My friend’s words died on her lips, and she drew in a sharp breath. “What do you know?”
To be honest, I didn’t know anything. The old Maia, being a terrible liar, would have confessed that right away. But in this small, seemingly insignificant way, I had already changed.
“I’ll show you.”
I started off before Ammi could refuse, and when I heard her reluctant footsteps following me out of the square, I headed for Lady Sarnai’s residence. I should have been glad that she’d come, and I should have tried apologizing to her again, but I didn’t want her asking more questions about Lady Sarnai’s whereabouts. Besides, something else weighed me down. A leaden heaviness in my chest that took me a moment to recognize.
IenviedLady Sarnai. Envied her the chance to be together with the man she loved.
The chance I couldn’t have with Edan.
Come with me,I could still hear him plead.
How I’d wanted to, more than anything. The warmth of his hand on my cheek, the press of his lips on mine—they were enough to melt me.
But even if I could relive that moment, I would still have told that painful lie to make him leave. It was better to endure whatever suffering that would befall me alone—Edan would be free from the bonds that had held him captive for so long.
“Where are we going?” Ammi said, sounding irritated. “Everyone else is looking outside the gates.”
“This way,” I said, cutting into the garden. My voice came out strangled, but I hoped Ammi wouldn’t notice. “I know a shortcut to her apartments.”
“Why would she still be there?”
I didn’t reply. Just started running.
I pushed Lady Sarnai’s doors open. Incense burned, a thick haze pervading the room. I grabbed a lantern, waving it around for any signs of a struggle.
A shadow fluttered from within the bedchamber.
Ammi shivered. “Maybe we should g—”
I put my finger to my lips and beckoned to her with my other hand.
Quietly, we followed the movement into Lady Sarnai’s resting chambers. The bed’s silk curtains were swaying, but the air was still; there was no wind tonight.
Setting down the lantern, I flung open the curtains.
Lady Sarnai’s attendants lay on her bed, gagged, their wrists and ankles tied together with the bedsheets. Unconscious, but beginning to stir.
I spun away from the bed. A pile of clothes had been strewn across the floor, a torn yellow sleeve peeking out from under a table. I crouched and picked up the scrap, examining it.
Lady Sarnai despised yellow, and neither she nor her maids would ever have worn material so coarse.
It was from an imperial guard’s uniform. The rip looked recent, the edges of the sleeve wrinkled as though someone had clutched the fabric tightly.
I scanned the rest of the bedchamber. A sword, too thick and unwieldy to be Lady Sarnai’s, leaned against one of the large trunks by her changing screen.
In a burning flash I could not control, I saw Lady Sarnai and Lord Xina just outside the palace. They were dressed as imperial guards, blending in with the search parties sent to look for them. My eyes flickered back to normal.
“She’s not in the palace,” I murmured. “She’s disguised as a guard.”
“How do you know that?”
Instead of replying, I grabbed the sword off the trunk. “Don’t look,” I ordered Ammi.
She paled, but she obediently backed out of the room. Holding the sword high, I smashed open the lock and lifted the lid. From the stench that rushed out, I knew what I’d find inside.
An imperial guard, his eyes cloudy with death.
