“Just becauseyoutried to use me, doesn’t mean everyone is!” I shout over her. “I’m notplayingat being a warrior; Iama warrior.”
Ghoa buries her fingers in her hair, mussing her high ponytail. “If Temujin is so eager to combine forces, why is this the first I’m hearing of it? We haven’t received any missives, nor has he attempted to arrange negotiations.”
“What?” She looks so genuinely baffled, I almost believe her. But then my sense returns and I grind my teeth on the lie, crushing the momentary pain and worry to pulp. I composed the letters myself. I saw Temujin hand them off directly to the scouts. Why would he go to the trouble of staging such a scam? And he has no reason to destroy the missives. It would undermine everything he’s fighting for.
But it would suit Ghoa’s needs perfectly.
“Did you truly not receive our letters?” I ask. “Or did you convenientlyforgetto mention them to the king? The same way youforgotto tell me Serik was being sent to Gazar?”
She raises her fist in the Kalima salute. “I swear on my position as Commander of the Kalima warriors, we haven’t received a single missive.”
“What good is swearing on a position you lied and schemed and double-crossed to obtain?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about!” I slam my own hand against the couch, not realizing it’s my bad arm until shredding pain ricochets from my shoulder to wrist. I press through the agony. “I’m talking about all the mornings you dragged me out of bed and made me sit beside you in the tall grass, so you could see which members of the Kalima were sneaking out for extra training. So you’d know who else was vying for promotion and precisely how to crush them. Even though the matchups were supposed to be blind.
“I’m talking about Nasan and Koju, who you sent into Zemyan territory during your trial as commander, even though our scouts had reported a contingent of enemy soldiers camped in the Usinsk Pass. Nasan lost his leg and Koju hasn’t spoken since. His mother has to nurse him like a babe, but you’ve never noticed or cared because they served their purpose. We marched to the beaches of Karekemish for the first time in history, and you secured the title of commander.
“You’ve always been willing to squash anyone and anything in your way. I just never thought it would be me,” I say softly. “Or the people we vowed to serve.”
Ghoa’s fingers curl into fists and ice overtakes her knuckles. It twines up her wrists and biceps, climbing higher and higher until frost crackles through her hair. Her brown eyes burn bright with anger, but beneath the sparking fury, there is pain. “Stop, Enebish, before you say something you can’t take back.”
But I don’t stop. I force myself to be bold. To make her listen. To make herhear mefor the first time in my life. “I know accepting Temujin’s help will make you look weak in the eyes of the Sky King, but—”
“Stop!”
“I will not be silenced!” I bellow at the top of my voice. “The welfare of our country is more important than your skies-forsaken pride and ambition!”
Arctic air explodes through the room like a cannon, cold enough to tear flesh from bone. With a scream, Ghoa launches herself at me. Her body is so solid, so frozen, it’s like colliding with a glacier. We crash to the floor, which immediately turns to ice, and skid toward the glass walls. The hairs on her arms flay me open like tiny blades, and my chest burns, gasping for air that’s suddenly too cold to breathe.
With my injuries, Ghoa easily overtakes me. She slams the back of my head against the ground. Her eyes are bright and wide, but she’s clearly somewhere else, lost in a world of fury.
“Why do you do this?” Her voice cracks and spittle flies from her lips. “I love you, Enebish. I’ve doneeverythingfor you. But I won’t let you take this from me.” She extracts a dagger from her belt and brings it slashing toward my chest. And maybe it’s those cryptic words and the flash of steel that brings the spark of clarity—the sure knowledge I’ve been in this position before. Or maybe I’m finally strong enough to see my sister for what she truly is—to accept her betrayal without breaking. Or it could be the monster rising from the depths of my belly to defend me—refusing to die without a fight.
Whatever it is, I welcome the help, welcome the heat. Rage flashes through my veins, turning my blood to melted lead. It batters against an icy dam, hidden in the depths of my mind—a wall I never knew was there. A wall Ghoa erected two years ago, then hid from me with the help of the moonstone. But the small amount of tincture Varren forced me to breathe isn’t enough.
The dam bursts with a soul-shattering crack, and surges of hot truth wash over me like wave after wave of Zemyan soldiers.
At last, I remember Nariin.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“IT’S GETTING LATE,”ISAID,BLOWING INTO MY HANDS ASthe last streaks of sunlight sank beneath the endless prairie. The clouds were that in-between color—not quite blue and not quite purple, a velvety indigo that only came at twilight. Tendrils of night spindled from the sky like spiders on silk threads, and I fiddled with them, waiting for Ghoa to respond. The longer I waited, the more I squirmed against the hard-packed snow of the barricade. We had erected it that morning to conceal ourselves on this flat stretch of plain, and as the day grew colder, the snow turned to ice, jabbing my back through the gaps in my armor. My muscles were cramped from lack of use and snot dribbled from my nose. We’d been sitting there for hours. Since the sun came up and went down again, watching the dots of color and smoke half a league away.
“We should head back.” I shifted to my hands and knees, hoping Ghoa would do the same, but she shook her head resolutely.
“We can’t leave now.”
“They’ve hardly moved all day. It’s clearly a plodding merchant caravan, not Zemyan scouts.”
Ghoa stretched to peer over the barricade. “But—”
“We’ll send someone to check their progress tomorrow, to be certain.”
“Tomorrow could be too late. According to my calculations—”
Not her skies-forsaken calculations again! She couldn’t will our enemies into existence, just to prove herself to the king. I heaved a disgruntled sigh. My breath should have billowed before my face like a storm cloud, but it froze as soon as it met the air, creating a milky-white pane that plummeted to the ground and shattered.
