“I was stunned when I saw her at the port,” Khalad murmured. “I’d told no one about what had happened to her. I kept silent—I had no way of reaching you with this new information, Tea, but it seemed you knew all along.”

“Not for a long time, no. But who would you side with—the highly respected asha of the Willows, or a poor bone witch who’d slain her own sister and showed every indication of losing her mind? In your places, I would have sided against me. Poor Likh could not have testified for my sake. Only Khalad believed me.”

“And even then, I knew I could not speak up,” the Heartforger admitted. She thought I was unconscious the whole time back then, and that her secret was safe. “I held my tongue for Likh alone. I could not risk retaliation against her.”

“You must have been mistaken, Tea,” Zoya said, her voice quavering. “After the fight at Mithra’s Wall, Althy placed me in charge of the asha and told me to return to Kion without her. She said she had mulled it over and decided to accompany Kance back to Odalia, to keep watch over Aadil. She said she would follow me in a few days. Althy…Althy would never…”

“Look around you. Where is Altaecia now? I have scried the whole area while you all stood compelled and could find no trace of her anywhere. Isn’t her absence enough evidence?”

The asha sagged. “But it can’t… Surely there’s an explanation…”

I swayed on my feet. “She must have taken the letters,” I choked out, remembering her strange insistence at seeing them, her indifference after the pages were missing. “I refused her at first…but then turned them over when she asked again. She might have…”

“Subtlety is her asset. It would be easy enough to compel you in the middle of the Willows, surrounded by asha, if she thought herself beyond reproach. And now she is gone.”

“But Althy did not know compul—”

“Why would she go through all this trouble?” Lady Zoya croaked.

“This war is a farce. Druj intends to keep you occupied here while she journeys to Drycht and to the Ring of Worship, where the First Harvest lies. Shadowglass and lightsglass are the keys to unlocking its secrets, and I possess both. She has woven wards around the Ring of Worship to ensure that I cannot enter without her presence, and took on a new identity to hide herself from me. I attacked Kion in the hopes of drawing her out, trying to dismantle the disguise she now assumes.