Vespir listened to the tolling bells and knew. One look at Lucian, seated on his cot with his head in his hand, was all the confirmation she needed.

“All hail the empress, Hyperia Sarkona?”

“I should have known,” Lucian replied.

“Wonder if she was the real winner.” Ajax, seated against the bars nearest Vespir, wiped his eyes. Clever boy.

“Someone should be down soon enough to kill us all.” Lucian stared at the floor. “Traditionally, we go first. Then the dragons.”

Yes. Karina would die howling for Vespir to save her. Hot, furious tears blurred her vision.

“Then we’ll fight.” She clenched her fists. “When they open the cell doors, we’ll charge.”

“Lucian? You up for a fight?” Ajax muttered.

The Sabel boy cursed, stood, and retook his customary position of looking at Emilia. He called the girl’s name again before resting his forehead against the bars.

Ajax shrugged. “Guess that means no.”

There would be a way. Vespir tried to think of places to kick a soldier: the groin, the instep. Could she break a nose if she had to? She’d never trained in fighting, but her arms were wiry from years of lifting hay and tack and wrestling hatchlings. Plus, she’d fought alongside her siblings in a thousand village skirmishes with other children. She knew how to bite an ear and pull hair with the best of them.

“We need a plan.” Vespir licked her lips as she glanced at the closed iron door that led to the twisting staircase. Soon she’d hear the thud of boots. “Ajax, what do we do?”

“Pick a lock, if possible.” He started jiggling his door, trying to snake his arm through the bars. “Maybe if—”

Vespir’s ears exploded with a ringing scream. No, more than a scream. It sounded like the simultaneous shattering of thousands of panes of glass. Vespir slammed her shoulder against the bars, deafened by that thunderous crashing.

Tears streamed down her cheeks.

“What is happening?” she felt herself shout; she couldn’t hear her own voice. Dimly, she saw that Ajax’s mouth was open in a silent scream as well. Across from them, Lucian had taken a knee.

And then…

The shattering stopped. Through the ringing in her ears, Vespir made out a voice, one she had never heard before and yet knew so well.

“Vespir? Vespir!”

She gripped the sides of her head, but nothing would get that voice out. Not that she wanted it out. The more the strange, familiar woman called for her, the more Vespir thrilled.

“Who’s there? Where are you?” she called.

“You hear it, too?” Ajax shook his head. “That man?”

“It’s a woman, though.”

“I hear a woman, too. Calling my name,” Lucian rasped. He slapped his face a few times, as if to make sure he was really awake.

Vespir gripped the bars as she climbed to her feet. Then her hands slid down the iron as it became slippery. Freezing cold, to boot.

Vespir gasped as the bars of her cell transformed from iron to ice, the metal freezing in the span of heartbeats. Vespir backed up and watched the others’ bars transform as well. Ajax leapt away with a shout, and Lucian cautiously pressed his palm against the bar. Then, decisive, he stepped back and kicked clear through the lock, the ice shattering into chunks. Vespir stared as he fashioned a door. Standing outside, he looked to Emilia’s cage.

It alone remained ironbound. Cursing, he started pulling at the gate as Vespir, and then Ajax, followed his lead and kicked their way to freedom. Vespir stumbled out of her cage to stare at the now-dripping prison cell. How? Impossible.

“Vespir,” the woman pleaded. Vespir clutched her head again. Maybe this was how they died. Perhaps the priests were already killing them by driving them mad. But no, she was free. That was no trick.

“Emilia!” Lucian continued to shake the bars.

“We need to get out of here, man.” Ajax grabbed the Sabel boy’s arm, but Lucian shook him off.

“You know what they’ll do to her,” he rasped. He tried yanking the very gate out of the wall.

The bars transformed, changing from iron to sand. Lucian tumbled to the floor. Blinking, he crawled back and watched alongside Vespir and Ajax as the chains that bound Emilia, the helmet on her head, all melted from steel into mounds of fine sand.

Emilia shook her head free as she sat up. Iridescent grains still clung to her purple velvet dress. She spat and rubbed her eyes. Cursing, Lucian stepped into the cell and helped her to her feet.

“Emilia? Did you…?”

The Aurun girl ran fingers through her tangle of hair and grinned. Vespir had never seen such a radiant smile in her life.

“I’m. Free.” Emilia laughed.

Then she coughed up blood. It bubbled onto her lips, dripped down her chin. Ajax grunted in horror as Emilia turned around to take care of herself, Lucian gripping her shoulders.

“Are you all right?” he cried.

“Fine. Fine. I think it’s too much power right now.” She turned, having wiped the blood away. Her face appeared pale, though her eyes were fever-bright.

“What’s going on?” Vespir croaked. Emilia told them in a soft, hurried voice what she had seen in her black prison. The Great Dragon, or at least she thought it might have been, and the secret history he’d shown her. The dragons’ bondage, and chaos’s binding. How Emilia had severed the chain and freed the dragons and chaos.

Freed the dragons?

“You mean the voice I hear in my head…Is that Karina?” Vespir’s heart jackrabbited. Was it insane to be so violently excited while the world fell apart around them? Karina. She had to find her dragon.

If she could speak to her beautiful girl for five minutes…

“We need to get out of here.” Lucian supported Emilia, her arm around his shoulders; she still appeared glassy-eyed, her body as weak as her power was strong. “If the four of us can get away, we can come up with a plan to expose the priests.”

“I like the getting-away-from-here part.” Ajax bolted for the stairs. Vespir and the others followed, taking the steps two at a time where they could. Soon. Soon. If the palace were in shambles because of the sudden chaos, maybe they could slip away to the aerie. Perhaps, even though she was spitting blood, Emilia could be useful if they ran into an enemy.

And above all, Vespir was as excited as a child at the midwinter festival at the prospect of seeing Karina, hearing that velvety voice in a real conversation.

They ran up the winding stone steps and emerged into the palace corridors. No one was around. They took off, all four together. The main entrance hall was to their right, the door beyond. They broke into a run, rounded the corner.

They skidded to a sharp halt.

Forty feet ahead of them, Hyperia waited with a legion of imperial guards before the door. The Volscia girl wore a black gown, a collar of scales, and a crown of teeth. Blood decorated her front, much as when Vespir had first met her. Though this blood looked fresh.

The priests were nowhere to be seen.

Vespir turned to run, but another squadron of guards blocked her escape route. Swords drawn, they awaited Hyperia’s signal.

“Shit,” Lucian growled. He hugged Emilia tighter. “Hyperia. We just want to leave.”

“To spread word of Camilla and Petros’s treachery? No need. I’ve taken care of them myself,” she replied coolly, unsheathing her sword. Vespir’s legs felt rubbery.

“Then we’re done. We all agreed not to kill one another,” Lucian said.

“That was before I understood the terms of our agreement.” Hyperia’s eyes flashed. “I can’t allow a chaotic to live. Besides, to make my ascension honorable, I must kill all of you by my own hand.”

“Honorable?” Vespir choked.

Hyperia’s chin tightened. “You’re all a threat to my legitimacy. Especially that.” She pointed at Emilia, who wobbled on her feet like a newborn foal. Lucian tried to snatch her back, but Emilia put him off.

“We’ve been lied to our entire lives,” Emilia said. “There’s so much we still don’t know. Didn’t you hear that noise, Hyperia? Don’t you hear your own dragon’s voice?”

Hyperia’s calm mask slipped.

“That’s Aufidius?”

“When they locked away chaos, the orderlies and Emperor Antoninus suppressed the dragons’ ability to speak and think. Aufidius is free now. Can’t you hear him?”

“I can. Do you know what he’s saying?” Wild light kindled in her gaze. “A single word: kill.”

Of course. Vespir shuddered.

“I won’t listen to more of your heresies.” Hyperia settled into fighting stance. Behind her, the imperial guard waited like a sea of black. “Come forward, and die.”