I lunged for him. He expected the move, leaping off the well as I sped toward where his knees had been. I’d been hoping to knock him into the water, where he’d be trapped. But the instant his feet left the stone wall, I realized my mistake.

I ricocheted off the far side of the well, unable to get a hand on the edge. Cool air rushed around me until I splashed into the water below. When I surfaced, I punched my fists into the water and screamed.

My dress clung to my legs, making it hard to kick, but I’d spent time in the oasis waters learning to swim because my father had wanted me to be a master of all aspects of the desert. And if I stretched out my arms to either side, I could touch the walls and keep myself afloat. Moss squished between my fingers, and droplet ants crawled over my hand, their transparent abdomens heavy with water to take back to their colony.

A head popped into the circle of light at the top of the well, and a rope twirled down. “Try not to contaminate all the water with your royal stench while you’re down there,” Cion called. “People still need that to drink.”

“If you’re so concerned about what they drink,” I screamed, my voice echoing hollowly up the walls, “then stop stealing it all for yourself!”

I grabbed the rope and began to climb. The rough threads of the rope dug into my skin. My skirt tangled around my legs, and I gave up using my feet and pulled myself up purely with my arms.

By the time I’d ascended high enough to grip the edge of the well, my palms were bleeding, and the Desert Boys were gone. The only signs they’d been there were a few overturned carts and the groaning guards scattered across the square.

Sievers rushed over as soon as he saw me clinging to the edge of the well. He hoisted me over the edge, and I landed in a heap. Sand clung to my wet skin, chafing against me, but it was nothing compared to the intense heat filling my stomach and surging through my body. No one should have been able to wrestle my sword from me.

Flashbacks to the day Rodric wounded me raced through my mind. I could already feel the hatred rising in my body.

“Are you all right?” Sievers asked. He had a cut running down his cheek.

I ignored him, searching for some hint of where the Desert Boys had gone. Slowly, people were repopulating the square. I shook Sievers away and raced toward a woman with a basket hoisted on her shoulders. “Did you see where they went?”

She shook her head, refusing to look at me.

I asked the woman next to her, and the man next to her. They all refused to answer, instead looking down into the sand.

“Didn’t anyone see where they went?” I raged, returning to the center of the square. “Are you all so afraid of them that you’d rather have your daily water rations taken down to nothing?” I spun in circles searching for answers. I exhaled thick bursts of hot air through my flared nostrils. I must have looked like some sort of desert monster. A mixture of blood and sand covered my sopping dress. My hair hung in limp tendrils. I ran my fingers through it. The sun had dried it slightly, but clumps of sand had taken up residence.