“Do you finally believe me, Fox? You were right. I killed Daisy. I might not remember it, but it was my hand that did the deed. But I was not myself. I did not need someone to compel me, to carry out their orders. I made that discovery far too late.” Her voice fell. “And Likh…”

Khalad wept. His sobs were soft, barely discernible; in the quiet, they could cut stone.

“Tea,” King Kance said in a soft, satin timbre. “Tell us. Please.”

These were the songs they would never play at the darashi oyun, the dances Vernasha of the Roses would have burned along with her books. All eyes were on Lady Tea as she took the stage, and a new tale lay poised at her fingertips, the missing pieces eager to fall into place.

“Let me tell you the rest of the story,” she said.

22

The caves of Mithra’s Wall were unlike the caves at Stranger’s Peak; the ground was riddled with limestone stalagmites and the lichen-covered walls were moist to the touch, sticking my hair to the back of my neck and leaving my palms sweaty from the moisture-heavy air. We had raced into the caves after the hooded figure while General Lode covered our backs, defending us from what was left of the blighted men. I could feel my azi already on the offensive, its three mouths aflame. We had no choice. I would be more useful confronting the Faceless inside than I would fighting the terrible beasts outside.

“I can see why these caves are free of tourists,” Zoya grunted, pushing wet hair out of her eyes. The asha wore loose-fitting blouses and traveler’s skirts to make the climb easier, but I smelled heavy clouds of magic wafting from the spells sewn into their clothes. Zoya was in the lead, and runes of Light surrounded her, glowing dimly.

“Quiet now,” Althy cautioned. “It shouldn’t be long before we come to the large pocket chambers that Knox spoke of.”

Mithra’s Wall, I remembered, had been a favorite hideaway of the great hero it was named for. The ranges had supposedly come into being when Mithra commanded the earth to rise, to stop the nanghait from demolishing his beloved Ashi’s hometown of Thanh. But while the caves held little attraction for the average visitor, they were popular for explorers and spelunkers, and those who made the yearly pilgrimage to worship Mithra as a god in his own right.