“The Kalima needed me. And I made sure you were happy at Ikh Zuree. Comfortable. I gave you your eagles, the protection of the abba, and Serik was there to keep you company. I thought that would be enough….”
“How could that possibly be enough? And how could I ever be happy with that guilt on my conscience? Guilt that didn’t even belong to me! You used me. You framed me for a massacre! The same way you framed Temujin.Youkilled Serik, didn’t you?”
Ghoa crosses the room with quick, deliberate strides and fists the front of my tunic. “You will not spew such lies! I had hoped we could settle this civilly. I had faith you would see the error of your judgment and return to your senses once you were free of those rebels. Your future is still entirely up to you, Enebish. If you cooperate and tell me where the Shoniin are hidden, I may be able to convince the Sky King your deviant foray was part of our design. If we apprehend the entire group of traitors, he may be lenient. We can still serve together in the Kalima, as planned. Everything will be as it was before.”
My laughter is sharp, cynical. “Nothing can be as it was before, since everything before was a lie!” I tear the silver-and-onyx feather bracelet from my wrist and throw it at Ghoa’s feet.
She stares at me as if seeing me for the very first time.
And maybe she is.
I am new. Reborn.Remade—like Temujin said.
“Very well.” Ghoa hauls me up by my tunic. “If you wish to be difficult, I have other ways of making you cooperate.” She drags me across the salon to the double doors and yanks me onto the balcony. I immediately hiss at the cold. Tiny cyclones of snow whip across the platform and spiral out into the sky where they’re crushed by the gale of darkness.
It is forceful. Violent. Vicious. And I make a grab for it, focusing on the back of my throat, where the glorious hum of my power is returning.
With a gasp, Ghoa tackles me. She wrestles me onto my back, unties a waterskin from her belt, and wedges the nozzle between my lips. I jerk and spit as the cold liquid fills my mouth and streams down my chin. “Varren clearly didn’t give you a proper dosage before,” she says in my ear, “but you’ll feel better now. Like your old, obedient self.” She pats my cheek, drags me to the front of the balcony, and lashes my hands to the golden pilasters. The threads of darkness dive at my face. Midnight fists pummel my sides. “Having fun yet?” Ghoa says with a smug grin.
I let out a long, slow breath and a secret smile lights my eyes. Because the whorls don’t trouble me like they used to. It’s far from comfortable, but after months of practicing in the temple and wielding the darkness on my missions, I know I am the master of the night.
“Is this the best you can do?” I taunt.
Ghoa steps on the back of my head, forcing my nose to the ground. There’s nowhere to look but down. My eyes blur and my stomach dips. I thought the roof of the prayer temple at Ikh Zuree was high, but this is ten times higher. We are practically in the clouds. The fall would last an eternity.
“Where is the Shoniin hideout?” Ghoa roars over the wind.
“In the land of the First Gods! Where you’ll never be permitted to enter.”
She kicks me again, and I laugh because her disbelief is so ironic.
“I don’t think you grasp how serious this is. If you fail to cooperate, you will be executed at sunrise, shortly following your fearless leader.”
Panic flays me open like a bullwhip. “You’re executing him?”
“Of course we’re executing him. That’s how traitors are punished.”
A whimper sneaks past my lips. Sunrise is just a few short hours away. Hardly enough time for Inkar and Chanar to coordinate a rescue.
“It doesn’t have to end like this, En,” Ghoa says, thinking I’m worried for my own life. “You can still come back. I will always forgive you. Just cooperate….”
I lift my chin and focus straight ahead, on the howling wind and teeming darkness I cannot call. “I am not the one who needs forgiveness. And I would rather die than tell you where the Shoniin are hidden.”
“Then I’ll see you on the steps of the Sky Palace.” Ghoa tightens her ponytail and steps back into the salon. “In the meantime, enjoy the view.”
As soon as Ghoa’s gone, I writhe and twist until blood runs down my arms. I throw my weight forward and back, numb to my howling arm and leg. Nothing hurts as much as my heart. Ghoa framed me for a massacre. She killed Serik. And soon she’ll kill Temujin. The rebellion will die without him, and Ashkar will fall. I tilt my head back and roar my agony to the Lady of the Sky.
The more I thrash and jerk, the more the whorls of night peck at my brow and snap in my ears—like hungry birds. I scrunch my face and scream because this is how I will lose my mind. Salvation is at my fingertips, but I’m unable to access it.
Eventually I yell myself hoarse and the weight of my body becomes too much to bear. Exhaustion drags me down, down, into the silence of sleep—the only darkness I can reach.
The nightmares are unbearable. Not long ago, I had thought the massacre at Nariin would be the most painful memory I could relive, but I was wrong. Now I’m bombarded by images of Ghoa’s traitorous, smiling face. I cringe to feel her hands on mine as she teaches me to hold a bow. Her cheers stab my eardrums as I best my first opponent in the sparring rings. Memories I once cherished are now tainted. Dripping with lies and deceit.
Then the nightmares shift, torturing me with horrors I couldn’t stop: I see Serik strapped to a pole while Ghoa mines him for information, his face bruised beyond recognition and his nose dripping blood. I picture him cursing and shouting, fighting to his last breath, even as she carves him up with her dagger. I see Temujin down in the prison pits. Every scar on his chest ripped open and bleeding anew. His screams are high and shrill, like the wind whipping across the balcony.
I wake up drenched in sweat and shivering, wishing I hadn’t slept. The sky has lightened to the color of granite—dark gray speckled with swirls of pale yellow. I know this hour well. I cursed it every morning atop the temples at Ikh Zuree.
The sun won’t crest the Ondor Mountains for at least an hour, but already the execution drums beat in the courtyard below. For now the rhythm is slower than the beat of my heart.Duh … dum, duh … dum, duh … dum.But like my heart, they will quicken and race. By the time Ghoa leads Temujin down the steps of the Sky Palace, the drums will pound with fury. Like a hundred eagles taking flight.
