(Daciana POV)
Ashina’s face changed in a way I would have paid blood to see because fear looked honest on her for the first time.
I stood before her in servant brown, with soot on my face, blood on my sleeves, and my mother’s ring hidden against my heart.
Behind me, Rieka moved among the kneeling servants, cutting black feathers from wrists with the small kitchen knife she had hidden in her boot.
Tala had remembered what Lyall had forgotten to say clearly, that blood oaths could be weakened when the oath symbol was destroyed.
Conri had attacked the doors loudly to keep Ashina watching the wrong danger, while I entered through the old serving passage beneath the ovens.
Bardolph wanted to come with me.
I had told him no.
To his credit, he obeyed.
That obedience did not heal us, but
