Page 145 of Ash and Feather

Eventually, she stopped and lifted her gaze to the cream-colored sky. Her lips stilled, but her hands continued to absently draw the occasional path through the air, the way they often did when she was mapping out plans.

“I know that look,” I said.

“What look?”

“You’re plotting something.”

She glanced at me, a slightly rueful curve to her lips, and shrugged.

“Are you going to let me in on those plans, this time?”

“I think we should go to Altis,” she said without hesitation. “To your brother. Together, we can find out what he’s planning, and maybe while we’re in that realm…” Her voice grew quieter toward the end, a telling, pained expression in her eyes.

“You want to see your sister again.”

She didn’t deny it. “Do you think the king will be able to arrange an audience with her? Somewhere in his city, perhaps—someplace that’s neutral ground between my sister and me, unlike Ederis or our old house.”

“Possibly,” I replied, somewhat reluctantly. “He has no shortage of capable spies and messengers he could use to track her down. But what, then?”

“I want to talk with her as a diplomat and speaker for the gods, this time, rather than as a sister.”

“An attempt at ceasefire negotiations?”

She nodded. “She started to listen to me before. And if she holds as much sway over the other rebels as Andrel, then maybe we can stop all their attacks—against us, the humans, and anyone else—before they escalate into something catastrophic. I believe I could bring balance back to the races and realms. I think…I think maybe that’s what I’m meant to do. What I’ve been meant to do all along.”

I considered the possibility, as much as I didn’t want to—as much as it frightened me. It made some sense. Maybe thiswasthe plan the Moraki had in mind when they assisted with her ascension.

Karys was watching me closely, her body tense but her gaze hopeful.

I was still reluctant to agree, unable to shake my concerns about what such a task might require of her, knowing that the upper-gods cared little for feelings or fairness when they made plans and required a sacrifice for them.

But there would be no outrunning the things chasing us, I knew.

So I said, “Wherever you go, I’m going too.”

She gave me a grateful little smile.

I did my best to return it.

I’d meant what I said before—that we were made of something stronger than glass. Something more like iron and steel, forged in flame, twisted and bent into painful shapes, yet still in one piece.

I couldn’t say the same about the path stretching before us. It felt uneven. Uncertain. Ready to crumble at the first misstep.

And I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer it was all going to hold together.

Chapter 35

Karys

The interiorof the Altis Palace reminded me of tunnels through a vast mountain, with cold walls of marbled stone and few windows to let in natural light.

The tunnel carver clearly had a precise hand and an eye for art, too; every so often we passed incredible works cut into the stone, reliefs that featured scenes from the Kingdom of Galizur’s history. Each one was rendered in painstaking detail. I could have studied them for hours, deciphering their stories and taking notes.

But that was not why we had come here.

I stayed close to Dravyn as we climbed higher into the palace, heading for the parlor where we’d been told we could find his brother. Despite the relatively narrow halls, it felt as if I was walking into something much larger, the world expanding around me with every step I took.

The conversation I’d shared with Dravyn yesterday continued to play on repeat in my mind, just as it had been doing since the second we left the garden.

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