Fie took a step back and turned to the women. “And you? Only the Sinner’s Brand, too?”
“Yes.”
Fie stared at the man’s arm again, utterly flummoxed. The Covenant did not send the Sinner’s Plague with equal speed, to be sure. Pa had suggested once that it seemed to linger on those who had great wrongs to atone for, making them feel every weeping sore, every bit of their lungs giving way. Others it took swift, usually when it had spread from an unburnt corpse and caught those whose crime was simply negligence.
She’d never heard of the Covenant simply marking sinners, then leaving them be.
“Is it the plague, or no?” Yula asked.
“I-I’m not sure,” Fie said.
“You have to be sure. If it is…” Yula’s voice shook. “They can’t stay in the palace.”
Fie didn’t get it at first. Neither did the Sparrows behind her.
“Why?” the man asked. “If it’s our time, we’ll go to the quarantine huts.”
That was when Fie understood. Her blood ran cold.
“Take them to the city,” she told Yula. “Fast as you can, and anywhere that can quarantine them.”
“I said we’ll go—”
“It’s not you, it’s the queen,” Fie interrupted. She made herself face the Sparrows. “I’ve never seen plague like this, and maybe—maybe it’ll be different. But if the queen finds you, I know one thing: she’ll die wearing the Sinner’s Brand herself before she calls for Crows.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
RED LANTERNS
A quiet fell over the sick room. Then one of the women spoke up. “It spreads if we die and aren’t burned, right?”
“Aye,” Fie said. The Sparrows all traded looks.
“If I asked now, would you give me mercy?” The woman stared at the floor.
“Aye.” Fie’s belly sank. “But your only symptom is the Sinner’s Brand.”
“I have—” The woman’s voice cracked. “My sister and her children live in my house, in Dumosa. If I carry the plague there…”
“If you had the plague I know, you’d already be dead,” Fie said. “If the Covenant wanted you to suffer, you would be suffering.”
“It’s not for us to know what the Covenant wants,” the man said softly. “But if it spares Dumosa and the palace, it’s worth it.”
Fie could only think of the Black Swans’ words again: The sun will rise, even from our ashes.
How much more would have to burn?
The door burst open before she could answer them. Khoda stood in the doorway, wide-eyed and taut.
“Fie, we need to go. The queen’s rounding up the Sparrows and having all of them caste-tested. She’s looking for us.”
“But—”
The stamp of Hawk boots ratcheted down the walkway outside.
“No time, we’re going.” Khoda seized her by the elbow and hauled her into the corridor.
Fie yanked free, then locked her arm in his in a much more manageable position. “Stay close to me,” she said, and called a Sparrow witch-tooth to life. Both she and Khoda disappeared.
“Don’t you need to be saving these?” Khoda hissed.
Fie headed toward the stairs. “It’s … complicated,” she hissed back, because it was the truth.
She still had all three Sparrow witch-teeth Pa had given her. All three Pigeon witch-teeth. She even had Tavin’s tooth still knotted in a bit of rag on her string, because every time she thought she’d burned one out, a day later the spark was back, good as new.
The Sinner’s Brand on healthy people. Teeth that wouldn’t burn out. And, as Fie and Khoda passed a window screen on the first floor, crows clamoring in the gardens.
The Sparrow man had been right. It wasn’t for her to know what the Covenant wanted with them now, because absolutely none of it made a lick of sense.
Fie yanked Khoda to the side as Hawks marched down the hall. They flattened themselves against the wall, the spears passing less than a hand-width from Fie’s nose. Door after door crashed open, and the offices’ occupants were marched out to line up.
A Hawk with the bronze-and-carnelian badge of a war-witch passed from Sparrow to Sparrow, gripping each bare wrist a moment, then moving on. Once the war-witch had passed them by, Fie gave Khoda’s arm a tweak and scuttled sideways for the door.
They eased out into the too-bright sun. Shouts of surprise and dismay echoed from every floor of the servants’ quarters; at least a quarter of the staff had to have been sleeping before their night shift.
A sudden dreadful thought struck. “Where’s Jas?”
“He came back to the guest quarters,” Khoda answered. “We’ll be safe there. Rhusana’s only testing the palace servants right now, not any of the Peacocks’ attendants.”
Fie remembered the way the war-witch