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Within a minute, she was blinking, her eyelids drooping.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” said Kah.

I didn’t. But if I wanted the map, I didn’t have any other options.

I glanced at her dress. If I carried her out of here like this, it would alert every guard we saw of a kidnapping in progress. Istarted to unclasp the row of a thousand tiny buttons, feeling the wasted seconds slipping away with every beat of my heart. “To hell with this,” I said, grabbing my knife and cutting the dress right down the middle.

Moving fast, I shoved the crumbled layers of fabric underneath the bed and wrapped one of the commander’s gray traveling cloaks around the girl’s linen undergarments. Outside, she’d be cold, but she wouldn’t catch anyone’s eye more than a servant might.

Whether it was the fire pumping in my veins or the fact that she’d been underfed in the mines, she felt no heavier than a feather when I hoisted her over my shoulder and flew out into the hallway.

19

Raven

Bain?I tried to form his name on my lips, but it wouldn’t come. My eyelids felt as if they were weighted down by sandbags. Was I awake? Was this a dream? Why did I feel like my body was moving?

No answers came, and the thoughts faded away.

My brother appeared. We were standing together on a high balcony, the ocean waves crashing in the distance. Rays from the rising sun shone across his face, which was covered in bruises and dried blood.

“Rainer, what happened?” I said, my throat tight.

He didn’t answer. I started to reach out to him when I noticed my hands were coated in blood too. I stilled.

“Our people will die. All of them. Because of this,” he said.

Because of what? Have I done something?

“Rainer, just tell me what to do. Tell me how to make this right.”

“You have to find me, Raven. You have to hurry.” He looked directly at me before jumping off the balcony and flying toward the horizon.

“Rainer! Wait!” I cried, unable to follow.

The sky faded. The world was dark. I heard voices.

“… nothing I can do,” said a female voice.

“Look at her! You did this to her!” It was a man’s voice. He sounded angry.

Bain?

“I didn’t mean to! He forced me to do it. It was supposed to be atruthpotion, not a love potion. But without my magic, I?—”

“Surely there’s an antidote. You can undo it.”

“I told you,no,” the girl said, dropping her voice to a whisper. She sounded frightened. “I’ve already risked too much by putting that stuff in Thrailkull’s fireplace for you.”

“And I gave you the keyring so you can escape. I’ll pay you in silver this time—or anything you want. Just do something to help her. Please.”

Their voices became fuzzy and soft again, like the cries of a flock of birds fading into the distance.

I felt warmth in my chest. I felt movement. Then I felt nothing.

The scentof musty straw and pungent animal sweat filled my nose when I woke.Where am I?

My eyelids didn’t feel as heavy, the pull of sleep no longer an anchor tying me to the land of dreams. Instead, a mild throbbing drummed its fingers against the inside of my skull.