It never came. Someone threw me on top of a horse. Before my legs finished swinging down, Hasege slammed the pommel of his sword into the bowl on my head—and the edges of my world faded into oblivion.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“You say you found her in the woods?”
“Yes, my lady. North of the Baiyun Pass.” A delicate pause. “She slashed Hasege—”
“In the face. Yes, I’ve heard the story.”
As the voices drew closer, and footsteps thudded down the dungeon, I perked up. It’d been five dawns since I’d arrived in this miserable place, but I recognized the man’s voice. He was the same sentinel who had spoken up for me against Hasege and his hooligans in the woods.
Silently, in the dark of my cell, I pressed my ear against the wall to listen more closely.
The lady harrumphed, a sound deeper than her voice. “Tell me the truth, Oriyu. Could she really be a spy?”
“Unlikely. She had Lord Takkan’s emblem—”
“Yes, a fact none of you bothered to tell me! Now let me inside. I want to have a word with her.”
The door rattled open, and I peered at the lady from under my wooden bowl. Could she be Lady Bushian? The light from her candle was weak, so I couldn’t see her features clearly, but I made out a sturdy figure in plain blue brocade and a thick woolen shawl. Gray marbled her tightly waxed hair, and a pale jade bracelet glimmered from one of her wrists. But what caught my attention was the satchel hanging over her shoulder.
Mysatchel.
“You’re not asleep,” she said, seeing my fingers twitch. “Sit up. And don’t pretend not to understand; the guards have already informed me that you’re smarter than you look.”
Obediently I got up, only to lunge for my satchel.
Oriyu blocked me, and I tripped over my bound legs. “You’ll have to answer some questions before you get your bag back.”
I sank weakly against the wall. I’d waited days for someone to interrogate me, or whip me for scarring Hasege’s face. But no one had come. I’d been utterly forgotten, lucky if the guards remembered to bring me one meal a day. The hunger had been worse than the waiting.
Now, suddenly, I was to be interrogated?
“I’ve been told you cannot speak,” said Lady Bushian. “You will answer with a nod or shake of your head. Understand?”
I nodded once. Satisfied, Lady Bushian motioned at the ropes over my wrists and ankles. Oriyu only cut my legs free.
“Get up and follow me,” said the lady, picking up her skirts. “This place is hardly suitable for an interrogation.”
Seeing as I had no choice, I wobbled after her.
“You certainly don’t look like a spy” was all she said before Oriyu opened the prison door.
Sunlight stung my eyes, and teeth chattering, I hugged my arms over my chest, startled by the brutal cold lashing at my cheeks. And the mountains! I didn’t recognize any of them. I had to be farther from my brothers than I’d thought.
I started mining my memory of my old geography lessons, but once I saw the embroidered banners hanging from the castle walls, I knew exactly where I was. The one place I’d been trying to avoid for over a decade: Castle Bushian, the imperial fortress of Iro.
The stronghold of the North was just as I had imagined: grim and bleak, with barren courtyards and parched gardens surrounding a lifeless castle with gray-tiled roofs. Even the air smelled heavy, of sandstone and woodsmoke. My hopes of escape melted, as if they were made of ice.
We were about to enter one of the fortress’s guardhouses when a young girl with two braids and persimmons sticking out of her pockets ran toward us, her face flush with excitement.
“Is that her, Mama?” she cried, breathless. “Is this the girl who—”
“Megari!” Lady Bushian chided. “I distinctly remember telling you to stay inside the castle. You’ll catch cold out here. You should be resting.”
“You can’t expect me to restallday.” Megari beamed in my direction. “I wanted to meet the girl who fought Hasege. May she join us for lunch?”
Lady Bushian immediately frowned. “How did you hear about that?”
