Page 17

“I already have. A note came earlier. She’s not there.” Gisel leaned on the table next to us. She was old enough to be our mother but had none of the nurturing. Being in the rebellion had hardened the lines on her face and darkened her view of the world. It was the end goal above all else with Gisel, which was why she got on so well with Thorn. “Get dressed. We’ve people at the fair. They’ll have instructions. Now, go.”

Thorn didn’t move, and I glared at the back of her head. “She’ll be there,” she said.

“And if she’s not. What then?” I demanded, but she waved away my argument, pulled me aside, and placed her mouth close to my ear.

“There’s been something going on. I told Ember, but…” She searched my face to see if Em had told me. “Some things I’ve made… small stuff… the pins… the daggers.” Gripping me tighter, she tried to give power to her words. “They’re not having them made for us.” She stabbed her finger toward the ground; she meant the rebels in Craven City. “The ones risking it all. A street kid from the outer ring came in last week and asked me for a dagger. That’s never happened before. They always had what they needed. It’s like items are being smuggled out and stockpiled somewhere else.”

I sighed and checked that Gisel wasn’t listening, but she had her eye to one of the peepholes in the wall.

Thorn ran a hand through her hair. “Everything has been changing. You know it.”

I nodded. That was why I’d made the deal for the book in exchange for getting us out this Yule. There were more and more protests in the streets, more people being arrested for minor crimes and being sent to the mines. Craven City’s air was tense with anger and was fuelled by conspiracy.

The Riders who made a show of keeping the peace were the ones arresting children and burning houses with families inside. Some said it was because after last year’s Yule none of them returned to their right minds; others said that only sadistic men were chosen to go into the mountains by the kings.

Thorn tugged on my arm, trying to get me to give her my theories. “What exactly did the notes you received tell you? What are they really looking for?”

Shaking my head, I ran a thumb over the broken skin on my palm and winced. “Nothing. He doesn’t… They don’t tell me. All I get is a title, and then it takes me weeks to track the book down, and when I do, it is always damaged and unreadable.”

Gisel had opened a storage box and pulled out three green dresses—the colours of the nobles—throwing one at each of us and bundling up the third.

“You have twenty-three minutes. Don’t fail at the first hurdle. Get out of the city.” She pointed at me. “You seem to think you’re their protector—”

“I don’t—”

Her finger poked my chest. “Maybe you were all captured together and became a family, or maybe it’s more than I know, but now each of you goes separate ways tonight. Together, you’ll attract attention. An hour ago, a report came in stating that eighteen Settlecent Riders were taken with the sickness and locked in their towers. This Yule’ll be the worst we’ve seen, and it hasn’t even started yet. Don’t think I don’t know you have bigger plans than getting back to your farm. Whatever happens, from this point on, you Do. Not. Flinch. Whatever you do beyond these walls, make sure it helps us reclaim Annatalia.” She snapped her gaze to Thorn. “If you really do get all the way home, you find the General. You hear me? He’s building an army and will make himself the new Annatalian King. He’ll free us all.”

I stifled a shudder, and Thorn froze beside me.

“You never said he was building an army.” Thorn’s tone was filled with venom. “That he wanted to be king.”

Gisel shrugged. “Now you know.”

It was Ember who had heard the whispers a couple of years ago. That my uncle’s General was planning on fighting to get our lands back, and he wanted to lead the army. And that couldn’t happen. He was more vicious than my uncle, and we had to stop him whatever way we could. But first, we needed to be free.

9

Only our footsteps and the distant laughter of children broke the silence of a deserted Craven City. There were no signs of the phoenixes and their Riders in the sky above us, and the guards were probably still dealing with Frickel’s death. I wondered why the alarm hadn’t sounded, but then there was no reason behind anything King Malar did. Sometimes, the guards searched every house on the street for a kid who stole bread, and other times no one investigated a noblewoman who went missing. Their control lay in their unpredictable governance, and it kept the population weary.

The long green skirt swished around my ankles and was entirely inappropriate for spying, but I loved it all the same. There had never been an opportunity to wear anything as beautiful as the dress before. Ember had outdone herself. That was why the rebels loved her so much. She resembled one of the china dolls the wealthy kids played with, but underneath she was calculating and smart.

Thorn held Ember’s dress, tied with rope and bundled up over her shoulder. The layers of the dress hid other clothing and a blanket — everything we needed for travel without carrying a bag.

“When I found her, Frickel had tied her up and was… I had to get her out of there, and now… I was harsh on her.” Ember was vulnerable in that moment, and guilt weighed heavily on me.

“I’m just praying to all ten gods that she’s okay. But she’s been acting strange for weeks. She’s the one who was questioning me about the knives and pins I make. I think she might have seen something. Or maybe someone told her.” Thorn grabbed my arm to slow me down just as we got to the last arch. “You saw her more than I did—you didn’t notice?”

Notice? Unable to meet her gaze, I studied my grazed palms. I should have noticed, but… “I’ve had mission notes asking me to steal more and more books from the archives over the last six months, as if time is running out. I’ve worked late and… I had to take on more restorations to explain my being there and…” I should have realised. My hand found my amulet still hanging around my neck, and I pressed it into the skin of my chest, needing the sting of heat that radiated off it to distract me. “I thought…” I thought Em told me everything.

Thorn was shaking her head. “I don’t understand. Why did they want so many books? Why now?”

It was the right question, but I didn’t have the answer. “I was always directed to archive seven and eight. They were looking for a book, and when that guide I restored months ago mentioned the codex and the curse… I suspected I might have found it, so I sent word saying I would get the codex, but only in return for our escape. I didn’t think they would buy it. Whatever they’re searching for, the rebels must think it’ll change everything. That it’ll tell them how to break the curse, but I’m not sure it will. They talk to you more. Didn’t they say?”

Thorn wouldn’t meet my gaze—there was a lot she wasn’t telling me, but I waited to hear what she would. “You sent broken books back to the rebellion, right?”

I nodded in reply, and she continued. “Then they’ll need you to fix those old books… that codex. You seem to be able to bring back book magic when no one else can, and they know that. You’re also the only one who reads ancient Annatalian… Therefore, getting you out makes sense, doesn’t it?” It did, and I wondered why I had only focused on my relief and not the rebellion’s motives. “And now they are trying to get the codex too.”

My chest shuddered with the mistake I had made in handing it over to Kit and the Nomad. No matter whether I believed the book really contained information on how to break the curse, they believed it did, and there was power in that.