Before I learned exactly how the Soulless fit into Thiy’s history, I knew him as a figure of nightmares. At the orphanage, the monks would warn of a shapeless shadow that swooped down from the night sky to swallow unruly children the way the Dead Wood swallowed its victims. In my head, he became the source of all evils in Evewyn’s folktales. He was the one-eyed serpent who hissed from dark corners, or the winged crone with wooden hands that snatched you from your bed if he peered into your window and found you still awake.

It wasn’t until I entered the Prince’s Company and had more extensive history lessons that I learned the true origins of the Soulless. In some ways, his real story—or at least what the Scholars know of it—is more terrifying than the folktales.

“Do you think Kendara will take you back if the queen allows it?” she asks.

“She has to,” I say, because I don’t know what to do if she doesn’t. I am meant to be Kendara’s apprentice. I’ve worked toward that single goal for four years, and I’m damned good at it.

But something else I’m good at is surviving. I don’t know how to be the soulguide Ronin wants, but if this is the path that will lead me back to Kendara, and Saengo back home, then I can adapt. As Kendara would want, I can play the part.

We take turns washing up in the bathing chamber, enjoying the novelty of having time to soak and enough hot water for us both. Our maid brings us a late meal of rice porridge and fish, and then she offers to assist us with readying for bed. I decline, but Saengo doesn’t object or speak when she helps her change. I wonder if having a maid reminds her of her home at Falcons Ridge.

In the Company, we washed on a strict rotation with only a couple of buckets of water and a bar of soap. You really didn’t want to be the last person in line. The last time I had a bath was a year ago—ten minutes in a hot spring to soothe fresh bruises. Earlier that day, I’d trapped an enormous zaj serpent that lived along Evewyn’s southern border where the Black River emptied into the sea. Kendara wanted me to retrieve a handful of its iridescent scales.