Riwenne left a note asking one of the enemy warriors to meet with her and discuss a compromise. When Fairuza shows up, will she be able to convince her not to destroy the city?
Fairuza Returns Alone
This time, I expected Fairuza to be waiting for us, so I wasn’t surprised to see her leaning against the door of our airship again. But I was relieved to see that she was alone.
I put my hand up to warn my friends before they called for the guards. “Don’t worry. I asked her to come here.”
Fairuza looked down at her nails with a bored expression. “Yes, but I’m not going to wait long, so you’d better talk fast.”
Kyra had been there with me when I left the note for Fairuza, but she still scowled at the sight of the other girl. “Be careful,” she warned me in a low tone.
I nodded and kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t worry, I can handle her.”
Then I gestured to a nearby tent, set up from yesterday. “Do you want to speak privately?”
Fairuza straightened up with a knowing smile. “That sounds like a great idea,” she said, winking at me. Her hips swayed slightly as she walked over, emphasizing her legs in the tight pants she wore. “But you know, I’m willing to let your girlfriend watch, if she wants.”
I touched Kyra’s arm lightly to reassure her again. She put her nose up in the air and turned away. It was progress if she could ignore Fairuza’s taunts.
My other friends cast a wary glance at me as I followed Fairuza into the tent, but it was too late to explain myself now. I tried to give them a confident smile before I joined our enemy.
Inside the tent, there were rows of tall mirrors filling the space. We still had to arrange them properly according to Illari’s diagrams in order to create the maze, but it was still unsettling to see my reflection staring back at me from so many places.
Fairuza stopped with her back to me, facing one mirror, but her eyes met mine in the reflection. “So why do you insist on stopping our work? Are you still too soft to do what needs to be done?”
I shook my head. “If I thought it was the only way, I would kill again, starting with the head priestess. But I’ve been down this path before. I know it’s not going to turn out how you want it.”
She smirked at me. “You mean because of your trial for murder? Somehow, you managed to slip out of that nasty situation.”
I shook my head. “No, I mean that I’ve already seen you destroy this city—and you tried to destroy Olona, and you killed everyone in Haman. I know you don’t think that these people are worth saving, but the consequences are worse than that. The sun goddess will consume every soul and she will grow all the stronger for it. You’re only making the Empire a greater threat to the rest of us.”
She turned and looked at me with narrowed eyes. “You know, I was surprised at first when you showed up here. I thought that the legendary moon goddess’s ability to show the future must be true. But then I realized there was a more mundane explanation. Mano talked to you in Ruraqie—he must have told you what we were planning.”
