Night Spinner (Night Spinner #1) - Addie Thorley Page 0,44

finding him!”

The old crone is hunched before the fire in a cross-legged position, and a girl with knotted hair sits across from her. The girl drops something in her lap and stares at me, but the Bone Reader’s eyes don’t leave the fire. “That isn’t the only clue I gave you.”

“It is! You repeated it three times and said nothing else.”

“Or maybe you weren’t listening. Go. And open your eyes.” She points to the door.

“But—”

“Go!” The old woman slams her hands to the ground and sparks billow up from the fire, creating a blast of ungodly heat that shoves me like forceful hands.

I stumble out into the cold twilight, so stunned and furious and terrified of what I’m going to tell Ghoa, I trip over more starving children darting across the road. They are everywhere. Taunting me. A constant reminder of my failure and incompetence.

The last little boy gapes up at me, and I yank my cloak higher to hide my traitor’s mark.

Still he watches me.

“What do you want?” I snap. “Didn’t your mother teach you not to stare?”

“The head, that’s the way,” he whispers before jogging to catch up with his friends.

It’s so simple, a child could lead you there.

Clever, Bone Reader. I’ll give you that.

I glance up at the threads of night emerging from their burrows and slithering down the rooftops. Coming for me. I should return to my lean-to and prepare for another night’s onslaught. It isn’t safe to be out here.

But I can’t pass up this opportunity.

With a hand pressed over the moonstone, I follow the children to a row of abandoned shops where they tunnel like termites between the buildings. Halfway down the alley, they turn into a lantern-lit garden behind one of the stores. I hang back and peer through the iron gate.

Thirty or so children, all slightly too young to enlist, line up in rows while a girl, who looks to be my age, passes out wooden sabers. She’s tall and lean, with close-set eyes and a light brown ponytail. She’s wearing a worn burlap tunic, like many of the refugees, but her boots are clearly made for combat—thick black soles with sharp-edged buckles that make me think she’s far more accustomed to Shoniin gray than these rags.

She moves between the rows, saying hello to the children and ruffling their hair. Then she takes her place at the front and calls them to attention. “Let’s get to work! The Sky King will not protect you. You must learn to defend yourselves.”

My fingers tighten around the bars. She’s poisoning these children against the empire. Encouraging rebellion is much different than stealing rations to keep them alive.

Go. Report this to Ghoa. It’s another crime to add to the Shoniin’s charges. And enough to earn her forgiveness.

But my feet refuse to move. My vision blurs and swims as I watch the children pair off and perform the formal bows of combat. The girl corrects their form and shouts encouragement. And I’m falling, falling, back through time. To when I learned to string a bow and hold a saber—Ghoa’s calloused fingers overlapping mine on the hilt. Her voice hums in my ears, steady and patient, always stoking my confidence. I see her proud smile and feel the solid weight of her cold palm on my shoulder.

Despite myself, my lips lift into the tiniest of grins.

“Are you going to stand there lurking, or would you like to join us?” the girl calls to me.

I jolt back to the present. The girl waves me forward, but I shake my head. “I couldn’t possibly—”

“Of course you can. We’ve been waiting for you. Help me teach these runts a thing or two.”

The offer is so unexpected, I don’t know how to respond. “You want my help?” I finally manage.

She turns to the children. “Who wants to learn to spar from a true imperial warrior?”

A few kids raise their hands. The rest study me, hunched beneath my cloak, my face hidden behind the scarf.

“She doesn’t look like a warrior,” calls a boy from the back.

“Looks can be deceiving,” the Shoniin girl says fiercely. “I assure you, she’s a warrior. And she’s the precise sort of help we need. I’ve been waiting for her to find us.” Her eyes meet mine, banishing the last of my doubts about her identity.

The children clap and chatter excitedly, but still I don’t move. Because knowing this girl is Shoniin only proves that they are conspiring against the empire.

Except, technically, she didn’t say anything about revolution, only