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After all, what was it Drake had said?

The Queen wouldn’t make an exchange for just a nobody.

I follow Vikemy back into our village and over to Temple. The whole way there I’m wondering if there’s anything I can do to get myself out of this situation. But I can’t go up against the watchers and their training, their rifles. Putting one step in front of the other is the safest thing I can do, not just for me, but for Eric and Old Mother. It’s them I’m always thinking about, above all.

He pushes open the arched door of the tall stone building, which leads out onto a dim hallway with a spiral staircase. It ends in the centre of a large room decorated with well-crafted, ornately carved furniture. I see items I’ve never seen in Hevalla before – a writing desk, chaise lounge and a radio resembling a pipe organ like those we had in the Palace, large and complex enough to be free-standing. The woven rug on the floor must be Rhavnan, and a long window of Lorallahan glass looks out onto the village. I can just about pick out the slanted wooden roofs of mine and Cosmer’s houses.

“Help yourself to fruit,” Vikemy says as he swipes something small from a wooden bowl on a small table.

“Is that an orange?”

“Ah, yes,” he says, as he collapses into the chaise lounge. “I forget you must have seen these before. My visitors normally haven’t. I have lemons too, if you’d like lemonade?”

I hesitate. Truth be told, I want it all.

But if there ever came a day when I would willingly take something Vikemy offered me, I’d need shooting.

“I didn’t think you’d brought me here for oranges and lemonade.”

“No, I didn’t,” he says, peeling the orange with his sharp nails.

“So? Aren’t you going to interrogate me? Torture me?”

“Do I need to do that? Aren’t we all adults here?” He tears a slice and plops it into his mouth. “You could simply tell me what you know. And I will listen. And then decide what the best course of action for you should be.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“Admit you know the whereabouts of the enemy soldier.”

“But I don’t.” I’m not lying. I’m talking about right now. Drake could have moved on. Or help could have arrived.

Vikemy tuts. “Don’t lie. It doesn’t suit you.”

“You lie to people every Sermon.”

“When have I lied, Ara?”

“About the Queen. About how she starves her country, while she lives in excess, safe under the dome. How she uses her blood magic to control and deceive her people.”

“It is the truth.”

Rage inflates my chest.

“She might retaliate. Have you thought about that? She’ll be furious after what happened today. What if she breaks the Sky Treaty?”

He shakes his head, dismissively. “It would risk mutual destruction.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the threat of mutual destruction only work if those in power care?”

“Enough politics.” He fires, his face reddening. “Explain how you helped the Rhavnan soldier get away.”

I keep my mouth shut.

It’s the wrong thing to do. I hear the two watchers step forwards.

Vikemy sighs. “I can see you plan to continue withholding information. Choices are so easy, when consequences are not a consideration, aren’t they?”

Before I realise what’s happening, the watchers grab me. A sharp sting goes through my neck. Someone is yelling – I realise it’s me. Time is stuttering. I see things in fragments.