Page 146 of Taste of Thorns

Chapter Fifty-Two

Briony

As my feet hit solid ground and the landscape comes into focus, I realize this is not what I was expecting. We’re up in the mountains, high peaks piercing the endless sky and steep slopes descending before us.

There’s not a lake in sight.

Did something happen? Has the Madame manipulated the trial again? Or has she been manipulating us from the start?

Linette Smyte stands a foot away from me, her arms folded across her chest and her lips curled in disgust.

“What do you think we’re meant to do?” I ask her.

She simply glares at me, pressing her lips more tightly together.

This is not what I need.

I lift my hand to shade my eyes against the glare of the sky and peer out. There are paths, actually more like goat networks, crisscrossing the slopes, but I don’t know if we’re meant to follow them or stay here and wait or–

My eyes land on a piece of rolled-up scroll several paces away. Quickly, I retrieve it and uncurl the paper.

“I assume this is for us,” I say to Linette, ignoring the fact she is giving me the silent treatment. It’s not like I asked to be her partner. In fact, there are about a hundred other people I would have picked before her.

I scan my eyes down the text written across the pages.

“We have to retrieve a silver egg from a cave in the mountains. There’s a rough map drawn here.” I sweep my gaze across the landscape once more, trying to find my bearings. “I think that way’s north, right?”

“If you think I’m going to help you …” Linette starts.

“You heard the Madame. We’re meant to be working together. That’s how we score points. If we don’t, we won’t be getting any.”

“I don’t need to worry about points.”

“Really?” I mutter, orienting myself in what I hope is the right direction. Linette has more points than me, but she’s the bottom of the shadow weavers. In theory that should put her at risk of being sent to Granite or Iron, especially if she does badly today. “You don’t want to guarantee yourself a spot in Onyx?”

“Oh, I’m going to Onyx.”

“Right,” I say, nodding in understanding, “I suppose you’re worried that if you help me, I’ll end up going to Onyx with you.”

She sniffs. “You’re not going to Onyx.”

“Sure about that?” I say, setting off at a swift pace. At first she just stands there, but when I’m a good few feet away, I hear her scrabble to catch up.

“Whatever the Princes have told you is lies.” Everybody always seems to assume that, and yet none of them have a clue what has actually passed between the men I’m dating and me. “Thralls don’t get a free pass into Onyx.”

“I’m not expecting to get a free pass. I’m expecting to earn it.”

“You?” She snorts.

“Uh huh,” I say with a knowing smile that clearly infuriates her.

“You’re deluded. They’ll send you back to Slate like all the other Slate kids.” A couple of months ago I would have been in full agreement with her. But I have powers and a dragon. There’s no way they can send me anywhere but Onyx. And when I expose the Madame’s crimes, they’ll have even more reason to reward me. “And once you’re gone,” Linny continues, “Henny and Beaufort will reunite. It’s what both their families want.”

“But not what he wants,” I say.

“You should have seen them together,” she says, her eyes shining in a sycophantic manner, “both so powerful and so beautiful. They were perfect together, made for each other.”

“Unfortunately, Beaufort doesn’t see it that way. And neither do I. I think he was made for me.”