The final chime of the evening summons didn't just ring; it tolled like a death knell across the rooftops of the Cinder Hegemony.
At the edge of the market district, Commander Kaelen stood as still as a grave marker. Her hand was white-knuckled on the hilt of his sword. She had watched the sun dip behind the smog-choked horizon, counting every heartbeat, hoping to see the flash of Sakina's silk veil emerging from the gray haze of the East Street.
Finally the heart rendering chime faded but the silence that followed was absolute.
"Commander," one of the guards whispered, his voice trembling. "The time is up. She gave an order. We have to burn the ciphers and leave. If she's been taken, the Hegemony will be at our throats within the hour."
Kaelen looked at the small iron brazier they had kept ready. The papers inside contained the secret codes of the Regency the only things keeping their scattered allies together. To burn them was to admit the government was dead. To stay was to wait for the hangman.
Kaelen looked toward the dark, jagged silhouette of the brick kilns. She thought of Sakina's eyes the way she had commanded them to stand down even when her own pulse was betraying her fear.
"Burn the ciphers," Kaelen said, her voice thick.
The guard dropped a match. The papers flared into a hungry orange flame, turning the secrets of the Queen into worthless ash.
"Now," Kaelen growled, drawing her blade with a sound like ice breaking. "We aren't leaving. We're going to find her."
"But the order…"
"The order was to not look back for her," Kaelen snapped, turning her horse toward the sulfurous smell of the East Street. "But I never was very good at following orders from a woman who intends to die for a ghost. If we are too late, we'll at least bring back enough heads to fill a basket."
The ride into the industrial district was a descent into a nightmare. The ground was slick with soot, and the air tasted of copper and rot. They reached the Black Fountain, its stagnant sludge reflecting the moonlight like a bruised eye.
"Search every alley!" Kaelen commanded. "Look for silk. Look for blood."
They found the first sign of her near the entrance of a slumped building known as the Broken Crane. It wasn't Sakina they found first, but it was the veil that seemed like sakina's. It was snagged on a rusted iron nail near the door, a scrap of fine, light-blue silk that looked horribly out of place against the grime of the kilns.
Kaelen dismounted, picking up the fabric. It was torn. Nearby, the soot on the ground had been disturbed by a heavy struggle. There were deep gouges in the dirt, and a small, dark stain that hadn't yet dried.
Kaelen touched the stain and held it to the light. Blood.
"The door is bolted from the inside!" a guard shouted, kicking at the heavy wood of the tavern.
"Break it down!"
They hit the door together. On the third strike, the wood splintered, and the guards spilled into the amber gloom of the Broken Crane.
The room was empty. A single candle flickered on the bar, casting long, dancing shadows. A glass sat on the counter, half-polished, next to a rag that smelled of filth.
"Clear the rooms!" Kaelen roared.
They tore through the tavern like a whirlwind. They found the back room where the "crying girl" had sat. On the floor lay a small, empty wooden bowl and a dusting of white powder that made Kaelen's eyes sting. She knelt, rubbing the powder between her fingers.
"Sleeping draught," she whispered, her heart sinking. "She didn't stand a chance."
One of the guards moved toward the far corner, near a heavy rug that looked unnaturally bunched up. He kicked it aside, revealing a heavy iron ring set into the floorboards.
"Commander! A cellar!"
Kaelen pushed the guard aside and hauled the hatch open. The smell that wafted up was a mixture of damp earth and the sharp, metallic tang of fresh injury. She didn't wait for a torch and jumped into the darkness, her boots hitting the stone floor with a heavy thud.
At the bottom of the stairs, she froze.
The cellar was empty of life, but not of evidence. A single torch flickered on the wall, illuminating a pair of heavy wire bindings that had been snapped or cut, lying in a pool of blood on the floor. A silk sash Sakina's sash lay discarded in the corner, covered in boot prints.
Kaelen picked up the wire. It was stained red. She could almost feel the way it must have bitten into her wrists.
"They've moved her," a guard said, looking at the dripping water from the ceiling. "We missed them by minutes. The canal..."
Kaelen looked at the back door of the cellar, which led directly out to the ink-black water of the canal. The sound of a distant boat engine groaned through the fog, a low, rhythmic thumping that was fading away.
She realized then the full weight of their failure. The "messenger" wasn't a friend. Every step Sakina had taken had been a cord being pulled tighter around her neck.
"They didn't just want her," Kaelen realized, her voice a low, more of a terrifying hiss. "They wanted her to confirm the Queen is gone. And she gave it to them just by showing up."
She looked at the blood on the floor and was sure by her womanly instincts that it was Sakina's blood. She had walked into the fire to find her Queen, and the fire had finally swallowed her whole.
"I don't know if she is dead or alive but i do know that we might be too late..." then thinking for a while she continued, "to the docks!" her voice breaking the heavy silence of the kilns. "If that boat reaches the Hegemony's main fortress, we've lost the war before the first arrow is even shot!"
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