Ren wore an outfit worthy of Zofi—trousers, a loose top, and silk slippers, soundless on the hard floor. Over it, she draped the hooded acolyte’s cloak.

Mama knocked on the wooden panel. “She’s asleep,” Mama told the Talon who barked in response. “I need to retire to my own chambers now.”

A bolt threw, and Ren dug her mother’s pin into the soft skin under her arm. Just a pinprick, but enough to let the Arts flood her veins, sharper and stronger after days of shielding.

Heart racing, she performed a tithe she’d only tried once before, and poorly. But she still remembered Yasmin’s instructions during their first lesson. Moreover, she remembered the way Zofi had used this tithe in battle, about two minutes after learning it.

She’s my sister. The same blood runs in my veins. If she can do it, so can I.

Ren concentrated hard, pictured her surroundings. She lightened and grayed her skin until it took on the pallor of the ash stonewood behind her. She’d spent so long trapped in these four walls that the tithe actually came easier than she expected.

She looked down just as the door opened, and had the disorienting sensation of looking straight through her body at the bedroom behind her.

The Talons were chatting with Mama, who stepped out into the hall to answer their questions—how Ren seemed, whether she’d need a mender.

Ren took advantage of their distraction—and of Mama holding the door wide open, casually leaning one hip against it—to slip out into the hall. She had to move slower than she’d like, making sure to shift the color of her skin with each step, so it blended into the walls she passed.

For a second, her concentration faltered, and Mama glanced at her, panicked, then grabbed the nearest Talon’s arm.

“Are you all right, ma’am?” he asked.

“Just tired.” Mama turned her full sun-bright smile on, and even at her age, with this much-younger Talon, Ren stifled a smirk to see her charm working. “Are you going to escort me back to my bed, safe and sound?”

The Talon shot an amused glance at his fellow. “Of course, my lady.”

Mama perked up even more at the my lady, and Ren left them behind, creeping along the ash-colored hallway to the nearest servants’ corridor. An itch started in her veins just as she slipped into the passage. There, she let the tithe fade, drew the hood of her acolyte’s cloak up, and scurried toward the University, head bowed.

20

Zofi

The first stormwing Zofi spotted, she mistook for Vidal’s bird. The creature had already returned to the band once, bearing a message from Akeylah saying she’d received the cure. The next day, a macaw had come from the aerie bearing even better news—it worked.