جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 5

POV:VEYRAI was two coppers short of leaving Ashfen forever when the sorcerer broke his chains.Two coppers. That was all that stood between me and a horse I could not afford and a road I had been dreaming about for five years. I had saved for it the way other people saved for weddings or roofs. Slowly and stupidly, one copper at a time, tucked into a tin under the floorboard, counted every night like a prayer.And I was still here, selling fever tonic in a square that smelled of blood and smoke, because execution days paid well."Ten coppers for the fever tonic," I called out. "Five for the salve."Nobody bought anything. Everyone was watching the platform.I hated execution days. I hated the festival air of them, the way parents brought their children and vendors sold roasted nuts and the whole settlement turned out to watch a stranger die. But grief made people sick, and sick people bought remedies, and I needed those two coppers.The prisoner was old. Silver hair, hollow cheeks, r

POV: VEYRAThe carriage stopped, and I decided I was done being quiet.I had spent the whole ride staring out the window, counting my breaths, trying not to think about the man sitting across from me. It had not worked. I could still feel him. The heat of him, the weight of his eyes on the side of my face and the way my mark had pulsed every time he shifted in his seat.So when the door opened and he stepped out without offering me his hand, I climbed down after him and let him have it. "You cannot keep me here."Rhazek did not turn around. "You have said that already.""I will keep saying it until it becomes true." I hurried to keep pace with him. The palace rose above us, all dark stone and sharp towers, and guards fell into step on either side of me like I was something that needed containing. "I have patients in Ashfen, I have a cottage with a roof that leaks, I have a life, Your Majesty. You cannot just take it away from me.""You broke my wards." He said "I did not mean to."

POV: SERAPHINEI saw it.I was standing in the shadow of the eastern pillar, where I always stood. Close enough to advise him. Far enough that no one noticed me watching. I had done it for eight years, and in eight years, no one ever had.I watched him drag her chair across the stone, watched him catch her chin.I watched him turn back to the council with his face set like a man who had not just done something he could not take back.Then the meal ended, and he rose, and I saw his hand beneath the table.Her fingers, his fingers curled together like they had been doing it for years.I stayed where I was until the hall emptied. Then I walked back to my chambers and closed the door and stood with my back against it for a long time, listening to my own breathing.Eight years.I had come to this palace at twenty, a sorceress from a dying kingdom with nothing but my magic and my name. I had knelt in front of his throne and offered him both. He had taken the magic and had never asked for th