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"It’s tired," said the girl with a shi of a stirred fire So like Akiva’s eyes, Melliel thought Every Stelian they had seen so far had them "It aches," added Eidolon "It is very old, you know"

The sky was old and tired? A nonsense answer She was toying with the to do with the Wind?" Melliel asked, thinking the ith a capital letter, to distinguish it fro it a "wind" was like calling a stor Caliphis when it hit the the with every other sky-borne thing in its path--birds, moths, clouds, and, yes, even stors that the surface of the world had not been gripping as tightly as it ht, like trees’ entire blossom bounties, and the very foa ht and carried--eastward first, beating their wings to get control of theiven theain and sent theain, ard now, back to Caliphis and beyond, where it finally released theged a deep breath and expelled it The phenoht The Wind, the bruised sky, the gathering of the storht

Eidolon’s expression of mild loveliness went flat, no shimmer in her eyes now "That was not wind," she said

"Then as it?" Melliel asked, hoping this unexpected candor would persist

"Stealing," she said, and see else?"

"Yes," said Melliel "I want to knoill be done with us"

With a viper-quick turn of her head, Eidolondone with you?"

Melliel blinked "I only want to know--"

"It is not decided We get so few strangers here The children should like to see you, I think Blue eyes Such a wonder" She said it with adest of the company, as very fair He blushed to his blond roots Eidolon turned back to Melliel with a contemplative look "On the other hand, Wraith has requested that you be given to the novices For practice"

Practice? At what? Melliel wouldn’t ask; since cos as hinted atlost in the Empire, and filled her with horror But Eidolon’s eyes were ers, the Stelian had said Melliel asked, "Where are the others?"

"Others?"

Not at all sure she wanted to press, Melliel replied, "Yes," and tried to sound stalwart It was her mission, after all, to find out Her team had been dispatched to trace the emperor’s vanished emissaries Joram’s declaration of war on the Stelians had been answered--with the basket of fruit--so it had clearly been received, but the ambassadors had never returned, and several troop detach in the quest for the Far Isles In their days here, Melliel and her team had seen or heard no hint of other prisoners "The eers," she said "They didn’t coirl Sweetly Too sweetly, like honey that all of poison And then, with deliberation, her eyes never leaving Melliel’s, she knelt to take a fruit from the basket by the door It was one of the pink orbs the Misbegotten couldn’t abide Fruit they s were essentially , and warirl took a bite, and in that instant, Melliel would have sworn that her teeth were points It was like a veil yanked askew, and behind it, Eidolon of the dancing eyes was a savage Her delicacy was gone; she was… nasty The fruit burst and she tipped back her head, sucking and licking, to catch the thick juice in her mouth The column of her throat was exposed as red overspilled her lips, streaking down, viscous and opaque, to the white cascade of her dress, where it bloo but blood, and still she sucked at the fruit The soldiers recoiled froain to stare at Melliel, her face was sht, raising its head fro with your ani irl she had see here, if not to give yourselves to us? Did you think ould keep you just as you are, blue eyes and black hands and all?" She held up the skin of the sucked-empty fruit and dropped it It hit the tile floor with a slap

She couldn’t s, yes, but her mind would not admit that possibility Siust emboldened her "It was never our ani our own eneht: slaves

"Soldiers," said Eidolon with scorn "Yes Soldiers and children do as they’re told" A curl of her lip, surveying the lot of therow out of it, but soldiers just die" Just Die Each word a jab, and then the door flew open untouched and she was on the other side of it without havingin the corridor She had done this before:the way like seconds sliced out and sed

Sed like that clotting red juice that wasn’t blood, that couldn’t be blood

Melliel forced herself to say, "So we’re to die?"

"The queen will decide what is to be done with you"

Queen? This was the first mention of a queen Was it she who had sent Joraing froutter door in a shroud?

"When?" Melliel asked "When will she decide?"

"When she coirl "Enjoy your flesh and blood while you can, sweet soldiers Scarab has gone away hunting" She sang the word "Hunting, hunting" A snarl of a sain saw that they were not Strobing ti reality What was true? A crack and strobe and the door was closed, Eidolon was gone, and…

… and the room was dark

Melliel blinked, shook off a sudden heaviness and looked around her Dark? Eidolon’s words still echoed through the cell--hunting hunting--so it could only have been a second, but the cha, too, and Doria and the rest Young Yav, barely ju camp and still with a boy’s round face, had tears of horror in his blue, blue eyes