She heard the sick pop of skin and muscle. Numbness, followed by hot pain.
She screamed, and she fell.
???
Ellina did not know where they were taking her. She was dizzy, blood-soaked, seeing stars. There was a guard on either side of her now. They held her up by the arms, hauling her gracelessly through the palace. Ellina tried to get her feet back under her, but the world dipped and whirled, and she could not seem to keep her footing. When she faltered, they dragged her with no more regard than a sack of grain.
Farah led the way. Her white hair bounced a little, her steps eager. Though Ellina could not see her face, she sensed her sister’s contained intensity, as if she were a box full of writhing snakes. Farah paused at the top of a stairwell, spoke a quiet word to the guard stationed there, and began her descent.
Ellina knew now where they were headed. This was the way to Ara’s old suite, which was no longer a suite but a prison. If Ellina had been more clear of mind, she might have been heartened by this. Farah would not be leading Ellina to the prisons if she intended to kill her. But Ellina was not clear of mind, was not even lucid enough to grasp the hopelessness of her situation, and so when they entered the chamber and came into sight of the barred cells, she began to struggle.
“Ellina.” Raffan spoke from behind. He sounded tired. “Do not make it worse.”
She struggled harder.
“You should hold that wound still.”
She did not give a damn what he thought she should do.
The room was as Ellina remembered: two barred cells and a third made of solid stone. The candles sputtered on their wicks. Ermese’s cell was empty.
