“How did you get out here?” the girl asked curiously. Katie, Eleanor thought. Or Thea. Or whoever she is. Eleanor clamped her lips together. The girl frowned. “You can’t stay here. The Empty will find you. I’ll show you a place to hide.” She beckoned.

“Why should I trust you?” Eleanor demanded. “You’re probably going to lead me right back to those soldiers.”

The girl shrugged miserably. “I guess you shouldn’t. But if you stay here, they’ll definitely get you. Please?” She backed away down the hall, clearly inviting Eleanor to follow.

Eleanor looked the other way. Cold stone and no sign of safety. She bit her lip. If she was right, if this girl Thea was really Katie Rhodes, surely Eleanor shouldn’t trust her.

But maybe she wasn’t evil yet. And it wasn’t like Eleanor had much of a choice.

“Fine,” Eleanor said. Thea smiled and scurried away. Eleanor hustled to follow, moving awkwardly with her hands tied behind her back. Thea skittered around turns, dodging out of the path of more silent servants as they went. Finally they came to what seemed to be a dead end—a flat expanse of wall. But Thea pressed her hand to a brick, and the wall slid to the side, opening a narrow passageway. Thea gave her one last smile, and slipped inside.

Eleanor stood, staring at the passage. Thea could be leading her into a trap. Given everything Eleanor knew about her, she almost certainly was.

Heavy footsteps sounded in the hallway around the corner. Eleanor took a deep breath, and dived in after Thea.

Ten

When Eleanor emerged she was standing in a small courtyard garden, wild with color.

It was so startling to see color at all that it took a moment for Eleanor to realize that the colors here were all wrong. Blue leaves trembled on bushes festooned with green flowers. The grass was rust brown, the tree trunks a deep purple.

Eleanor stared, her thoughts a tangle.

She’d just run away. She’d left her friends there. Guilt and fear and anger were like cracks spreading over her heart. She felt like she was going to break apart.

“Miss?” Thea said. Eleanor wrenched her gaze to the girl, her heart still pounding.

“What’s going to happen to my friends?” she croaked.

“They’ll be taken to the dungeons,” Thea said. “But you won’t be able to get to them. They’ll be Emptied like all the others. You can’t stop it.”

“Emptied? What does that mean?” she demanded.

“Everything they used to be is wiped away. The only thing left is obedience. The soldiers out there, they’re Empty, too,” Thea said. Eleanor had a vision of Pip in gray armor, face as blank as the soldiers, a jagged spear in her hands.