The town, Vinesland, had been named for the houses woven into the tree canopy with vines, the floors and walls and roofs all stitched together like a giant bark-and-leaf quilt. Her room was a five-by-five-by-five-foot square, which she climbed into via a rope ladder as high in the trees as Ilian Keep towered above Kolonya City. For once, as she stretched along the floor, she was grateful for her short stature. Ren would have to bend near in half to fit in this bed.

The proprietor of the inn swung past—literally, as the paths among these treetop homes were just hanging vines. He left a bucket of fresh water, another bucket of hearty stew, and a curt note. Please leave by first light, it read in clumsy block letters. Don’t want other lodgers to see you. Sure you understand.

Sands forbid any respectable lodgers see a Traveler sleeping in the same establishment. That would be bad for business.

Zofi tore up the note. It left a bad taste in her mouth, even though the stew was delicious, heavily spiced with an extra portion of meat. That was all money could buy you. Food, a roof over your head, fresh water.

Not respect. Not equal treatment.

She’d left her chance at winning that behind in Kolonya. And unless Zofi found her mother in time, unless Mother knew a cure for the curse she’d helped Akeylah work, Father would die. His blood would be on Akeylah’s hands, a secret the heir wouldn’t hesitate to use against her Eastern sister.

How long before they all fell? Before Akeylah and Ren were banished, too. Or worse, if the heir had their way. Zofi could only imagine what sort of a twisted tyrant this “true heir” would make.

Then again, from the outside, people might say the same about her. Or Akeylah. Zofi had murdered her own brother—never mind that he’d been a terrible person. Akeylah had cursed her father—never mind that she didn’t know who she was or that she’d been desperately trying to escape abuse.

If Andros had been honest with his children from the start, if Zofi had known Nicolen was her brother, if Akeylah knew her true parentage… none of them would be in this situation.

Then again, Zofi might never have grown up the way she did. She may never have known the freedom of a Traveler band, might not understand the world the way she did now, from the bottom-side up.

Much as she hated the straits they were in, Zofi couldn’t bring herself to wish things any different. She loved her mother, her people, the life she’d had.

The only thing she regretted was letting the heir threaten it all.