It was well past midday when Lady Mirab returned. The wait had been painful, but Eluvie had done her best to keep from appearing impatient. She was on the floor of the sitting rooms, playing cards with her attendants, when Lady Mirab walked in, grinning broadly. Eluvie had heard her coming from the corridor's end, so she was well prepared to pretend disinterest. She glanced at Lady Mirab, nodded in greeting, and resumed peering at her cards.

"May I join?" Mirab asked. As usual, Eluvie marveled at how little of the cruel jailor there was in her words. If Mirab ever lost her territory, she would make a spectacular fortune as an actress.

"I fear it won't be enjoyable," Eluvie said. "Apparently, one of the things I forgot was how to play cards."

Mirab laughed more enthusiastically than the joke deserved. She was either drunk or happy. Eluvie suspected happiness.

The ruler dropped to the ground beside Eluvie, peeked at the cards in Eluvie's hand, and grimaced. "Best give up, then," she said. "Besides, I have good news. We're going to visit the sky city."

Eluvie collapsed the cards and put them down. "So, your meeting was successful?"

"Very," Mirab said, the picture of pleasure. "Do you know Rade?"

"A little," Eluvie said.

"They have the only remaining transport to the sky city. We've been trying to access it for years, but they wouldn't grant permission unless they joined our alliance, and they wouldn't join our alliance without a list of ridiculous concessions."

"What changed?" Eluvie asked.

"They wouldn't tell me," Mirab said. "But they will allow us supervised access to the transport." Her gaze turned somber. "I don't know if any Illrum are still alive, but if they are, we'll find them."

She clearly intended that to be comforting, so Eluvie kept her skeptical thoughts to herself.

"You're in a difficult situation," Mirab said. "How are you, truly?"

"When do we leave?" Eluvie asked.

Worry crossed Mirab's face, but it disappeared quickly.

"I've ordered a contingent of guards prepared. We can leave as soon as they're ready, but you should eat first."

"I'm not hungry," Eluvie said. "Just tell me when we're ready to leave."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

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Lady Mirab had grown suspicious. Once in a while, Eluvie caught her watching with a serious frown on her face. She did not know which of her actions had brought on the suspicion, and she did not know what it meant. Perhaps Lady Mirab knew everything, or perhaps she simply found Eluvie’s actions odd. Or perhaps she was not suspicious at all, and Eluvie was reading motives into normal expressions. Regardless of the explanation, there was little Eluvie could do. So, she focused on managing herself and left the rest to the fickle heavens.

Their transportation was oddly plain. It was a boxy, wooden carriage drawn by dull-brown horses and only large enough to carry four people. A worker guided Eluvie in first. Then, Lady Mirab followed. Eluvie realized the reason for this arrangement once she was seated. The carriage only had one door. So, she was pressed to one side of it with Mirab between her and the door.

Lady Mirab smiled at her as she took her own seat. “It’s cozy, I know. It was made many years ago when sorcerers were still plenty. The enchantments on it are nearly impossible to replicate now. So, we keep using it."

Eluvie didn’t ask if any of those enchantments were intended to prevent her escape. She didn’t ask what happened to the sorcerers either. She was eager to be done with the entire endeavor.

Amu squeezed in after Mirab and took the seat opposite Eluvie. Finally, one of the other rulers came. The other two would take a second carriage, while the leather-clad guards would walk beside the carriage.

It took an infuriating amount of time for the carriage to begin moving. The whole time, Eluvie felt herself growing more and more agitated. She almost sighed in relief when the carriage lurched into motion and almost cursed at its slow pace.

Soon, but not soon enough, they were through the palace gates, past the point at which the barrier had always stopped Eluvie. She wondered how they were moving the barrier. None of the rulers had appeared to be carrying anything suspicious, and none of the guards had seemed preoccupied either. Had they moved it before she even entered the carriage? Was it now in a different spot, or would it move with them?

She suppressed her umpteenth sigh and turned toward the window closest to her. Calling it a window was generous. It was barely more than a slit in the wood. Eluvie was forced to press her face very close to it in order to see through it. Even then, a good portion of her view was obstructed by guards. Who would design such a miserable carriage? It wasn’t good for more than transporting prisoners.

‘Oh’, she thought. It was meant for transporting prisoners. Functional windows were for free people.

She gave up on trying to see through the slit, although her curiosity was burning a hole inside her. Sooner or later, they would let her out of the carriage.

None of the others spoke, but the carriage was not silent. She could still hear the whispers. They had grown the moment she had exited the palace. In the palace, there had only ever been ten or twenty at a time. Now, she suspected that there were hundreds of individual voices. Some were strong, some weak. Some were loud, others soft. Some chattered on about everything, while others were so silent that she could only tell their presence by a slight thrumming - like the sound of a heartbeat.She wished she had asked Amu about the voices. She wished he had been trustworthy enough for the question. She wished that the blanks in her knowledge were not as wide and numerous as the gaps between stars.

And then, despite her anger and disappointment, she prayed. She prayed to the maker that she would escape, that she wouldn't need to kill anyone, and that she would not make any fatal mistakes. She prayed like some people made wishes, not expecting an answer, only throwing out a request to the cold, dark silence.