Mina waited. She tried sitting in one of the chairs, but then sprang up after a second and began pacing. She didn’t think the question had been so terrible. It was one she’d been worrying about—​a real question, not a how-are-you-today small-talk question. Wasn’t that what the prime minister wanted? Wouldn’t she want to be asked an important question?

I didn’t do anything wrong.

I don’t deserve to be punished.

The more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that this wasn’t fair. She thought of the words over the archway to the capitol: “A true heart is never a mistake.” Well, she’d been true to her heart. The prime minister had invited her to ask a question, and so she had. A good question. One that mattered. Just because the prime minister hadn’t liked it . . .

Why hadn’t she liked it?

Maybe it wasn’t that she didn’t like the question . . .

Maybe the prime minister didn’t like the answer.

Mina stopped thinking about how unfair it was to be punished for asking a question and started thinking about what the prime minister’s reaction meant. If the prime minister hadn’t known what Mina was talking about, if the question had never been asked before, if the answer was that storm guardians were innocent and what a silly child she was for even worrying, then Mina wouldn’t be here, sequestered in this room, away from the other students, safely prevented from asking that question where anyone else could hear.

“It means the answer is yes,” Mina said out loud.

Worse, it meant the prime minister knew the answer was yes.

Chapter
Sixteen

«We’re here to rescue you!» Pixit cried as he burst through the door—​and promptly got stuck in the door frame. If she hadn’t been so anxious, Mina would have laughed.

Behind him, she heard Professor Dano’s voice. “Stop. You won’t do any good shoving forward—​your shoulders won’t fit. You need to back up and wait here.”

Chastened, Pixit wriggled backward, freeing himself, and plopped down in the hallway just outside the door. He looked in, forlornly, at Mina. It’ll be okay, she reassured him. As Professor Dano came through the door, though, Mina wished she’d prepared what to say.

“Can you explain why your ridiculous storm beast dragged me, with his teeth, out of the hall?” he demanded. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head.

He softened his tone. “Overwhelmed? I know the city can be over-the-top.”

“I . . .” Mina swallowed. She had to speak. “I offended the prime minister.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but he heard her anyway. “She said I can’t attend the rest of today’s events, and one of her assistants put me here.”

Professor Dano frowned. “What precisely did you say?”