His words struck me like blows. I stared at him, mouth dry and throat tight. “I have always valued your counsel. You helped me when no one else could. But this … you’re wrong, Father. You’re wrong.” I paused to collect myself. “This is a test, isn’t it? Like the games you used to play with me to make sure I’d escaped Xaltorath’s corruption. You’re trying to ensure I’m not losing myself to pride and ambition.”

He smiled. “You see through me so easily.”

“I know I’m willful,” I said, “but I’m not thorra. I know my place. When it comes time for me to submit to Duke Xun’s idorrá, I will.”

Father Zajhera clasped me on the shoulder. As he started to speak, however, steps echoed on the stairs, quick and loud. Ninavis burst into the main room.

“Janel! You said that witch back in Mereina was a white-skinned Doltari, right?” She didn’t look panicked, but her urgency proved impossible to ignore.

“Yes. Why, what’s happened?”

“Well, I hate to interrupt you, but she’s here.”

Because Emperor Kandor built Atrine to be a slaughterhouse rather than a capital, towers sat on many rooftops. Towers where one might sit and watch several twisting, winding streets at once, better to raise the alarm and organize a defense. Sir Baramon had been sitting in one when he saw a snow-white woman leading armed soldiers toward us, and sent Ninavis to find me.

“I’m not wrong, am I?” Sir Baramon squinted his eyes to make out the figures. The soldiers had stopped in a cul-de-sac, arguing over the right direction to go.

“No,” I said. “You’re not wrong. That’s Senera.” I recognized her even at this distance; the way she stood, the way she tilted her hips, had left as indelible an impression on me as her skin color. I felt dread shiver through me. She’d wiped out an entire town using magic.

Now she’d arrived in Atrine. And was on her way to the Barsine apartment.

It took no great genius to realize why this was. Only someone who knew Baron Tamin was dead or Censured would think to lodge in his empty apartments. Someone who had survived the attack on Mereina. So either Senera had the same idea we did and looked for a place to sequester herself and her men …

… or she was looking for us.

“There.” Ninavis tugged on my arm. “The skyways.” She pointed across the roofs. I saw more men crossing over, heading toward us.

Maybe it was coincidence. More people in Atrine traveled by the skyways than traveled by the labyrinthine streets, after all.

But I couldn’t help but notice such travel cut off our escape routes. And these men roaming the skyways carried themselves like soldiers.

“They’re here for us,” I murmured. “They must be. Quickly, gather our things.”

“Perhaps I can help?” Father Zajhera suggested.