A handful of guards prepared to carry their captain back to the palace. Two men lifted the stretcher, the others formed a cordon around them.
“How many exits are there from the embassy?” Amron asked a sooty woman whom the others followed.
“Just this one, it goes under this wing into the main courtyard, and all the exits from the building lead there.”
“Where is the carevna, then?”
The woman hesitated.
“Ambassadress, please. I’m trying to help,” Amron said.
The woman nodded. “There is a back garden, surrounded by a wall. It’s possible to climb over it and get to the neighboring gardens. Perfect if you don’t want to be seen leaving the embassy.”
Amron looked up to the blazing roof. “There’s no time to go around. How do you get to the garden?”
“Turn right in the courtyard,” the woman said, “through the big arch, down the corridor, turn left, and there’s a short flight of steps leading to the door. It will take you to a small terrace above the garden.”
“We must go,” the guards carrying Darin said.
Liana said to Amron, “You can’t go through the building, it’s on fire.”
He was already tying a wet rag around his neck. “There’s no time.” He scanned the rest of the guards. “Who’s coming with me?”
Four men ran to him, dousing their clothes with water andpulling scarves and rags over their mouths. He turned to Liana. “Get Darin to the palace safely. I’ll see you there.”
She didn’t want him to go into the fire without her, but her father needed her more. Or perhaps she was just reluctant to abandon him, as her mother had done.
Amron and the guards ran into the darkness filled with smoke, and she forced herself to head in the opposite direction, following the guards carrying the stretcher.
As they pushed through the crowd, a commotion rippled through it from the opposite direction.
“Move,” someone shouted. “Make way for Prince Amril!”
Liana kept her head down, pushing forward. Sharp as a hawk’s, Amril’s eyes found her in the crowd. The guards rushed to report to him, but he waved them away, pinning Liana down with his cold blue gaze.
“This is all because of you,” he said loudly enough for the guards to hear. “If you hadn’t dragged my brother to that dark alley and provoked the attack, none of this would have happened.”
And then he turned away, shouting commands, ignoring her completely.
Chapter 26
Melia
The smoke wasthick and acrid, making Melia’s eyes water and her throat burn. She could barely see Aratea running before her.
“We must reach the back exit.” Aratea coughed, catching her breath,
They ran down the narrow stairs and smoke-filled corridors, deep into the dim bowels of the building, retracing Melia’s footsteps several hours before, to the low door leading to the terrace.
The first thing Melia saw in the fading light of the evening was the young guard lying in a pool of blood, his throat slit.
The second was Ferisa.
• • •
It had beena fever dream, Melia and Ferisa.
She’d never heard of two women living together as lovers and partners, but then—she knew so very little about the world anyway. It never stopped her from daydreaming, though. In her austere room, on the thin mattress, between threadbare sheets, in the safe nest of Ferisa’s embrace, she’d dreamed of vast blue seas and grassy plains framed by the snow-peaked mountains on the horizon. She imagined strange cities, golden domes glittering in the sunlight, lush gardens filled with the chatter of birds, proud stone towers jutting into the sky. She dreamed of people, their skin dark as ebony or white as snow, in bright silks and soft furs and hard leather, their languages asincomprehensible as birdsong. She dreamed of Ferisa and her braving the world together, living by their wits, sharing meals by a campfire, exploring chaotic markets filled with wonders.
