had tested the Sparrows and stopped in place. Khoda nearly yanked her off her feet by accident, not seeing she’d ground to a halt.
“What—?” he spluttered.
“This just got a lot worse,” Fie said. “We need to see if—”
She heard boots behind them and shoved Khoda into a hedge, joining him fast as she could.
“We’re already invisible!” he whispered, irate.
“They can still run into us,” Fie whispered back. “And hear us, so shut up already. I’m watching for something.”
The footfalls of Hawks pounded down the stairs, but it was the trio of Sparrows from the sick room who emerged through the doorway first.
Fie bit her fist, thinking no, no, no, no, no.
A squad of Hawks followed, keeping them at spear’s length. Fie caught “quarantine hut” and bit down harder. Khoda muttered a curse beside her.
The Sparrows were marched out and away. Once they had passed, Khoda asked, “How long do they have?”
“I don’t know,” Fie answered. “They only have the Sinner’s Brand, no other symptoms. They’ve all had it for long enough for the plague to kill them. It could be hours, it could be days. Weeks, even.”
Khoda swore again. “And the queen won’t light a beacon, because she didn’t light one for Surimir, and people will start asking why. Damn it all. I know your father can hold out to the end of the moon.… But I don’t know if Dumosa can.”
Fie had no answer for that, so she helped him out of the hedge instead. “Let’s get to the room.”
The jeers of crows followed them all the way back to the guest quarters.
* * *
In her dream, she was swimming again, in her favorite of the private gardens. Her tiger was lounging in the other end of the pond, dozing among the lantern-lilies. She supposed he missed the chill of the Marovar nearly as much as she did, but he made it much easier to cow the Peacocks of the south. One look at a queen riding in on a tiger and they gave her everything she wanted.
Something caught her eye. She lifted her arm from the water and squinted.
If she looked close enough, there was a strange whirl of a pattern on her forearm, well above the witch-mark on her wrist. It almost looked like …
Something impossible. She’d just wear long sleeves until it passed.
A faint, piercing sound made her jump. It was familiar—too familiar. A whistle, muted but clear.
She knew it. Didn’t she?
The whistle came again. It was a Crow signal, an order.
Up. That was what it meant. Up.
Fie woke with a start. The room around her was dark, the faint snores of Jasimir and Khoda both holding steady. Jasimir had claimed the couch, and Khoda a heap of cushions, both inundated with sleeping cats. Last time she’d counted, they now had seven in their purview, including Barf, but Barf had staunchly refused to share the bed with anyone or anything except Fie. The intricate window screen had been left ajar just enough to let the mousers come and go as they pleased.
It gave a slight rattle. Fie saw no sign of a cat.
Every nerve afire, she slid from the bed and crept to the window.
The screen rattled again. This time she was close enough to see the culprit: a thrown pebble.
She barely held in a noise of disgust and peered outside. Sure enough, Tavin was standing below, only a few paces away, lit in moonlight that had only diminished slightly since the solstice. His face broke into a grin when he saw her.
Fie made a bewildered gesture. He pointed to the ground, then held out his arms, mouthing, I’ll catch you!
She debated a moment, then lied to herself that she might gather valuable information, coaxed the screen open, and threw a leg over the jamb. Barf yawned from the foot of the bed but curled into a tighter ball.
It isn’t even that far of a drop, Fie thought with the kind of disdain she invoked for things she secretly enjoyed. The window was just high enough to discourage intruders, taller than Tavin by maybe half his height.
He reached up to help Fie scoot off the frame, fingers pressing into her hips in a way that was distracting and not helpful at all, and there was a wretched moment when he looked up and she looked down, bracing herself on his shoulders, only to find their faces much too close again, and all she could think of was how he didn’t smell the same in the palace