“Looks ugly,” he warned.
“Perfect. Don’t hide your wounds.”
Quietly, Kreya said, “I won’t wear Liyan silks. That’s not who I am anymore.” She had worried creases around her eyes, and Zera couldn’t tell if they were new or not. She resisted the urge to fix Kreya’s blemishes. It was best if Kreya stayed as she was.
“Obviously.” Privately, Zera thought that was a trifle sad. And silly. You could be who you chose to be. It was immensely freeing once you realized that you could define yourself, provided you quit handing that power over to other people. “Cleaner would be better, though.”
She oversaw all the preparations to her satisfaction:
Marso was decked out in over-the-top finery, with heavy eye makeup, black jewelry, and a silver robe—the picture of a man who saw the world as others did not.
Jentt was in shadow colors: a black and gray coat that concealed his body. No flash of jewelry for him. He was their runner, and he looked it.
Stran was a battle-scarred warrior, every wound he’d borne visible and stark against his muscles. His strength wasn’t the same as a young man’s. He did not look as though he’d pushedhimself hard to become strong; he looked as though he had always been strong and his body knew no other way to be.
And Kreya...
She wore her battered, frayed, and faded coat. With her freshly washed hair gleaming like polished silver, she looked every inch their wise leader as she quietly surveyed the others. Zera did not try to hide the exhaustion or the age that Kreya wore on her skin with creams or makeups. Every crease was earned. She left the bandage wrapped around Kreya’s left hand, showing clearly the recent loss of a finger.
Zera wondered if Kreya had any idea of how powerful she looked. She didn’t look as if she’d become someone else. She looked like she’d becomemoreof herself.
At last, they were all ready.
Lorn isn’t going to know what’s hit him,Zera thought smugly.
“Remember: we are the Heroes of Vos,” Zera said. “The world owes us a debt it can never repay. But we are here to demand payment, nonetheless. Wewillbe listened to. Wewillbe heard. Wewillbe believed. Also, we look amazing.”
“Can we go now?” Kreya asked impatiently.
Zera rolled her eyes at her.
Stran kissed his wife and told her she’d be safe here, in Zera’s home. Zera’s servants would pamper her in any way she wanted—a fact that Zera confirmed. Amurra clearly wasn’t pleased to be left behind, especially after leaving her children and accompanying her husband here, but none of them invited her to come. Not even Stran. Not for this. This was for the Five to do, and the Five to do alone.
Zera marched them out her front door, and they mounted the polished white stones that carried them skimming over thestreets of the fifth tier. She knew the way to the guild master’s palace, though she’d had little occasion to visit him. Even Guild Master Lorn came toherwhen he wanted to purchase one of her talismans.
For him, she’d brought a gift: a new flight bone, carved from a shard of river lizard. She’d wrapped it in red velvet, and Guine carried it in a gilded box. She took the box from him when they reached the guild master’s door. Her followers would not be joining them inside.
“Announce us,” she told the guard at the door.
“Your names?” the guard said.
Zera fixed her with a look. “You know us.”
A second guard whispered to her, and the first guard’s eyes bulged. She yanked the door open, and Zera and her friends swept inside as the guard shouted their names.
Inside, the palace of the grand master was opulent in the extreme. Every massive marble pillar upholding the vaulted ceiling had been carved to resemble a skeleton, the floor was inlaid with diamonds encased in gold, and the walls were a mosaic of rubies as red as blood.
“Makes your house look tasteful,” Kreya murmured.
“He got the idea for the skeleton pillars from me,” Zera whispered back. “Shall I take the lead?”
“Yes, until we reach Lorn. Then he’s mine.”
A servant was bustling up to them. The look on the man’s face was a cross between terror and awe, which Zera found gratifying. Always nice to see their reputation still carried weight, even after all these years.
“You’ll take us to speak with Grand Master Lorn now,” Zera said in her most imperious I-will-not-be-denied tone.
The servant bowed so low that Zera thought his head wasgoing to bop on the floor. “Forgive me a thousand times, but Grand Master Lorn is currently busy—”
