Page 51 (1/2)

I sighed Some holy warrior

"Do you serve me?"

"Yes," they said in unison

"Not the priest?"

"We serve you," said Tolya, his voice a fierce rumble

"We’ll see," I o, but I called the Genya Razrusha’ya Warn theues"

They didn’t blink, didn’t flinch They one

THE WHITE CATHEDRAL was a cavern of alabaster quartz, so vast itivory depths Its walls were damp and bloomed with mushrooms, salt lilies, toadstools shaped like stars It was buried deep beneath Ravka, somewhere north of the capital

I wanted to ht to Mal’s ar to hide the effort it took just to stay upright and the way my body shook

"Sankta Alina," the Apparat said, "you are come to us at last"

Then he fell to his knees in his tattered brown robes He kissed my hand, athered in the belly of the cavern When he spoke, the very air seemed to tremble "We will rise to make a new Ravka," he roared "A country free fros! We will spill frohteousness!"

Below us, the pilgrims chanted Sankta Alina

There were roolittered with thin veins of silver Mal helped me to e, and brought me a pitcher of fresh water to fill the basin A limpsed myself, I let out a little cry The heavy pitcher shattered on the floor My skin was pale, stretched tight over jutting bones My eyes were bruised hollows My hair had gone coertips to the glass Mal’s gaze met mine in the reflection

"I should have warned you," he said

"I look like a monster"

"More like a khitka"

"Woodsprites eat children"

"Only when they’re hungry," he said