The kettle began to whistle from the kitchen.
“Why don’t you sit and we can share a pot of tea,” Iris said, striding to shut off the cooker. “And you can tell me what happened while I was gone?”
Sarah nodded, but she went pale, like she was worried about what Iris might think. Iris, honestly, also wasn’t quite sure what she thought. But she was eager to hear what Sarah had to say as she carried over the tea tray, sitting down across from her.
“Erm,” Sarah began, wringing her fingers. “I’m sorry to catch you by surprise like this, Winnow.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Iris rushed to say. “Truly. I’m simply … surprised, but only because my brother has been very guarded and closed off since returning from the war front.”
“I know,” Sarah said with a sigh. “But it all began when I came by one evening to see if he had an update about you. When I knocked on the door, I assumed no one was home, because it seemed very quiet and empty. But then he opened the door and he just seemed … so sad. I realized he had been sitting alone in the dark.”
Iris felt a lump well in her throat. It killed her to imagine Forest like that, and guilt flooded her chest as if she had breathed in water. I shouldn’t have left him, she thought, but then realized if she had stayed home, Hawk Shire would have fallen. She wouldn’t have ever received Roman’s message about the assault, and Keegan and the last of Enva’s forces would have been pulverized.
Quietly, Iris poured the tea. She and Sarah added their cream and honey, and only then did Sarah clear her throat and continue.
“Forest didn’t really want to talk to me. And he said that he didn’t have any word from you yet. I decided I wouldn’t bother your brother again. But then I couldn’t stop thinking about him sitting alone in the dark, knowing he had been to war and back. I … well, I decided to take him dinner the next evening, to see again if he had an update on you. He thought you had set me up to do it, because he said, You can tell Iris I’m fine. But then he invited me inside—I think he felt a bit bad, for being so gruff—and we had dinner together. And I thought, Well, this will be it. But he said I could come by the next evening for an update about you, and that this time he would have dinner. To repay me, of course.”
Sarah glanced up to meet Iris’s gaze, her cheeks rosy.
“And that’s how it began. I find it easy to talk with him. Mainly because he is such a good listener, but he remembers everything I say and no one has ever really done that before.”
Iris couldn’t help but smile. She was about to express how thankful she was for Sarah when gunfire popped in the distance.
“What was that?” she demanded, rising from the table.
“It’s probably just a warning shot,” Sarah said, but her shoulders were hunched close to her ears.
“A warning shot?” Iris echoed, incredulous. “Shot by whom?”
“The Graveyard.”
“And who is that?”
“A guard for the city,” Sarah explained, but her voice was almost a whisper, as if the walls could hear.
“Is this the chancellor’s doing?”
“People say it is, but I honestly think that it’s not. To me? It looks the chancellor is losing control over the city. The Graveyard claims allegiance to no god, and they instated a curfew, without the chancellor’s approval. Only they can roam the streets at night as they hunt for Enva.”
Iris’s mind reeled with this new information. She had no idea something of this caliber had unfolded, and she wondered what else had changed while she had been away. And then it struck her: of course, Chancellor Verlice would keep Enva’s army at bay if the city was truly being commandeered by another militant group. If he had allowed Keegan and the troops to enter, then there would have been armed conflict and potential bloodshed.
“Who are these people?” Iris asked. “And why are they firing warning shots?”
“Not many of us know who they truly are,” Sarah said. “They keep their identities hidden. By day, they could be anyone. But by night, they patrol the streets with masks and rifles, and they fire warning shots when they find someone breaking curfew. They claim their watch is to keep us safe, but I think it’s about power.”
Masks and rifles.
Iris shuddered as those words evoked a memory. The night the girls had broken into the museum, and Iris had been dangling from the rope. Four people with masks had walked beneath her; she had thought another heist was about to unfold. She then remembered all the painted words on buildings—gods belong in their graves—and Iris realized this unrest had been brewing for some time.