An Ember in the Ashes. Sabaa Tahir

back is ramrod straight, but she looks to me, to Cain, to the Commandant. At first, I think she’s frightened. Then I notice the shine in her eyes, the spring in her step.

      When Hel and I were Fivers, a Barbarian raiding party took us prisoner. I was trussed like a festival-day goat, but they tied Helene’s hands in front of her with twine and propped her on the back of a pony, assuming she was harmless. That night, she used the twine to garrotte three of our jailers and broke the necks of the other three with her bare hands.

      ‘They always underestimate me,’ she said afterwards, sounding puzzled. She was right, of course. It’s a mistake even I make. Hel’s not frightened, I realize. She’s euphoric. She wants this.

      The walk to the stage takes too little time. In seconds, I’m standing in front of Cain with the others.

      ‘To be chosen as an Aspirant for the Trials is to be granted the greatest honour the Empire has to offer.’ Cain looks at each one of us, but it seems like his gaze lingers longest on me. ‘In exchange for this great gift, the Augurs require an oath: that as Aspirants, you will see the Trials through until the Emperor is named. The penalty for breaking this oath is death.

      ‘You must not undertake this oath lightly,’ Cain says. ‘If you wish, you may turn and leave this podium. You will remain a Mask, with all the respect and honour accorded to those of that title. Another will be chosen in your place. It is, in the end, your choice.’

      Your choice. Those two words shake me to my marrow. Tomorrow you will have to make a choice. Between deserting and doing your duty. Between running from your destiny and facing it.

      Cain doesn’t mean doing my duty as a Mask. He wants me to choose between taking the Trials and deserting.

      You devious, red-eyed devil. I want to be free of the Empire. But how can I find freedom if I take the Trials? If I win and become Emperor, I’ll be tied to the Empire for life. And if I swear fealty, I’ll be chained to the Emperor as the second-in-command – the Blood Shrike.

      Or I’ll be a leaf lost in the wind, which is just a fancy Augur way of saying dead.

       Reject him, Elias. Run. By this time tomorrow, you’ll be miles away.

      Cain watches Marcus, and the Augur’s head is tilted as if he’s listening to something beyond our ken.

      ‘Marcus Farrar. You are ready.’ It’s not a question. Marcus kneels and draws his sword, offering it up to the Augur, his eyes glinting with a strangely exultant zeal, as if he’s already been named Emperor.

      ‘Repeat after me,’ Cain says. ‘I, Marcus Farrar, swear by blood and by bone, by my honour and the honour of Gens Farrar, that I will dedicate myself to the Trials, that I will see them through until the Emperor is named or my body lies cold.’

      Marcus repeats the vow, his voice echoing in the breathless silence of the amphitheatre. Cain closes Marcus’s hands over his blade, pressing until blood drips from his palms. A moment later, Helene kneels, offering her sword, repeating the vow, her voice singing out across the field as clearly as a bell at dawn.

      The Augur turns to Zak, who looks at his brother for a long moment before nodding and taking the oath. Suddenly, I’m the only one of the four Aspirants still standing, and Cain is before me, awaiting my decision.

      Like Zak, I hesitate. Cain’s words come back to me: You are woven through our dreams. A thread of silver in a tapestry of night. Is becoming Emperor my destiny, then? How can such a destiny lead to freedom? I have no desire to rule – the very idea of doing so is repellent to me.

      But then my future as a deserter is no more appealing. You will become everything you hate – evil, merciless, cruel.

      Do I trust Cain when he says I will find freedom if I take the Trials? At Blackcliff we learn to classify people: civilian, combatant, enemy, ally, informer, defector. Based on that, we decide our next steps. But I have no understanding of the Augur. I don’t know his motivations, his desires. The only thing I have is my instinct, which tells me that in this matter, at least, Cain wasn’t lying. Whether his prediction is true or not, he trusts that it is. And since my gut tells me to trust him, albeit grudgingly, there’s only one decision that makes sense.

      My eyes never leaving Cain’s, I drop to my knees, draw my sword, and run the blade across my palm. My blood falls to the dais in a rapid drip.

      ‘I, Elias Veturius, swear, by blood and by bone …’

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       Laia

      The Commandant of Blackcliff Military Academy.

      My curiosity for the spy mission withers. The Empire trains the Masks at Blackcliff – Masks like the one who murdered my family and stole my brother. The school sprawls atop Serra’s eastern cliffs like a colossal vulture, a jumble of austere buildings enclosed by a black granite wall. No one knows what happens behind that wall, how the Masks train, how many there are, how they are chosen. Every year, a new class of Masks leaves Blackcliff, young, savage, and deadly. For a Scholar – especially a girl – Blackcliff is the most dangerous place in the city.

      Mazen goes on. ‘She lost her personal slave—’

      ‘The girl threw herself off the cliffs a week ago,’ Keenan retorts, defying Mazen’s glare. ‘She’s the third slave to die in the Commandant’s service this year.’

      ‘Quiet,’ Mazen says. ‘I won’t lie to you, Laia. The woman’s unpleasant—’

      ‘She’s insane,’ Keenan says. ‘They call her the Bitch of Blackcliff. You won’t survive the Commandant. The mission will fail.’

      Mazen’s fist comes down on the table. Keenan doesn’t flinch.

      ‘If you can’t keep your mouth shut,’ the Resistance leader growls, ‘then leave.’

      Tariq’s jaw drops as he looks between the two men. Sana, meanwhile, watches Keenan with a thoughtful expression. Others in the cavern stare too, and I get the feeling that Keenan and Mazen don’t disagree very often. Keenan scrapes his chair back and leaves the table, disappearing into the muttering crowd behind Mazen.

      ‘You’re perfect for the job, Laia,’ Mazen says. ‘You have all the skills the Commandant would expect from a house slave. She’ll assume you’re illiterate. And we have the means to get you in.’

      ‘What happens if I’m caught?’

      ‘You’re dead.’ Mazen looks me straight in the eye, and I feel a bitter appreciation for his honesty. ‘Every spy we’ve sent to Blackcliff has been discovered and killed. This isn’t a mission for the fainthearted.’

      I almost want to laugh. He couldn’t have picked a worse person for it. ‘You’re not doing a very good job selling it.’

      ‘I don’t have to sell it,’ Mazen says. ‘We can find your brother and break him out. You can be our eyes and ears in Blackcliff. A simple exchange.’

      ‘You trust me to do this?’ I ask. ‘You hardly know me.’

      ‘I knew your parents. That’s enough for me.’

      ‘Mazen.’ Tariq speaks up. ‘She’s just a girl. Surely we don’t need to—’

      ‘She invoked Izzat,’ Mazen says. ‘But Izzat means more than freedom. It means more than honour. It means courage. It means proving yourself.’

      ‘He’s right,’ I say. If the Resistance is going to help me, I can’t have the fighters thinking I’m weak. A glimmer of red catches my eye, and I look across the cavern to where Keenan leans against a bunk watching me, his hair like fire in