“Everyone saw you fight against the shansen. You saved us.”
I faltered. I owed Ammi an explanation.
“I’ve a little magic,” I confessed, “but it isn’t like an enchanter’s. It’s dangerous. It’s why Khanujin is keeping me a prisoner. It’s why I have to leave.”
Ammi flinched at how casually I’d used the emperor’s given name. I wouldn’t refer to him as my ruler ever again.
“Let me come with you.”
I shook my head. “You wouldn’t be safe. Besides, I don’t even know where I’m going.”
“You’re going to look for the Lord Enchanter.”
My head jerked up. “Who told you that?”
“No one. It just…makes sense he’d help you.”
Wait for me,Edan had said.Don’t go to Lapzur.
Guilt prickled me. I’d already broken one promise to Edan, and now I was considering breaking another.
Should I try to find him?When I closed my eyes, I could see him. I could hear him calling my name. But the sharp angles of his chin, the bend in the bridge of his nose, the slight lilt in his voice when he called mexitara…those memories were beginning to blur.
Soon they’d be gone.
Ammi watched me, her dark eyebrows slanting into a frown. “Something is eating away at you, Maia, and it’s not the wounds from your magic. You shouldn’t go alone to find the Lord Enchanter. I’m coming with you.”
I wanted to say no, but I hesitated. A part of me knew shewas right: who could say what state I would be in, in a few days? Whether I could even trust myself. It would be good to have a friend with me. Besides, she’d be harshly punished if Khanujin discovered she’d played a hand in helping me escape and in freeing Lady Sarnai.
Still, I wondered whether she’d be safer with the emperor than with me.
“No,” I said. “You should stay here. It’ll be dangerous.”
Ammi crossed her arms. “It’s not a request. After months of lying to me, you’re not allowed to refuse. I still haven’t forgiven you, you know. If you don’t want my help, then at least take me away with you. I’ve spent too many years working in the palace—I want to go home.”
Didn’t we all? But her words struck a chord in me, and, in spite of the sting from learning she still hadn’t forgiven me, I finally nodded.
“I have to leave tonight,” I warned her.
“How? There are soldiers all around the Winter Palace.”
I drew my carpet from the pouch and unrolled it. “With this.”
Ammi gasped, amazed that it had fit into such a small bag. But her expression changed to skepticism as she examined my carpet. It had become a shabby thing, more a rag than a rug.
“Trust me,” I said.
“We’ll need food,” she said slowly. “And warm clothes. It’s getting colder.”
“You get the food. I’ll take care of the clothes,” I said, holding up my scissors.
When she left for the kitchen, I tucked my fingers inside the scissor bows and parted the blades. At once, their magic bloomed; my scissors could make the simplest cotton silken and the dullest material shine, but that was not what I required of them tonight. I made gloves out of a bandage, and out of my bedsheets, the scissors fashioned simple peasants’ garb. All I needed to do was touch the clothes to the stone floor, and an unremarkable shade of gray permeated the fabric. Within minutes, I had our disguises.
Within an hour, we left the palace.
• • •
The winds were not in our favor. Powerful gales buffeted my carpet, whose magic had grown feeble over the last few weeks. It limped across the sky, unsteadily rising and dipping without warning when the gusts grew strong. But riding my rug was still far safer than taking the Spice Road. I had a feeling that I could spark the carpet alive with demon magic if I wanted. But I did not dare.
