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Curse. My stomach twisted, but I placed a mask of indifference on my face and relaxed my shoulders. Or did she mean that royalty was a curse? If so, then she was right. “Anyone else with… these?” I motioned to my eyes, which were the same colour as Ember’s, if that Phoenix Rider really had removed her anklet.

The old woman pushed a cup toward me and shook her head. “But I know who moved her.”

I leaned forward. “The Rider prince?” It wasn’t new information.

“Strange part.” Her eyes lit up with mischief. “I hear the good-for-nothing prince himself won’t let anyone near her.”

My hand went for my blade on instinct. “What does that mean?”

“It means,” she said quietly, “perhaps he wasn’t taking her to the nunnery. Maybe he took her to the palace. Maybe he wants a concubine. Who the fuck knows.”

Oh, gods, that’s worse.

Or was that worse?

“How do I get to her?” I whispered.

The old woman’s gaze sharpened. “Not for you to go there. The stones are saying that you have a different part to play. You leave your cousins to their fates, and it might just stop the war.” It was along the same lines as Morlan’s demand.

“You’re an Annatalian witch?” I didn’t think there were any left. Once my uncle had decided that the lands were only going to worship the Skyworld and the phoenixes, the Annatalian witches had been rounded up and burned.

“Your family didn’t kill us all, if that’s what you mean!”

“Gods, I’m sorry…” I shook my head. I knew the reality of living in hiding. “For what he did. For what happened.”

Our eyes locked as if she acknowledged that I would have been a young child at the time. “Very well, child.” She lowered her voice further. “Girls with strong Earthworld blood keep disappearing, and they are no longer picky about where they come from. They just round them up. But not all of them are taken to the nunneries. Seems your cousin is one of them.”

My hand tightened around the warm cup. “How many girls?” The kingdoms called it peace, while girls vanished into servitude or worse.

“Enough of them, but over the last few nights, they've been grabbing all the women. They are hunting you.”

Tavin straightened, then downed his tea and gave the woman a nod. His gaze flicked right, and I followed it.

Two men stood near the lower market stairs, dressed in traveller leathers dusted pale from the upper rocks. Ordinary enough at first glance. Except both wore gloves despite the heat underground.

Riders.

One lifted his head slightly and stared directly at me. I checked that my hood was in place.

“Tavin,” I whispered.

“I see them.”

The Rider mumbled to his companion, and they both started moving.

Fast.

“Move,” Tavin hissed.

I was already standing. The market erupted into motion around us as Tavin shoved me sideways between two crowded stalls. People cursed as we slammed through them, baskets crashing against stone.

“Down the east tunnels!” he barked.

Behind us came shouting.

And I ran.

The tunnels twisted violently, lantern light blurring gold against damp stone as we pushed through the lower districts. My shoulder clipped a wall hard enough to jar my teeth.