An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Author:Sabaa Tahir [Tahir, Sabaa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Romance, Historical, Ensalved, TR
ISBN: 9780698176461
Google: bXHoAwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 22529162
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2015-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

But why would she meet a student at midnight? Why not during the day?

She’ll whip you. My fear pleads with me. She’ll take an eye. A hand.

But I’ve been whipped and beaten and strangled, and I’ve survived. I’ve been carved up with a hot knife, and I’ve survived.

Darin didn’t let fear control him. If I want to save him, I can’t let fear control me either.

Knowing my courage will diminish the longer I think about it, I grab the trellis and climb. Keenan’s advice pops into my head. Always have an exit plan.

I grimace. Too late for that now.

Every scrape of my sandals sounds to me like a detonation. A loud creak makes my heart stutter, but after a minute of paralysis, I realize the sound is just the trellis groaning under my weight.

When I reach the top, I still can’t hear the Commandant. The windowsill is a foot to my left. Three feet below the sill, a section of stone has crumbled, AnEmberintheAshes_INT.indd 222

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leaving a small foothold. I take a breath, grab the sill, and swing from the trellis to the window. My feet scrape against the sheer wall for a terrifying moment before I find the foothold.

Don’t collapse, I beg the stone beneath my feet. Don’t break.

My chest wound has opened again, and I try to ignore the blood dripping down my front. My head is even with the Commandant’s window. If she leans out, I’m dead.

Forget that, Darin tells me. Listen. The clipped tones of the Commandant’s voice float through the window, and I lean forward.

“—be arriving with his entire retinue, my Lord Nightbringer. Everyone—

his councilors, the Blood Shrike, the Black Guard—as well as most of Gens Taia.” The subdued nature of the Commandant’s voice is a revelation.

“Make sure of it, Keris. Taius must arrive after the Third Trial, or our plan is for naught.”

At the sound of the second voice, I gasp and nearly fall. The voice is deep and soft, not a sound so much as a feeling. It is storm and wind and leaves twisting in the night. It is roots sucking deep at the earth, and the pale, sight-less creatures that live below the ground. But there’s something wrong with this voice, something diseased at its core.

Though I’ve never heard the voice before, I find myself trembling, tempted for a second to drop to the ground just to get away from it.

Laia. I hear Darin. Be brave.

I risk a peek through the curtains and catch a glimpse of a figure standing in the corner of the room, swathed in darkness. He looks to be nothing more than a medium-sized man in a cloak. But I know in my bones that this is no normal man. Shadows pool near his feet, writhing, as if trying to get the AnEmberintheAshes_INT.indd 223

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figure’s attention. Ghuls. When the thing turns toward the Commandant, I flinch, for the darkness beneath his hood has no place in the human world.

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