Page 46 of Every Spiral of Fate (This Woven Kingdom #4)

Forty-Five

RIGHT AWAY, ALIZEH FELT THE WIND.

She looked up, stunned, to discover that they were outside.

It wasn’t clear where outside, or whether it was simply an illusion, but tufts of cloud had been scattered across a blue sky, beneath which towered the zenith of a perfectly peaked behemoth of a snowy mountain.

Into the center of this mountain had been built a towering, arched door, so tall Alizeh had to crane her neck to glimpse the top of it.

The imposing door was not only large enough to allow passage for a dragon, but it was also embellished with thousands upon thousands of tiles, all of which had been arranged to create the illusion of a colossal rug, its intricate patterns rendered in glossy, saturated shades of red.

“ Wow ,” she heard Deen whisper.

As she stepped back and took in the full scene, Alizeh realized they were all of them standing in the center of a monumental canyon, the floor of which—for miles in all directions—was mirrored glass that had been enchanted to look like a glittering, patterned red rug designed to match the imposing entrance door.

“I’m not wearing shoes!” Huda cried suddenly.

“I don’t think any of us are,” said Omid.

Alizeh shifted her skirts to peek down at her feet and, indeed, she was in her stockings.

She felt the slide of the cool surface beneath her feet, the touch of unseen sunlight against her skin.

Her eyes followed the direct path of the glass rug underfoot to the summit before her, and her breath caught in awe, her mind briefly stalling as it processed these layered illusions.

She felt the rush of her heart, beating fast in her chest, then a plume of wind, pushing gently at her back.

Alizeh stepped forward.

The wind continued to guide her, nudging her feet toward the door, and she felt almost light-headed with anticipation as she drew closer, trying not to run even as she was overcome by a wave of childlike giddiness.

She clutched the Book of Arya tighter to her chest as the others fell into formation behind her, and just as Alizeh thought she glimpsed the shimmer of something magical beyond the mountain peak, she gasped.

The Book of Arya had heated once more in her hands.

She came to a sudden halt; the others nearly collided with her. Quickly, she appraised the cover—which still read PLEDGE —and flipped it open to the next blank page.

“The book is glowing again!” Omid cried.

Alizeh could hardly steady her hands as she smoothed the parchment down, many heads pushing close to hers as fresh words printed themselves upon the page in a red ink that was, no doubt, her own blood:

A knock from each

of the honorable five

will unlock the door

or none will survive

“Or none will survive?” cried Huda.

The mountain gave a terrifying rumble then, the mirrored ground beneath them beginning to fracture with spider cracks. Snow shuddered perilously upon the frosted peak, and anyone with eyes could not deny that an avalanche was imminent.

“No,” breathed Hazan.

“We are nearly out of time!” Huda screamed.

They all ran as fast as they could toward the doorway, which was nearly half a mile in the distance. They struggled not to slip—or else cut themselves—on the fracturing glass floor, and while Alizeh led the way, the others were close behind.

Heart pounding, breathing hard, Alizeh knew when she’d crossed some unknowable boundary, for the glass underfoot gave way to soft, silky carpeting, the illusion of a rug transforming into something real.

She came to a stop only several feet from the towering doorway, and up close the sight of it was so forbidding that she felt nearly faint with nerves.

Gathering herself, Alizeh turned around just as the last of her party had crossed this unseen threshold, while the clattering, crashing sounds of shattering glass echoed like uncanny screams. She was stupefied to discover that the mirrored floor had broken away entirely, crushed nearly to dust as it collapsed into a bottomless ravine below them.

There was no going back.

“Angels above,” said Deen, catching his breath. “I didn’t know we could all die in here.”

“The ticking clock is different every time,” said Huda. “There was nothing to indicate we were in imminent danger—”

“Never mind all that,” said Hazan. “One of us must knock at the door, and be quick about it. Kamran, you go first—”

“Me?” he said, stepping back. “Why me?”

“Good grief,” said Huda. “I’ll go first, you big coward.”

“I’m not a coward,” he shot back. “I just don’t understand exactly what we’re supposed to do—”

“Nothing, really,” said Omid, studying the entrance. “We’re only supposed to knock, is that right?”

“I believe so, yes,” said Alizeh. It was hard for her to stand back and do nothing while people she cared about offered themselves up in sacrifice, metaphorical or not.

But she’d long known that such a presentation would be a requirement on the journey, and she clasped her hands tightly to keep from intervening.

“Right, then,” said Huda, frowning up at the door. “I suppose it’ll use magic to determine whether we’re willing to die for the queen.”

“I’d wager that’s correct,” said Hazan.

“I’d be happy to go first,” said Deen, stepping forward. “If no one else wants to.”

“No, I’ll go first,” said Omid, his face high with color. “I’d be honored to go first, miss—”

“I already offered to go first!” said Huda.

Alizeh was moved nearly to tears.

“Enough of this,” said Hazan with finality. “I’ll go first. Then Omid, then Huda, then Deen, and then Kamran.”

All of them turned simultaneously to look at Cyrus.

Wordlessly, he removed himself from the group, stepping as far away as possible without treading too close to the cliff’s edge.

Alizeh watched this with an ache. The warm feeling that had moments ago inflated her chest was now diminished. She tried to catch his eye, to offer him a look of comfort or camaraderie, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze. She stifled a sigh.

Then she lifted her chin.

Hazan gave her a nod, steeling himself as he stepped up to the door. He glanced back at the others before raising his fist to the colossal panel, and before his knuckles even connected, they heard a powerful crack .

A fissure the size of a tree trunk had formed along the tiled entry, and the wood groaned under the force of it.

Hazan stepped back, looking a bit stunned, and Alizeh ran forward to receive him, clasping his hands in friendship.

“Thank you,” she breathed.

“Your Majesty,” he said, awed as he stared up at the severed doorway. “It’s my life’s honor.”

“Me next,” said Omid, striding forward.

The boy was red and blotchy with feeling, and though he was nervous, his countenance was severe. Always Alizeh had to remind herself that this tall, courageous child was still only twelve years old.

“I’d die for you even if it weren’t pretend, miss,” said Omid, staring up at the doorway. He shook out his shoulders as if preparing for a fight. “I knew I’d die for you the day you spared my life. I’ll never forget, not for as long as I live, how I nearly killed you, and you—”

“What did you just say?” said Cyrus.

They all turned to look at the king. Even from where he stood, Cyrus was visibly outraged.

“ That’s how the two of you know each other?” he asked.

“You don’t know this story?” said Hazan. “Omid only talks about it constantly.”

“I don’t understand,” said Cyrus, looking directly at Alizeh. “The boy tried to kill you, and you befriended him? Why?”

“Well, no,” interjected Omid. “First I tried to steal from her. And then, when she refused to hand over her parcel, I grabbed her, like”—he mimed the motions of a crude assault—“and then I pressed my knife to her neck, like”—he made a slashing sound—“and then I threatened to slit her throat—”

Cyrus straightened like an arrow, turning to stare at Omid with a fury that startled everyone. He was looking at the boy like he might truly kill him.

Alizeh stiffened.

Impossibly, Omid turned a deeper shade of red.

“You needn’t worry,” he said nervously. “She disarmed me in a trice. Nearly tore out my shoulder. I hadn’t expected a tiny snoda could be so violent, but when she gave me back my knife I was blown dead away.

I thought she was barking mad.” He laughed.

“And then she told me to visit her in the kitchens where she worked, so she might sneak me pieces of bread. I don’t know how she knew I was so hungry.

” His eyes dimmed. “I was losing my mind for not having a scrap of food in so long.”

Cyrus seemed to lose the worst of his anger then.

In fact, he looked shaken.

“Omid is all the time shedding tears over the story,” said Huda fondly. She wrapped an arm around Omid’s shoulder, and he leaned into her easily, as might a younger brother. “To be fair, Alizeh’s undiminished kindness is the reason we’re all here, ready to lay down our lives for her.”

“Hear, hear,” said Deen softly.

“I can’t thank you all enough,” said Alizeh, who was truly misty-eyed now. “I hardly know what to say.”

In response, Omid stepped toward the door.

He knocked powerfully against the panel—once, twice—and the response was immediate. A second spidering fracture branched off from the first, and the door vibrated dangerously.

Omid gave a small whoop of joy.

“Me next!” Huda cried, giving Omid a quick squeeze as she passed him. She required little preamble; she held her head high and knocked with the assured confidence of an aristocrat. Once more, a vein splintered open across the door, the panel juddering in its frame.

Huda clapped her hands and cried out in delight.

Deen gave Alizeh a salute before heading for the door, his dark eyes glimmering with quiet affection. “You gave me a new life, Your Majesty. You hardly even know the half of it.”

She stared at him. “What do you mean?”

The apothecarist stared up at the terrifying door and said, “I promise, one day, to tell you the whole story.”

And then he lifted his fist and knocked.

The panel shuddered with violence, a fourth fracture snaking up the tile work like a stroke of lightning.

Deen stood for a moment in awe at the sight of it, laughed, then stepped back.

The door, though obviously damaged, still looked fairly seated in its frame, and Alizeh couldn’t help but feel a spike of nerves. Even as she was deeply touched by her friends’ performances, she was beginning to wonder whether a single additional blast would be enough to accomplish the task.

All eyes turned to Kamran.

Unlike the others, he didn’t look at Alizeh as he approached the door. He seemed tense and uncertain, his eyes pinched with concern. He took a deep, bracing breath, and when his fist finally connected with the panel—

Nothing happened.