Page 30 of The Song Rising

“War requires risk,” Warden said. “This may yet prove to be a strategic error, but you took what precautions you could. No one knew that Hildred Vance had been recalled to the capital, or that she would lay a trap for you. Even Alsafi was unaware.”

“Three voyants are still dead for nothing.”

“They knew there was a chance of failure.” His face was cast into shadow. “I asked Alsafi about Senshield’s core. He does not know its location, and as he works in the Archon, we may safely assume that it is not there.”

I looked into the fire. “I will find it.”

A log collapsed into the hearth.

“You should not have gone to the warehouse yourself,” Warden said. “You are Underqueen. If you fall, there will be no Mime Order.”

“You could always find another human.”

“Not one that the syndicate would accept. There is no time for another scrimmage.” He paused. “And there is no other human that I trust as I trust you.”

I looked him in the face, trying to find the truth. He was offering me a chance to let him back in. Exposing a vulnerability, a break in all that Rephaite armor. This was a door I needed to open.

“I need to speak to the others about Vance,” I said. “I’ll . . . report to you with what we’ve decided. I’m sure you’d like to get back to Terebell.”

Warden held my gaze, then said, “As you wish.” He stood. “Goodnight, Paige.”

5

Back in Time

The image of Vance’s face was too fresh for me to get any more sleep. I dressed and left the fire behind, taking a blanket with me. From what I remembered of the escape, most of the voyants in the team had been returned to their cells, but Maria and Nick had stayed, as had Tom and Glym, who had met us on the way to safety. I found them in the next room, where Maria was sitting up, ladling broth into her mouth. Nick got up and crushed me to his chest.

“Paige,” he said. “I tried to reach you, sweetheart. I tried. If Warden hadn’t been there—”

“But he was.” I patted his back. “I’m fine.”

“You saved Driscoll’s skin, you know,” Maria said. “He would have gone under if you hadn’t pushed him.”

I looked her over. “Are you all right?”

“Bullet graze. I’ve had worse.”

Trepidation stirred in my stomach. I sat down beside Nick, keeping the blanket around my shoulders.

“Warden told me about the report,” I said. “That the fourth order can be detected.”

“Let’s not worry too soon, Underqueen,” Glym said. “The mime-lord who reported it is uncertain that the captured voyantwasa polyglot. More likely she was from one of the lower three orders.”

“We need to find out quickly if it’s true. If the fourth order can be detected—”

“There’s no evidence of that yet,” Tom soothed. “It would be . . . bad, I admit—”

“Bad?”

“All right,verybad, but it’s just like Glym says. It’ll be nothing but misinformation. Or scaremongering.”

“I disagree,” Maria said. I glanced at her. “I know Vance, and trust me, she wouldn’t lie unless she had to. She said to Paige that she was using her to change Senshield. That means she was.” She paused to draw a breath. “Paige, if this is the case, which we must assume it is, the syndicate must never know.”

Silence followed her words. She was right: if they knew that my error had threatened the entire fourth order, the Unnatural Assembly would almost certainly move to depose me.

“Tell me more about Vance,” I said eventually.

She interlocked her fingers on her stomach. “I’ll tell you what I know of her,” she said, “but she already knows everything about you.”

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