Page 146 of Heir

Aiz couldn’t breathe. White spots bloomed at the edges of her vision, and she clawed at the Empress’s arm. She screamed for the wind in her mind, relishing the thought of tearing the Empress’s head from her body in retaliation for this indignity.

But the wind did not come.

“You think because you spent a few months with my family that you know us,” the Empress said. “You think we’re soft because we have so much. But that only gives us more to fight for. Know this,Tel Ilessi. The only reason that you caught me is because I let you.” The woman smiled, a knife’s blade shining in the dark.

Now, finally, Aiz heard Helene’s history in her voice. All that she’d lost and given and taken and sacrificed for her people.

And Aiz knew she had made a grave mistake in thinking the Empress was beaten.

“I wanted to meet you too, sky-rat.” Helene twisted Aiz’s head back to gaze upon her, hatred seeping from every pore. “I wanted to look into your face when the light died. Did you really think you could kill Ruhyan”—her voice cracked—“our beautiful Ruhyan, and his family wouldn’t take their vengeance?”

Desperately Aiz reached for the link in her mind.Div. Help.

“You’re nothing,” the Empress said, and then fell silent, calm as she tightened her fist, looked into Aiz’s eyes, and waited for her to die.

Div! Please!

She screamed it in her mind, and suddenly power flooded her, as if Div was right here instead of far away, feeding. Aiz’s magic exploded out ofher in an uncontrolled burst the likes of which she hadn’t seen since before she was tossed in the Tohr. The walls of the dungeon shook, cracks spiderwebbing across them. The Empress flew back, skidding along the floor, but was on her feet almost instantly.

Aiz used another whip of wind to shove her away, but she needed more from Div. The door splintered open, and relief flooded Aiz. She expected her soldiers to sweep in, to tackle the Empress.

Instead, she saw bodies collapsed under rubble in the hallway. A huge, familiar figure entered, bloodied scims in each hand.

“You,” Elias Veturius said.

Aiz threw all her power at the man, grim satisfaction filling her as she heard Elias’s head hit the wall. She flitted past him, stumbling out the door and over the bodies, down the dark hallway.

She felt a sting—something hit her back. She clawed at it but couldn’t feel it. She twisted the air behind her viciously, draining Div of everything she had, and bringing down the roof to block the Martials from coming after her.

By the time she reached the stairs and began crawling up them, she couldn’t feel her legs anymore, and collapsed short of the top, breath wheezing out of her.

A figure crouched down next to her, glowing silver face chiding. “Next time, child,” Div said, “call me before you enter a room with a Mask.”

“I—I’m sorry,” Aiz wheezed.

“No matter,” Div said. “I’m here now. I will help you. Look at her. At the Empress. Invade her mind.”

Aiz glanced back through the clouds of dust to see the Empress emerging from the rubble—escaping.

“Make an arrow of your intent,” Mother Div said. “Pierce her with it. Seek the location of the Loha. It is there, inside her.”

As in the desert, Aiz did not think, she simply acted.Loha, Loha, show me the Loha.

The Empress walked through an orchard. Rubble behind her. A house stood ahead, painted the drab colors of the desert, with palms shading it. Inside, it was bare. Abandoned. But in the center of the room, a rug, beneath the rug, a door, and inside—

Masks. More than twenty. Every last one a child.

42

Sufiyan

Ankana’s capital, Burku, was a city of such awe-inspiring beauty that it was impossible for most people not to be moved by the vast arches and delicate columns, the floating bridges and geometric glass windows.

Sufiyan Veturius was unimpressed. Further, he was offended. A thousand miles north, multiple cities that were as beautiful had been reduced to rubble. And none of these rich sods knew or cared.

“We should check the Martial Embassy first,” Arelia said. Sufiyan was gratified that she didn’t seem much impressed by the city either. Though that might have been exhaustion. They’d ridden hard from Thafwa, and still, it had taken more than a week to reach Burku.

Sufiyan had been rubbish company. When Arelia brought up Quil, Sufiyan snapped at her.I don’t want to talk about a selfish, know-it-all princeling.

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