Vespir sat beneath a pear tree, clenching and unclenching her jaw. How long until the priests would fix whatever had gone wrong with the test? How long until they would know who had won? If she had to wait much longer, she might go screaming mad. Ajax sat to the right of her. For nearly an hour, they’d been stewing together.

“Think they’re gonna get it set up again soon?” Ajax muttered. His outstretched leg jiggled rapidly. Ahead of them, the two priests circled the stone doorway. Camilla would walk through it and Petros would follow, clearly arguing with each other. Camilla began flapping her arms out of sheer frustration, like a great gaudy bird.

“I don’t know.” That had been her constant refrain to Ajax’s questions. Vespir regarded the other three competitors, clustered together out in the sun. Emilia sat by the edge of the pond, hair shielding her face as she trailed fingers through the water. Lucian stood beside her, hands on his hips, the pose of some heroic statue—he often unconsciously did that. Hyperia had seemed oddly disturbed since they all were thrown out of the gateway. At first, she’d sat away from the others, rubbing her arms as if cold. Now she seemed to have returned to herself and spoke to Lucian while casting glances at Vespir and Ajax. Her attention set Vespir’s teeth on edge.

“Here.” Ajax flung something up into the branches, and an instant later a pear with a knife’s handle sticking out of it plopped beside Vespir’s hand. It smelled divine.

“Thanks.” Vespir took a bite, the flavor exploding in her mouth. She wiped her chin, passed the fruit to Ajax.

“Uh, I thought you were gonna cut a piece, but sure. I’ll eat your spit,” he said. Vespir chewed as she leaned her head against the trunk and closed her eyes. Why had the doorway broken? And…had she passed the test? Vespir tried to recall everything she’d seen.

“What did you see in there?” she asked.

“Isn’t that supposed to be private?”

“I don’t see why we can’t talk to each other about it. Besides, I thought you didn’t care about rules.”

“Yeah, but in a smolderingly appealing way, not a stupid way.” Scuffing his shoe along the ground, he said, “I don’t think I passed.”

“Why do you say that?”

“A feeling. Am I not allowed to have feelings anymore?”

“Well, you don’t need to take my head off,” she said.

“Trust me, if I win no one’s getting their head cut off. I’ll be generous. For the execution, I got the idea of this amazing twelve-tiered cake that you guys had to keep eating until you died. At least you’d go out with a smile. And cake.”

“Anything else?”

“It’d be chocolate.”

“No.” Vespir sighed. “During the test. Anything like…images?”

Silence. The wind rocked the leaves above them.

“A weird eye? A throne?” he asked softly. Vespir’s breath hitched.

“The city?” she whispered. Ajax shifted.

“Dead.” The word dropped heavy on the ground between them. Neither wanted to pick it up. “All of us, too. Dead.” His voice cracked. Vespir’s throat constricted. She’d been hoping that the competitors’ dead bodies was a nightmare vision all her own.

“I wonder if the others…” Her words trailed away as the three strode toward them. Even after the Race and their talk last night, Vespir still felt the urge to lower her head when the “legitimates” were around.

The five of them knotted together, and Vespir noticed how Hyperia and Lucian instinctively blocked the view of the priests. They were in their own world now, united.

“We wondered if you saw anything odd during the test,” Emilia said.

The whole experience had been odd, but Vespir knew what the girl meant. She didn’t have a chance to open her mouth before Ajax leapt in.

“The flask. The throne. Uh, some weird symbol. The emperor. Some freaky eye. The city.” He swallowed. “Us.” He and Vespir got to their feet. “You too?”

“Perhaps it’s part of the test?” Hyperia said. Her face was ashen. The Volscia girl had spent so much of this Trial separate from them that to have her in their little group was weirdly unsettling.

“Maybe.” Emilia pressed a finger to her lips. “But it happened just before we were thrown outside. Judging by the priests’ behavior, this can’t be normal.”

Vespir peered past Lucian to find Camilla with a hand on the stone lintel, speaking rapidly. Impossible to catch the words, but Petros’s high, furious swear was easy to understand.

“I can’t stop seeing the fire at the end.” Hyperia shuddered. “It felt like I was there.”

“You were there, remember?” Ajax muttered. “You were covered in blood. Though I guess you’re more used to that than the rest of us.”

Hyperia flared her nostrils but did not look at the boy.

“That’s not what I meant.” Hyperia sounded hollow. “I felt like it was about to happen, and I couldn’t stop it.”

Silence. Everyone agreed. Vespir shut her eyes and rode out a wave of nausea.

“So we all see a weird set of images, then the Truth breaks and we’re shoved outside.” Ajax stroked his chin. “Is it, like, a puzzle?”

“It couldn’t be, or the priests would have anticipated it. They’ve conducted an Emperor’s Trial before,” Emilia whispered. Her voice naturally lowered when discussing the priests. “No, whatever transpired in there had to be unusual.”

“Does anyone think they passed the challenge?” Hyperia looked to each of them in turn. Both Ajax and Lucian cast down their eyes.

Vespir had felt sick to see Lord Pentri kneeling, right before those bizarre images appeared. It’d been as unnatural as snowfall in summer. That couldn’t be winning, could it?

“What happens if none of us passed?” Vespir murmured.

“Maybe that’s why the Truth kicked us out?” Lucian guessed, turning to Emilia.

“It’s possible,” she said.

“The lack of an emperor would explain why Dragonspire was destroyed,” Hyperia croaked. “And we all died.”

“Looks like we might get an answer. Their Graces are gracing us with their gracious presences,” Ajax muttered. The five spread apart, opening the group from a tight bud to a bloom. Camilla and Petros wore scowls that could mean nothing good.

“There’s been a problem with the gateway of Truth,” Camilla said gravely.

“Yeah, mine breaks all the time, too,” Ajax said. Vespir elbowed him.

“Unfortunately, no final decision shall be rendered until it returns.”

Hyperia made a noise like she’d been punched. Vespir imagined that the girl was halfway convinced she’d been right. There’d be no ruler, and chaos—and death—would follow. It made Vespir a little sick, too.

Emilia had questions, of course. “Does this gateway communicate with you? Does the Dragon? Are you certain that this test was able to take the measure of each of us? What even is it? Is it a naturally occurring phenomenon or the result of orderly magic? How do we know the gate will return? What are we doing to retrieve it?”

“Allow faith to guide you, my lady,” Petros said, eyes narrowing. “You must trust in us.”

Vespir glanced at Emilia. I don’t think Emilia trusts anybody.

“Uh, while you’re both here, we had some questions.” Ajax jiggled his leg at an incredible speed; clearly he was nervous. “We all saw some things that—”

“No.” Camilla’s voice was like a slammed door. “It is forbidden for us to hear of what you saw.”

“Yeah, but I think you really want to know about this. See—”

“If you attempt to speak of it again, you will be thrown into a cell. Do you understand?” Vespir shrank a bit. She’d never heard the priestess this angry before, and she had certainly seen her mad. Ajax jutted out his chin but said nothing else.

“What should we do while we wait?” Lucian asked, trying to maintain the peace.

“The five of you are confined to the imperial palace, but you may go anywhere you wish.” Camilla settled her shoulders. “When a winner has been selected, you shall be informed.”

“But how—” Emilia began.

Hyperia cut her off. “Thank you, Your Graces.” As the priests walked back to the stone arch, Hyperia shot Emilia a withering look. “They’ll think you’re questioning their authority.”

“Why can’t I?” Emilia frowned.

“Would you like to spend your remaining hours in prison?”

Emilia didn’t reply.

“I don’t trust the priests, anyway,” Vespir said. She sensed Hyperia was about to respond with something scathing. “Not after what they did to me in the Race.”

“Well.” Even Hyperia had nothing to say to that. She sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead. “Is the Truth really that we’re going to die and the city fall?” The girl pinched the bridge of her nose. “My own death doesn’t matter, but I can’t stand by as the capital burns. I can’t.”

“It may not be hopeless.” Emilia edged into the center of the circle. “What if the other images we saw were a way to counteract that fate?”

“What do you mean?” Vespir asked.

“What if the Truth, or whatever it was, wanted to communicate with us? Tell us what could happen if we don’t do something. Maybe the answer is in those images.”

“Okay, I’m lost,” Ajax said.

“Shocking,” Hyperia muttered.

“Think about it like pieces of a puzzle. Like what you said earlier, Ajax,” Emilia continued. “Things have gone wrong from the beginning, haven’t they? The wrong people were called to this Emperor’s Trial. Then in the middle of the Truth challenge, the one that’s supposedly the most important of all, we’re shown a seemingly random set of images and a gruesome outcome. I don’t think this can be a coincidence.”

“Meaning what?” Lucian asked.

“Meaning I think the other images could be a way for…something to communicate with us. To warn us in order to keep that disaster from coming to pass.”

“A warning?” Lucian furrowed his brow. “But from whom?”

“The Dragon Himself?” Hyperia inhaled sharply at the idea.

“Maybe,” Emilia said, though she sounded doubtful. “I don’t know, but I’ve an idea where to start. The first image: the leather vial.” Emilia looked to every one of them in turn. “I’ll show you.” She started to walk away, but no one else followed.

After all, Vespir had no idea if any of this was true. She had no idea if Emilia was right. All she had was the lump in her stomach that told her she would die and the city would burn. Could she really do anything about it?

But what if she could?

“So you want us to freak out over a bunch of weird images, then spend our last few hours solving a puzzle that may not even exist?” Ajax crossed his arms, one hip cocked.

“You have other plans?” Lucian frowned.

“Uh, drink? Order too much food? Get a massage? Live like an emperor?”

“You disgust me,” Hyperia sneered.

“Love and disgust are practically the same emotion, you know.”

“I didn’t realize love also induced vomiting.”

“Frequently.”

Vespir didn’t want to watch this play out to its violent conclusion. She tried to look Emilia in the eye.

“I vote yes,” she said. “I want to know why I’m here, if possible. I don’t see how it can hurt, anyway.” Like Hyperia, seeing her own bloodied corpse had shaken Vespir to the root.

“I’m in,” Lucian said. “It’s damn better than sitting around doing nothing.”

Hyperia swallowed and looked aside. “Do you really think it’s a way to stop that abomination from happening?”

“I can’t be sure. But it might,” Emilia said.

Hyperia nodded.

“Then I have a duty,” she said simply.

“Since it’s no fun being debauched alone, I’ll join you,” Ajax grumbled. “Now. This leather vial thing. You know what it is?”

“Come with me,” Emilia said.