Fie regarded him with the kind of suspicion she usually reserved for street meat. He shrugged. “I think we can use this. After the prince is free, of course. But the Sakars haven’t exactly been bragging that their daughter died of the Sinner’s Plague, and they’ll be in mourning at their manor until the next moon at the earliest. The odds you’d be recognized as a dead girl are low, and in the meantime, Tavin may let something useful slip. You’ve already caught his eye. Let’s see what else you can catch.”
Fie had been scrubbing at the same patch of pedestal so hard, she felt likely to leave a divot. “I’d rather catch his throat and be done with it.”
“Yes, I’m aware, and I’ll save that honor for you once all this is over,” Khoda sighed. “But this isn’t like dealing with sinners or Oleanders. You have to think about strategy and spectacle. Hundreds of high-bred witnesses saw you take Jasimir’s corpse moons ago, only for him to return in triumph. If you kill Tavin while he’s posing as Jasimir, do you think the public will buy that the crown prince miraculously came back to life yet again?”
It’s a divine mandate when a Phoenix prince survives the plague. It’s a cheap hoax when his guard conveniently lives, too.
Tavin had made nigh the same point back at the beginning of Peacock Moon. Fie had to gulp down the hard knot that memory left in her throat.
“The same goes for Rhusana,” Khoda continued. “She’s the most powerful person who knows Tavin’s a fake. Remove her and he’ll just be harder to dethrone. We need them to take each other down.” He studied the miniature jail, eyes lingering on the tiny Jasimir pacing behind the bars. “The first step is getting the prince out. Our two favorite traitors will blame each other for it, and we can use that. I’ve seen cells like this on Yimesei. I’m pretty sure I can break him out with a proper distraction.”
Fie eyed the angle of the sun in the sky. “Coronation starts at sundown. You’ll need to work fast.”
At that, Khoda cracked a decidedly sharkish smile. “You’ve sorted out how to hold a Peacock glamour while using other teeth, right?” She nodded. “While you were off sniffing out the prince, one of my sources got me the program for the entire coronation ceremony. And I think … we can kill two birds with one stone.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE SILK CROWN
Fie had been in the Hall of the Dawn once before, when she’d helped steal a crown prince faking his death. This time, she was here to stop a fake prince from stealing the crown.
It had been only slightly harder to break into the massive hall than it had been to sneak into the palace itself. Every entrance was guarded by Hawk war-witches reading caste in the guests’ blood to verify only Splendid Castes and a select few Hawks were allowed within. Any witches were also sent to Vulture skinwitches to have the witch-sign on their wrist marked for tracking during the ceremony.
However, like Pigeon witches, the nation kept their few Sparrow witches all accounted for and on a tight leash, so much so that a stray witch was unthinkable. All the gentry waiting to enter had been lined up to the left of each entrance. The right side was kept clear for those who wanted to exit.
So when Fie called the first of her three Sparrow witch-teeth in the shadow of a hedge and vanished whole from sight, not a soul stirred to stop her from strolling right into the heart of the royal palace.
True to Pa’s word, no one saw her coming.
She’d been right about the Mother of the Dawn: she could see the statue’s silhouette behind the two thrones, streaky and warped through the wall of rainbow-hued glassblack. A great gold disc and spray of golden rays made a sun cresting behind the dais, but now solstice eve sunlight streamed in through the statue’s fingers as well, gilding the hall’s lacquered blues, scarlets, and violets in a dazzling peach-gold color that Fie found wholly unnecessary. According to Ebrim, the hall had been built with the thrones in the west so Phoenixes could watch the dawn through the matching glassblack panes at the eastern end, where Fie stood now.
The ground itself was patterned with ornate wheels of marble in green, black, and white, and immense cut-iron columns marched down the main walkway, each carved like a lantern