“She’s not here, in this room.”
“Probably just downstairs,” Beaufort says, yawning.
But I have to be certain. So I scrabble out of the bed, pull on some pants and a shirt, and head downstairs.
Briony’s two friends are stirring in the front room with her old dog and Tudor’s mother is cooking eggs in the back room. There’s no sign of Nini.
My heart starts to race in my chest and my shadows, so calm a moment ago, are stirring inside me.
“Have you seen Briony?” I ask Tudor’s mother.
“Oh, hello dear,” she says, smiling kindly at me, in a way that reminds me of my own mother. “She went to check on that dragon of hers. I’m sure she’ll be back any moment.”
“You let her go on her own,” I say, unable to help the accusation in my tone.
“I wasn’t exactly keen on the idea but she was determined not to wake you all and she does seems a very capable young woman.” Tudor’s mother’s tone is rather rattled in response.
“She’s also in a lot of danger right now,” I say, already heading to the door.
But I don’t make it there before it’s creaking open, and Briony’s stepping back inside the house in an old ragged coat that I don’t recognize. Her cheeks are rosy and so is the end of her nose, and she’s shaking slightly from the cold. She toes off her boots, walking towards the fire and blowing on her fingers as she does.
“Good morning,” she says to me, Fly, Clare, and the dog. She stands herself in front of the fire and warms her toes and her fingers.
“You went out on your own,” I say.
“What?” Beaufort says, descending the stairs somewhere behind me.
“She went out alone to see the dragon.”
“This is my home,” Briony reminds them. “And I know it far better than any of you. I’m safe here. I know I am.”
“For the time being,” I mutter. “It’s only a matter of time before someone alerts the authorities to the fact we’re loitering in Slate and sends the Empress and the elite guards after us.”
She rubs her hands together, the light from the flame flickering across her features as she considers my words.
“I think you might be right,” she says. “Which is why I think I have to talk to the people before we’re caught here. I have to tell them the truth of what’s been going on.”
“I don’t think they’ll believe you,” Beaufort says, coming to stand beside me.
Briony turns away from the fire to face us. Between her and us, her friends are sitting perched on the sofa, looking sleepy and slightly anxious, like they know they’re caught in the middle of a potential row.
“I think they will believe me,” Briony says, “especially when I show them my magic and when I show them Blaze. Things are different here in Slate than they are in the rest of the realm.”
“Different how?” I say, although it’s pretty obvious.
“People are less trusting of the authorities here,” Briony says.
“That isn’t true, Briony,” Beaufort says. “You told us yourself. The people out here believe the academy is a chance for a better life. I saw it in the eyes of the Slate Quarter kids back at the academy; the optimism. They don’t suspect the system’s rigged. And I’m not sure they’ll believe you when you tell them it is.”
Briony chews on her cheek. “Perhaps you’re right. But I have to try, Beaufort. Your vision. I can’t help feeling that’s fate’s way of giving us a clue, of lending us a hint. I think the only way we win this situation is if we find others like me. I think this is the place we find them.”
Beaufort hesitates, and then he nods.
“How are you going to speak to the people?” I say.
“Out in the public square,” Tudor’s mother says, lingering in the doorway, a dirty apron tied around her waist and her gray hair pinned back from her face. “I can spread the word. Tell people there’s an important announcement and they need to be in the square this evening. Most people will be back from their shifts by then.”
I hear footsteps on the staircase and Tudor and Dray join the rest of us.
