Until, suddenly, it isn’t.
We’re looping past a patch of scorched land. The horses keep their distance, but we ride close enough to smell ash in the air. The charred area is vast, a wound on the earth. Stumps of what must have once been buildings poke from the ground like broken teeth. Scarlet flags snap in the wind, stamped in obsidian with the silhouette of a bull skull.
The King’s symbol.
It takes me a few moments to recognize the ruins for what they are. “This… this was a village,” I murmur. I lick my lips, then say louder “What happened?”
“A rebel group was found hiding in the village,” The General answers in a flat, impassionate voice. “It was burned, along with every keeda in it.”
Keeda: worm. It’s an old insult for Paper castes. I’ve heard the word just once before, from a wolf-form demon who had come to our village by accident, half dead and delirious from an infected wound. He’d spat the word like a stone from his mouth, and it had felt sharp to me even then, when I didn’t understand what it meant.
The wolf had refused to let our doctor near him. Some of the men found his body on the road that winds from our village a few days later.
“Are there other places like this?” I ask.
The General cuts me a smirk. “Of course. We’re taking the scenic route. Just for you.”
I turn away from the window, my stomach knotted. Our village is so isolated that I’ve never given much thought to what the King’s rule has done to the rest of Ikhara. To my fellow Paper castes. But here is the evidence before me, in ugly brushstrokes of destruction and scarred earth.
We ride on into the falling night. Somehow, despite everything, tiredness eventually overtakes me. Rocked by the steady sway of the carriage, I drift off into an uneasy sleep. The next thing I know, I am opening my eyes to stillness and lantern-lit dark.
General Yu is gone.
I sit up so quickly I bang my head on the side of the carriage. Rubbing my temple, I perch on the edge of the bench, breathing hard and listening harder. There’s activity outside. Beyond the carriage comes the muffled noise of footsteps and shouted orders, the thud of boxes being dropped. And there’s something else, underneath it all. It takes me a few moments more to recognize the sound for what it is.
Water. The rhythmic slap of waves.
I’ve never been to the sea before. I take a deep inhale and taste salt in the wind.
Salt, sea. With those two words comes another one.
Escape.
Blowing the mussed hair from my eyes, I spring up and scramble to the front of the carriage. Light spills across my face as I loosen one corner of the fabric covering to look out. We’re on a backstreet of what seems to be a seaside town. The road is lined with two-tiered buildings with roof-covered porches, paper lanterns hanging from the eaves. Someone has tethered our horses to a wooden column at the base of one of the houses. With the covering open, the noises of the town are louder, and the hairs on my arms prickle. The General and his soldiers could return any minute.
Before I lose my nerve, I suck in a deep breath and launch out of the carriage.
I land heavily, knees buckling. The drop was bigger than I’d expected. It startles the two horses still tethered to the carriage, and they rear up on their hind legs, whinnying and kicking out. Rolling out from under their hooves, I clamber to my feet.
And run.
The packed earth of the road is hard under my bare soles, but I bite down the discomfort. I run fast. Everything around me is a blur of nighttime hues, the disorienting newness of an unfamiliar place. Colored lights glaze the edges of my vision. Faces turn as I pass—human skin, demon eyes.
A crazy image comes to me of what I must look like to them, my clothes scuffed, feet bare. I let out a mad laugh, knowing what Tien would say—Aiyah, look at you! What a mess!—choking off as I come to the end of the street.
Doubling over, I gulp down air. I spin left. Right. Neither looks much different, so I swerve left, away from the sound of water. Swimming would be impossible, but maybe I can find somewhere to hide in the town, some stable-horse to steal. I can lead the General and his soldiers away from my home. Get word to Baba and Tien. We’ll be able to be together again once this is all over.
The General will give up on me, and it will be safe for me to go home.
I dash down one unfamiliar street after another. There are shouts now, cries at my back. I drive myself faster. Panting, my calves screaming for respite, I reach the end of the street. Just as I turn the corner, I risk a glance over my shoulder.
And barrel straight into someone.
The impact makes my teeth jam down on my tongue. We crash to the ground in a tangle of limbs. All the air rushes out of me as I land painfully on my back. I roll over, groaning. Spitting out a wad of blood, I dig my hands into the earth, trying to push myself to my feet. But before I can stand back up, a scaled arm loops round my neck.
“Stupid girl,” a serpentine voice taunts. “You run on my watch?” The point of a dagger presses against my throat. “I’m going to make you pay for that.”
Sith.
The lizard soldier drags me back down the street, ignoring my screams and thrashing. People are watching from the shadows of porches and walkways. I shout at them for help. But they shrink back, silent. They must have noticed Sith’s uniform, the King’s crest stitched on his shirt.
When we get back to the carriage, Sith tosses me inside. I skid across the paneled floor. There’s the click of clawed feet as he climbs in after me, and I start to push myself to my knees, but a second later his foot crushes down on the small of my back. My jawbone cracks on the floor. I cry out, more in surprise than pain, and he digs his heels in harder, grinding my hips against the wood.
He leans over me. Turning his ugly, scaled face to the side, he fixes me with a cold stare. His glassy eyes are reptilian, a vertical strip of black slicing through the blue-gray. There’s a streak of pink as his tongue darts out to taste my skin.
He spits. “Disgusting. The stink of the herb shop is all over you.” His leer rolls down my body, slow, creeping. “Perhaps you need a good licking to clean it off.”
Panic flares inside me like a firecracker: bright and burning, a sudden flare.
“You—you wouldn’t,” I stammer. “I’m a Paper Girl—”
“So you’ll admit it now?” Sith laughs, cutting me off. “Well, you know exactly what is expected of you, then. Better start practicing.”
He runs a hand along my shoulder and tugs my shirt back. Rough fingers brush down my arm, sending a wave of nausea into my throat. I squirm away, buck my hips, trying to throw him off. But my struggling barely moves him.
So I scream.
Sith clamps a hand over my mouth. “Quiet!” he hisses. “Not a sound, or—”
“Get off her.”
The command is delivered quietly yet firm as a fist. At once, Sith lurches off me. General Yu stands framed in the doorway, one hand resting on the hilt of the sword at his belt.
Sith points at me. “The girl tried to escape, General,” he starts, and I’m glad to see a tremor in his outstretched finger. “She’s fast, but I caught her and brought her straight back. I was just—just keeping her here until your return.”
“Liar!” I snarl.