They pulled me through the courtyard and to the large building, past a pair of stationed guards outside the entrance and a scribe hurriedly scribbling and tying little messages to the feet of pigeons before setting them loose into the dusk. I wondered if time folded for them, too, or if the Forbidding only affected those on the ground. If Osprey was well, he could find out for us.
The door opened to a wall of sound – shouting voices and the clink of metal on metal. All I could see was a hallway with three half-opened doors.
Chesma dropped my arm, nodding to Francen. She hurried into one of the lit rooms and the sound grew louder and then quieter again as she stepped in, closing the door behind her. I tried to peer into the half-opened doorway, but Francen tugged me into a room on the other side of the corridor.
“What is this?” I asked as he shut the door behind me. This room was set up like a small study with a study desk, two mismatched chairs. Parchment and ink were ready on the desk. It was meager and not at all luxurious, but there was something familiar about the collapsible bird perch in one corner.
“Shhh, now,” Francen said and I didn’t like the gleam in his eye. I tried to shake his grip from my arm.
“I want to see my brother,” I said boldly. “Retger of House Shrike. Or anyone else from my House.”
He paused, looking worried for a heartbeat, but he shook his head and leaned in. I flinched from the look in his eye. I didn’t like what it suggested.
“You don’t make the demands here, High’un. We do.”
“I’m no High’un,” I said, trying to stay calm. Why was he treating me like an enemy? “Where’s Wing Ivo? Alect said he was here.”
“It’s not Wing Ivo you’ll be talking to,” he said, his gaze threatening.
I tried to take another step back, but he kept his grip on my arm and now I was getting worried. Why had he brought me to an empty room instead of to see this council he’d talked about? Why was he threatening me with hints?
“In a moment, someone important is going to come in here and talk to you,” he said evenly, shooting a furtive glance to the door. “And then I’m sure the council will have their mock court and they’ll sentence you as they please. But before they do, I want answers of my own. My sister’s in Glorious Ingvar. I need to know how to get her out of that place safely. So, tell me. How did you get out of the city?”
“I can’t help you,” I said.
His grip tightened and his other hand raised, a knife gleaming in it. “I’m serious. I’m a desperate man. I wouldn’t usually do this, but when they get you in there, they won’t have time to get the information I need. I need a dependable way into the city, and I need it tonight, so tell me, girl, how did you get out?”
“I flew over the wall,” I said through clenched teeth.
I didn’t see the butt end of the dagger coming until it smashed me in the jaw. Pain flared through my face. I bit back a scream. It was all I could do to hold it back, but my bees erupted from me, surrounding him and shoving him back. I clenched my jaw and yanked my hand out from his grip.
He shrieked and at the same moment, the door crashed open and a spirit-bird flared violently toward me, its wings flapping aggressively. It snapped up a cluster of bees in its owl beak and dove for more. I flinched as it swallowed up my bees and flinched again. It was physically painful when they disappeared.
“To me,” I whispered to them. I held out my hands, absorbing my bees as quickly as they could return.
The owl flapped in front of me – there but not there – and then vanished with the last of my bees.
“It was sensible for you to quiet those abominations,” a crystal-clear voice said. “They’re horrific to look at and useless for anything of value.”
The door shut behind her with a snick and I gasped as my eyes met those of Wing Essena.
“I thought you were dead,” I said in barely a whisper.
“I’d hoped you were,” she replied, her lips thinning as she pressed them together so hard that she could have crushed rocks between them. “And yet here you are. And a blushing bride, I hear. Congratulations.”
“How can you know that?” I asked, my heart thundering so hard that I couldn’t get it under control. There were no windows in the room, and she stood before the only door, her guard beside her, his eyes flicking from her to me and back. Two against one.
“Didn’t you see the pigeons outside? Where there are pigeons, you know that Xectare and I are not far away.”
She watched me, clearly waiting for a reaction, so I refused to give her one. Xectare. Of course. They were still working together.
“It can be hard to find your way into a revolution,” Essana said calmly. “Sometimes it helps if they find you surrounded by corpses and half-dead yourself. It helps even more if you tell the story of how you desperately tried to save one of their own. Too bad Wing Osprey stole you away for Le Majest before I could free you.”
She looked at me with big, innocent eyes and I had to swallow down bile. I could tell from how she said it that they’d believed her. Even the members of my family must have.
“It’s handy that you brought him here with you. That sells the story even better. Brave Aella who caught her captor. Too bad it wasn’t until after you were turned against us. Too bad it’s just a ruse to get you on our side.”
“What are you talking about?” I felt ill.
“I’m just telling you the story first. There’s no point in denying it. All the details add up. And if you don’t go along with it, I’ll kill Wing Ivo. I’ve been tasked with tending him in his ill state ... and he needs so many herbs that no one would even blink at me offering him more.
“No one will believe you.”
“I think they will. Especially since you’re married to our enemy now.
She sidled around the desk, staring me down.
“What do you want?” I made my voice as firm as I could. My face still hurt but that pain warred with my sudden fears for Alect and Osprey out there in the camp. None of them were safe while Essena had the ear of the people in charge.
“You’re going to be silent when I bring you in there. Not a word of protest when I tell them of your crimes. You’ll admit that you married Le Majest and then you’ll not say a word when they ask you if the rest is true. You’ll look at your boots and accept what comes next.”
“Or you’ll kill Ivo,” I said grimly.
“Among other people. If you find he’s not motivation enough, then maybe I’ll kill Osprey, too. Still not enough? I can tell by your face that you’re going to be difficult, but I’m not worried, Aella. Do you know why? That precious family of yours is here and I know how much you love your family. You’d die to keep them safe – in fact, you likely will die while keeping them safe.”
“I thought you were the nice one,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I am,” she said simply. “Do you understand the bargain?”
“Yes,” I said, but understanding a thing was not the same as agreeing to it.
There was a knock on the door.
“Let’s go see the Single Wing Council,” Essena said boldly, signaling for me to go ahead of her.