I dropped my head back to look into the dome. A spiral of light sigils shone brightly against the engraved marble and gold. At the point, a skylight revealed a shock of blue and brilliant sun. “Do you think Paorah came here? Do you think she gave him these rooms?”

Ilina sank onto one of the sofas that stood around the fountain. “If he came here, surely he would have realized he could not win a battle against the empire’s might. Not away from our gods. Not without a thousand giant noorestones. I’ve never seen anything like this place. I’ve never imagined anything like it. Don’t tell your mother, but it makes your house look like a cute summer cottage.”

“What does that make your house?”

“A hovel.” She shook her head in amazement. “Compared to this, my house is that cabin we stayed in after the Pit.”

“Ah, yes. The one that blew apart in the storm.”

“Exactly.”

I sat next to her, feeling so tiny in this huge space. The others were in their own rooms, unpacking or looking at the treasures that filled every surface. If this was where the empress kept her favored guests, what did her rooms look like?

“Paorah is desperate,” I said at last. “And desperate people take desperate risks.”

“Like us.” She rested her cheek on my shoulder. “I can’t believe we’re here. In the Algotti Empire. In the imperial palace.”

In the fountain, LaLa splashed in the pool of water while Crystal stalked her from one of the spouts. The moment LaLa ducked her face underwater and blew a burst of fire—making steam rise above her—Crystal dove and they tumbled around the wet tile with tiny shrieks of joy.

“Be careful,” Ilina warned. “We won’t come in after you if you drown.”

A lie, and the little beasts knew it.

“I suppose it makes sense that you’d be here,” Ilina murmured. “You’re the Hopebearer. You’re important. Everyone knows who you are. Even the empress, apparently. But the rest of us? We don’t belong here.”

“None of us belong here. We belong in the Fallen Isles, surrounded by dragons, the sea, and our gods. But all that’s in trouble, and if none of the people appointed to the continuation of the Fallen Isles are going to help it, then we must. Dragon trainer. Personal guard. Annoying little sister. Disgraced warrior. Unseated Lady of Eternal Dawn.”

“And Aaru?”

My heart fluttered at his name. “He had a lot of jobs on Idris. The last was to oversee men who sorted trash.”

Ilina cringed. “I bet your mother will love that.”

“She does seem to like him, actually. Or maybe she just didn’t see him as anything more than an escort. Most people underestimate him.”

“They shouldn’t,” she murmured. “Not after what happened at the ruins.”

She meant the pulse of his grief, that surge of silence that smothered every sound for leagues around us. It was the Voice of Idris, able to silence any sound, even the deep note of noorestones that made them glow.