“Thanks,” I said.

“I was able to watch a few minutes,” Sievers replied. “My children always want to know how our princess fairs in the trials.” He had two young daughters, whom I’d caught a glimpse of once when they came to collect their father. They’d clung to his legs and pulled at his cloak to make him hurry faster.

If I pulled at my father like that, he’d say I was acting like a dog.

“Not as well as I should have this time,” I said.

He casually leaned his spear against his shoulder and considered me. “Use some thicksteen oil on the leg,” he advised.

I offered him a small smile. “Sorry you were placed on guard duty,” I said with a nod to the crowd.

“They’re rowdier than normal today,” he said, shifting the metal armor plates on his shoulders. “It makes me nervous. I haven’t seen them this agitated since the start of the great drought, when your father had to knock the water rations down to half a bucket a day.”

I nodded but didn’t get a chance to say anything more because the gates were thrown open, and we descended into the madness of the crowd.

CHAPTER

3

Bodies crushed against the guards, forcing my protectors to squash against me. Hands spread their fingers wide before raking toward my head. I’d dodge one direction and then be pulled back the other. My head arched back. Strands ripped from my scalp. Somewhere a child chanted he’d gotten a ribbon.

Another child grabbed the fabric of my dress. “Water,” he begged, his voice hoarse. He wore no shoes or shirt, and I could see the outlines of his ribs running down his chest.

The guard ahead of me rammed the wooden end of his spear into the child, sending him spiraling backward into the throng of the crowd. “Move back,” I yelled, hoping to keep the child from being trampled.

I turned my head to follow the path the boy’s body took into the enveloping crowd. That’s when something round and hard smashed against my temple. I staggered into Sievers.

He caught me before the crowd swallowed me. “You’re bleeding,” he said.

Jolts of pain shot through my head. My vision blurred. I saw four guards in front of me instead of two. I couldn’t concentrate on moving my feet forward while the ache in my head spread.

I became aware that Sievers’s arm was around my shoulder, pressing my head into the crook of his arm, protecting me from the rocks still being thrown while also guiding me through the gauntlet. “Get her to the East Well,” he shouted to the other soldiers. “There will be more guards there.”

He pushed me forward. Rocks glanced off his armor with more force and frequency. Their constant clink was what I imagined falling rain would sound like.

As we pressed on, my vision cleared and the tops of buildings appeared around us. The crowd thinned on the narrow streets. We burst into the East Square, where a line snaked away from the well. Six guards stood around it, monitoring how many buckets each family took by collecting their ration coins in turn.