Brightly Woven

be ranked and join the Guard?”
    I shook my head. “You were only a little boy when you finished your schooling!”
    North made a face. “I wasn’t a little boy.”
    “You were fourteen. She should have supported you, not disowned you!”
    I sat back on my heels, studying his face. He wasn’t angry anymore, but there was an unmistakable look of grief about him. Resignation, too.
    “I didn’t want that life,” he said. “I didn’t want any of this. I hate this city so much . Everyone here looks at me and thinks that I’m some sort of pathetic degenerate, that I can’t hear them when they talk about how I’ll never be my father, not now, not ever. Can you imagine someone with this curse becoming the most powerful wizard? Everyone respected him, everyone mourned his death. I promised him that I would look after her when he was gone, but she won’t listen. She can barely even look at me.”
    I rested my hands against his knees, looking up at him. “Then let’s leave,” I said. “I’ll protect Cliffton any way that I can.”
    “We can’t,” he said tiredly. “You heard what she said.”
    “Since when does Wayland North give up?” I asked, grabbing his hands. “There must be a way.”
    North shook his head. “Syd, I’ve been in jail before for disobeying her, and it’s not something I ever want you to have to imagine, let alone see.”
    Dread was twisting my insides, wringing them out until there was nothing left but fear.
    “You’ll be safe,” he said. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
    “I don’t care what happens to me,” I cried. “I’m worried about you!”
    North shook his head again. “Listen to me,” he said. “We’ll both be all right.”
    “What about the war—?”
    “I won’t stop trying,” he said. “I won’t ever stop.”
    He ran his fingers along the bracelet he had given me.
    “Are you ready?” I asked.
    He nodded, his face turned toward the long shadows of the castle.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

    B y the time we finally passed through the castle gate, the throngs of people gathered in the courtyard were overwhelming. North took my hand after a moment, when it became clear he might lose me in the crowd. We were heading toward the castle’s enormous marble entrance when North caught sight of a familiar face.
    “Owain!” he called.
    “Made it out of there alive, eh?”
    Some heads turned, and several voices leapt to greet him at once. North’s face brightened when he realized he was among friends.
    “Why is everyone out here?” I asked, standing on my toes.
    “The queen went down to address the wizards on the banks,” Owain said. “It’s her first state outing now that themourning period for the king’s death is over. People are curious to see her.”
    Another wizard took North’s arm. “All that rot aside, tell me straight, North—is what Owain told us true? A wizard poisoned the king?”
    “Yes,” North said, and a few of the other wizards began to groan and mutter. “Not that it matters. I tried to give the information to Oliver and the Sorceress Imperial, and they practically threw it back in my face.”
    “What in the seven hells for?” the other wizard demanded.
    “They’ve wanted to fight the war all along, to grab power from the queen,” North said, crossing his arms over his chest.
    “I don’t know who’s worse,” someone else said. “Our leaders or Auster’s.”
    “The Sorceress Imperial is taking advantage of the situation,” said North. “Of the queen and all of the Salvalites.”
    “I was wondering if it was just a coincidence that they want to invade this year,” the first wizard said.
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    “This is the year the worshippers of Salvala believe the goddess will return,” North explained. “I’ve read their scripture and so has Hecate. When they ‘align the tribes to destroy the heathens,’ they’re supposed to be granted a ‘great weapon’ to take the world back from Astraea. That’s what Auster is counting on in this dispute: help from its goddess.”
    I turned toward him, surprised and curious. “Does it really say that?”
    Why does it always have to come to this? I wondered. Time and time again the differences between the sister goddesses had been fought in wars, most of them unnecessary. Would the goddesses themselves have wanted that, and would they have kept up their rivalry if they had known how long its consequences would last?
    North opened his mouth, only to be