“Can we stop them?” Atiana asked.
“Not by force of men,” the crow said, flapping its wings and craning its neck up toward the ancient wooden beams running along the ceiling. “Bahett’s men, and the Kamarisi’s, have moved to intercept the army of Anuskaya.”
Upon saying the word Anuskaya, the crow devolved into a slow cawing. It sounded like the wracking cough of an old woman on her deathbed.
Atiana felt a tear come unbidden to her eye. Dear Ishkyna, to not even be able to speak the name of your homeland…
“Then how?” Atiana asked sharply, not only to draw back the attention of the crow, but to strengthen her own resolve.
The crow was silent for a time. It seemed purposefully to be looking away from Atiana.
“ How?” Atiana said, louder.
“There may be a way.” The crow met her eye with a baleful stare. “I believe Sariya needs you. The wounds inflicted by Ushai in the tower were deep. She is weakened, and can no longer complete the ritual as she planned.”
Siha s leaned forward. “What does she-”
“Silence!” the rook cawed.
Atiana held her hand up, a request for Siha s and Irkadiy to remain silent. “What does she plan?” Atiana asked.
“She and Muqallad will come to the Spar, but she can no longer draw upon the aether as she once did. You can get close to her, for she desires your power. She would use it to do what she cannot.”
“And if she cannot have me?”
“Come,” the crow said with some of Ishkyna’s biting tone. “You know better. The noose is tightening. It will be done in a day whether they have you or not.”
“But if they cannot complete the ritual-”
“They will still do it in the hopes that indaraqiram can be brought about. But believe me when I say that she would welcome you. I can bring you close, but it is not without danger.”
Atiana knew the danger well. It was all she’d thought about since riding out from Baressa. If she returned, she would once again fall under Sariya’s spell.
“If we can,” the crow continued, “we will deceive her. It is the only way you can come close enough.”
“Close enough to kill her, you mean.”
The crow twitched and released a caw that sounded like low laughter. “Is there any other choice?”
“How, then? How will we find her?”
“With you in tow, the Kamarisi will welcome Siha s with open arms. And then he will take you to the Spar.”
“I don’t like it,” Siha s said.
“Nor do I!” echoed Irkadiy. “My Lady Princess, we should go to our countrymen. Let us join the push to take Baressa and the Spar and let Siha s and his men work from behind the Kamarisi’s lines.”
Siha s, his dark brows pinched, glanced aside at Irkadiy. “He may be right. The time may have come to admit that the Kamarisi can no longer be saved, and if that is so, you would be safer with your people.”
“If you do this”-the feathers along the back of the crow’s neck crested-“any chance to come near to the Al- Aqim will be lost, and mark my words: the battle will never reach them in time.”
Atiana stood and moved to the window. The cold morning air drifted in through the gaps. She could not see Baressa-it lay hidden behind the ridge-but she could see two columns of smoke rising to the east. No doubt the battle lay there. She wanted nothing more than to go to her people, to return to a place of safety.
The wind kicked up, rattling the pane momentarily, drawing her attention to the straits. She could see the tall cliffs on the far side and far below the white, churning water. The southern end of the Spar lay hidden by the turn of land, but she could see the northern landing and its elegant, towering arches that defied belief. They looked small from this distance. They seemed less threatening, as if her worries had been born of a dream. It felt-now that the sun was rising-as though her worries would fade, as nightmares do.
But this was no dream. This was no figment of her imagination to be cast aside like childish fears.
This was deadly serious, and she could no more abandon her cause than she could abandon her people.
“I will go to Sariya,” she said at last.
Irkadiy rose to his feet. “My Lady-”
“There is no choice,” Atiana said. “If I return, our last, best chance will have been lost. I will go, and I hope you will join me.” This she said to Siha s. Irkadiy would go with her, she knew, to the ends of the earth.
Siha s stood as well. He glanced to the window, and he too seemed to take note of the smoke rising in Baressa.
But then he met Atiana’s eyes and nodded. “I will go,” he said, “and we will see what can be done.”
As the men left to prepare, the crow flapped up to the windowsill. Atiana swung the window wide, and the smell of the sea came to her, strong and vibrant. The crow did not leave, however. It shivered for a moment and performed a strange dance, hopping on one foot, and then the other. Atiana could only assume Ishkyna’s control was slipping away now that she was alone with Atiana.
“There’s one more thing,” the crow said, and cawed several times, low and sad.
“What?”
“Your man is come.”
“What? Who?”
“Nik-” It cawed again. “Nischka.” Leaning out beyond the sill, the crow dipped its head, pointing westward. “He flies even now.”
And then the crow leaned out and winged above the tall snowy grass and out over the straits, cawing all the while.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
I t felt strange to return to the streets of Baressa so soon after leaving them, but it was a different day, and it felt like a different time. The battle to the south of the city grew and by the time midday had struck, it had grown until it sounded like it had encompassed a good half of the city. She saw no battles, but she could hear it, cannons and the cries of men. She could smell the gunpowder on the wind.
As transfixed as they were by the battle to the southeast, Atiana often found herself looking westward, toward Nikandr. Part of her wished she had her soulstone, if only to grasp it and to ask the ancients to spare him.
Siha s set a course toward the Spar. The streets were nearly empty. Only once in a great while did they see old men or women, or sometimes children, peek at them from behind corners or from the insides of their darkened homes. They came eventually to a line of men who were setting up hastily constructed barricades of rough stone, but Siha s, showing his ring of office, was allowed to pass with little more than a cross look from the Galaheshi soldier who’d stopped them.
Shortly after passing, a whistle alerted them. Another four men on ponies waved to Siha s. They were dressed in the same uniform as Siha s, red janissary coats with unadorned black turbans, boar tusk cartridges on their bandoliers and gleaming swords at their sides. They rode with an ease that made it clear these were seasoned men, and from the way they greeted Siha s and the rest of his men, she knew they were part of the Kamarisi’s personal guard. They met and moved further away from the Galaheshi soldiers to speak in peace.
“Where is the Kamarisi?” Siha s asked.
“He left the kasir early this morning with handpicked janissaries. They rode across the bridge and haven’t been seen since.”
“Then that is where we go.”
The soldier, a man ten years Siha s ’s senior, smiled and bowed his head. “As you say, My Lord.”
When they reached the Spar, foot soldiers hailed them. “We were told to find you,” one of them said. He was
