The news hit Anji like a rogue wave. When she’d been living on Linura’s streets, the Sun Wardens had been nothing more than old men shouting on street corners about their new religion. How had they gained so much power in only six years? Anji thought about the last time she’d seen one of them, standing on a crate with a thick book in hand, brandishing it like a sword to a jeering group of onlookers in a muddy alley where she would beg for food. They would be the ones administering her punishment—and all without a word of defense from her.

The Sun Wardens in their yellow cloaks cutting into me like a pig.

“I’ll just run,” she said, “I—I’ll run the first chance I get. You’re old. You’re old and you’re horrible and you can’t keep me here like this. It isn’t right. You don’t understand. He needed to die, or else—”

“Run if it makes you feel better,” said the Hawk. She pointed at the cup still in Anji’s limp hands. “I poisoned you. A week with no antidote and you’ll be in more agony than any torture the Sun Wardens can drum up.”

Anji stared. “You said poison wasn’t your trade!”

The Hawk lifted one bony shoulder. “I lied,” she said, giving the fire one more kick. “I’ll administer the antidote as we travel.”

“You—” Anji sputtered, “you’re not supposed to lie! It’s in your rules.” Then another thought occurred to her, one that presented Anji the tiniest, faintest glimmer of hope. “I’m also not allowed to see your face. How do I know you’re even really the Hawk? You could have killed her and taken her mask. Why should I believe a single word you’ve said?”

“Believe what you wish,” said the Hawk. “It won’t make you any less poisoned.” She jerked her head to the limp form of the Lynx lying in the dirt. “And you can ask him who I really am.”

Anji bit her lip, trying to ignore the cold chill running up her back. Hawk or no, the woman had killed the Lynx like he was a fly on the wall, and he’d at least had a sword. Anji was manacled, hungover, unarmed, and though she’d rather eat horse shit than admit it to herself, likely poisoned. The thought made her skin crawl. Some black toxin seeping into her stomach, her veins, like a parasite she couldn’t shake off. Pictures flashed through her mind—Rolandrian dead on the floor, her escape from Linura Castle, the old man’s cart, her frantic race toward Conifor.

She’d been so close.

It really is all over then.