Page 131 of Foul Days

Still, what were her choices? Stay in this cage forever or leave with a murderer and a traitor.

She got up. Whatever she did, she didn’t want to risk giving Roksana the impression that her actions were in any way acceptable. Or forgiven.

“Roksana,” she said. “If I wasn’t so glad to see you, I would kill you.”

Roksana grinned. “My dear Sokol here assured me she sees no imminent death in my future. I checked. Now”—she produced a key from her pocket—“would you like to hop on?”

23

Day Ten

People weren’t meant to fly. Kosara felt it in every one of her dense, heavy bones. She gripped tight to Sokol’s greasy feathers until the yuda shrieked at her to let go. Far below, the tall grass swayed like a field of daggers.

She’d watched Sokol take Roksana down first, then Asen, and the two of them seemed to still be in one piece. Kosara spotted them waiting for her down in the garden. Of course it would be just her luck that, on the third trip, something would go horribly wrong. Kosara would lose balance and tumble down. Or Sokol would decide she’d had enough, after all, and shake off the clumsy human. Kosara couldn’t blame her. Without realising, she’d grabbed the yuda’s feathers again.

Finally, Sokol began to descend. They couldn’t have spent that long in the air—the palace still loomed over them, and the din of the feast echoed between the trees. Kosara stumbled off Sokol’s back and fell to her knees in the grass. Her stomach twisted painfully, last night’s rakia climbing up her throat.

“Thank you,” she said.

Sokol only looked at her for a few seconds before flapping her wings and flying away.

“How did you convince her to help?” Kosara turned to Roksana, who watched after Sokol, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Kosara fought the strong urge to smack it away.

“What can I say, I’m very persuasive. Come on, we need to get you out of here.” And then she tried to grab Kosara by the hand. The nerve!

Kosara shook her off. For all she knew, Roksana was leading her straight into a trap. That would be just the Zmey’s style: letting Kosara briefly taste freedom, only to snatch it away again.

“Come on,” Roksana said. “We have to go before the Zmey realises you’ve escaped. I’m so sorry, I never knew he intended to imprison you. He should have known you’d rather die than work with him.”

Sorry? That was all she had to say after what she’d done? She was sorry?

Kosara dug her heels into the ground. “I’m not going anywhere with you. How could you do this?”

“For fuck’s sake, Kosara. Now’s not the time.”

How come people kept using that excuse on her? “You stole my shadow.” Kosara tried not to raise her voice. She failed. “You tricked me. You sold me to the Zmey!”

“I only borrowed your shadow temporarily. The Zmey promised to give it back once he sets Lamia free. I told you, I never expected you to come after me. I thought I’d bring it back to you in a few days’ time, no harm done.”

“No harm done? Do you have any idea what I’ve been through these past few days?” Kosara moved her collar to show the tendrils of her shadow sickness crawling up her neck.

Disgust flashed across Roksana’s face, as if she’d seen an open wound. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to go like that. Everything I did, I did for Chernograd. I’ve had enough, Kosara. Enough of watching our city grow darker and poorer and more afraid every year.”

“So, you thought the best person to solve that problem for you was the Tsar of Monsters.”

“It’s the Wall that’s the true monster and you know it. The Wall is slowly suffocating us. The Belogradeans who built it are the true villains, and it’s high time they paid the price. I can’t wait for them to get what they deserve. Can’t wait. Everything I do, I do for Chernograd.”

Kosara had no time for philosophical debates with a murderer. “Did poor Irnik also have to die for Chernograd?”

Roksana’s smile finally faltered. “That was a bloody accident.”

Bloody accident indeed. “You minced his face with your fists by accident?”

“No, I…” Roksana shot a glance towards Asen, who was trying to sneakily draw out his revolver. Once he realised he’d been caught, he shrugged and aimed it at her.

“I didn’t do it.” Roksana slowly raised her hands in the air, as if the gesture came to her automatically. Kosara supposed she had plenty of practise. “For fuck’s sake, you can’t truly believe I did it! You know me, Kosara.”

“Excuse me if I don’t believe a word you say.”

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