Before She Ignites (Fallen Isles Trilogy #1)(68)

“Maybe the council should have considered that before dumping me in the Pit.”

“Watch your tongue.” She snapped the curtains shut and leaned back in her seat, one leg thrown over the other, and crossed her arms.

“You didn’t answer my question before. What sort of opportunity?” I said, this time with Mother’s I-don’t-like-to-ask-twice tone.

“You used to be such a nice girl,” Elbena muttered. “But if you don’t want to be nice, we can turn around. I said the council wants to show that you’re still present. But we don’t need to.”

I clenched my jaw and said nothing. Strength through silence.

After a moment, Elbena went on, pleased with my apparent docility. “I have a speech for you,” she said. “All you have to do is read it.”

“What does it say?”

“Nothing unusual,” she assured me. “The same kind of speech you’ve given a thousand times.”

Over my years of reading their words, the Luminary Council had always made sure I was in agreement. But now that I knew better, I was sure they’d done some persuading. I couldn’t remember anymore. Every interaction was tainted with deep suspicion. What had they made me think I believed?

“Do exactly as they say,” Tirta had warned.

“If you do your job well, you will be rewarded.”

If I didn’t, I would no doubt be punished. “What’s the reward?”

Elbena offered a warm smile as she leaned forward and took my hands. “Mira,” she breathed. “You could come home.”

I DIDN’T WANT to be tempted, but the idea of going home consumed me.

Seeing my parents again, Zara, Ilina and Hristo . . . LaLa, because I had to believe she’d come back to the drakarium. Here I was. Out of the Pit. Carrying a promise of freedom. All I had to do was speak a few words.

I didn’t trust the Luminary Council. They didn’t care about me, clearly, but they cared about my title. They wanted to go back to the way things were before, when I did their bidding without a second thought.

Yet, Elbena hadn’t given me the speech I was to recite, which was entirely irregular. I could only guess what she expected me to say. Maybe she’d force me to announce the council’s innocence in the dragon matter, if that was public yet. Or support her reelection. Or . . . it could be anything, I supposed. The mystery woman in the infirmary had suggested the Luminary Council might want me for something; I wished she’d been more specific.

We traveled for five days by carriage, and when we reached Lorn-tah, we boarded the Chance Encounter, the same ship I’d taken from Damina on my way to the Pit. By now, it was easily my least favorite of all sailing vessels.

It was impressive, though: a four-masted barc with red-and-gold sails, three lower decks, and one of the largest noorestones I’d ever seen. This ship was fast. Travel to . . . wherever we were going (Elbena still hadn’t told me) wouldn’t take more than a decan. Unless we were leaving the Fallen Isles.

That thought made me shudder. I’d been to lots of places, but never beyond the Fallen Isles.

THE VOYAGE LASTED only three days, which I spent in a small cabin with Elbena chattering like we were still friends. Whenever she left, I passed my time by exercising until every muscle trembled. Arms, legs, and stomach: I had to be strong. And because my back had mostly healed, I could be strong.

Sometimes, I looked out my porthole and thought about my maybe-friends in the Pit, my family that abandoned me, my best friends somewhere unknown, and my tiny dragon.

Why had she left? And where had she gone?

I missed LaLa constantly, but thinking about her ripped open a chasm in my heart and let loose a tide of grief, and I had to keep those emotions at bay; I couldn’t let Elbena see me weak.

Finally, the Chance Encounter docked. “Where are we?” I asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Elbena flashed a smile, as though we shared a secret. “You’re going to love this surprise. It’s all going to be so grand.”

This felt familiar. Not the uncertainty, but the looming grandeur. Elbena’s delight. The way they’d sneak me off the ship into an inn. This part wasn’t so different from being the Mira Minkoba. I was always being protected, watched, secreted from place to place when I traveled, even before now.

It was for my own good, Elbena had always said. It was so people didn’t see me fresh off the ship, smelling like the sea and in need of a long bath. It was so I remained a pure, untouched-by-nature symbol to the whole world.

Now I wondered if it had been to keep me isolated.

“Stop tapping.” Elbena shot an irritated glance at my hands beating on my knees. I’d been tapping the islands in quiet code, like Aaru had taught me; I hadn’t even realized it. “Try not to be so fidgety during your speech tomorrow night.”

“What is the speech? When will I get to see it?” What was so important that Elbena had come for me herself?

“This evening.”

Finally, a knock sounded on the door: just two raps of knuckles against wood. A masked Luminary Guard opened the door and motioned us outward. “We’re ready.”

Elbena pushed herself off her hammock and pulled in a deep breath, steadying herself before she smiled brightly at me. “Ready to get off this boat?”

The captain and crewmen would probably protest calling the Chance Encounter a boat, but I just nodded and followed her out the door, into the noorestone-lit passageway. My footfalls thumped on the old wood: eight, nine, ten . . .