Piper tried to focus her thoughts as she was marched through the city, but her head felt as if it were stuffed full of cotton. The manacles weighed heavily on her wrists, and she felt strange wearing them. She suspected they were doing something to her mana, which she didn’t like one bit.

  The first thing the nuns had done was separate the three of them on the march. They’d taken Selene to the front of the column, while Ophelia had disappeared to the rear. As for Piper, they’d placed her in the middle with red-robed women on all sides. She didn’t know whether they thought she was the biggest threat or if her placement was just a coincidence.

  “Why are we being detained—” A blow to the back of her head cut off her words and made her stumble to her knees. A searing pain erupted from her mouth, and she tasted coppery blood. The blow had made her bite her tongue.

  “Silence,” a woman grated. “Not another word out of you, heretic.”

  Hands grabbed Piper’s arms and roughly heaved her back to her feet. The world spun as black dots danced in her vision. She tried to take a step before almost collapsing again.

  “Leave her alone!” Ophelia shouted from somewhere behind Piper. This was followed by a yelp of pain.

  Piper felt anger flood her veins, and she elbowed the closest nun before kicking out at another woman. She felt something crunch under her kick and was rewarded with a cry of pain.

  Then a mailed fist crashed into her face. The world blinked out for a second, being replaced by moving shadows. When the world lightened again, Piper felt herself being dragged along the street.

  Glancing up groggily, she saw that two nuns had looped their arms through hers on either side. They were pulling her along, with her feet dragging behind her on the muddy street.

  I just cleaned my boots, she thought, in a daze. And they’re getting all muddy again.

  Piper knew that should be the last of her worries. But between the strong wine and getting hit on the head, she wasn’t thinking straight. Right now, she needed to concentrate on finding a way out of their current situation.

  For now, she’d just have to let the events play out. Until she knew more about what the nuns wanted, there wasn’t anything she could do. Hopefully, once they arrived at the citadel, she would learn more.

  She noted one of the nuns half-carrying one of her sisters, who was limping. She felt a surge of guilt as she looked down at the woman’s crooked leg. When Ophelia had cried out, she hadn’t thought and simply reacted. In the process, she’d probably broken the woman’s leg and made their predicament even worse.

  Of all the days to start drinking wine, this had probably been the worst one she could have picked. She needed her wits to survive whatever was going on.

  I’m never drinking again.

  Piper remained silent as they approached the city walls. But instead of heading toward the main gate, they traveled along the shore of the river until they reached a small postern gate in the wall.

  One of the nuns opened it and then gestured for the others to enter. Inside was a simple guardroom, with a table in the center and several armored men sitting around it. None of them looked up as the nuns entered. In fact, it seemed as though they were pretending the nuns didn’t exist.

  Piper was dragged across the room and then through another door onto the street beyond. Unlike the outer city, the roads here were paved with cobblestones. And no trace of waste or refuse was visible.

  Piper sniffed gently, shocked at how good it smelled in the inner city. Before she could linger on her thoughts, the nuns continued their march, heading in the direction of a castle positioned on a rocky outcropping in the center of the town.

  They passed multi-story apartment buildings, carefully landscaped parks, and manors surrounded by tall walls. The buildings had all been constructed of a smooth white stone she’d never seen before.

  Finally, after another quarter of an hour had passed, they arrived at their destination. Piper had been right—they’d been heading toward the castle on the hill. From above them, a woman in red robes peered over the battlements. A moment later, the portcullis clanked up into the wall. Then the heavy iron-bound doors swung open.

  The column of nuns continued into a courtyard before veering off to the side. As they reached a staircase, Piper was unceremoniously dumped on the floor, barely catching herself in time.

  “Get moving,” a woman with a wrinkled face and grey hair pulled back into a severe bun said. “I’m not carrying you down the stairs.”

  Rising to her feet, Piper tottered forward. Between her aching tongue and throbbing head, she desperately wanted to use [Demonic Blood] to heal herself. But she also knew that would be a very bad idea in here.

  Another prod of the spear tip made her stumble forward, and she slowly descended a narrow set of stairs. Iron sconces on the wall held smooth, glowing orbs that lit their way. She kept moving, heading ever deeper into the bowels of the castle.

  They arrived at a door, and the lead nun pounded on it before a peephole slid open. From within, dark eyes regarded them before the door swung open. They continued past a pair of nuns into a dank hallway, with doors set in the stone wall every few paces.

  When Piper reached another door halfway down the hallway, a nun stepped forward and swung it open. Then, the robed woman shoved Piper inside. She nearly stumbled before catching herself.

  They threw Selene into the room next, before slamming the door shut. A clicking sound announced that they were locked inside.

  Piper rushed to the door and banged on it. Her manacles clanked against the wood. “Where’s Ophelia?” she shouted. “What have you done with my friend?”

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  But no one answered her shouts. She decided to try another tack. “Ophelia!” she called out. “Can you hear me?”

  “Keep it down.” Selene hissed. “Do you want to get us killed?”

  “They have my friend out there.”

  “Do you have any idea where we are?”

  Piper shook her head.

  “This is the Dawn Citadel,” Selene whispered, looking pale. “Almost no one comes back from here. This is where they take heretics to disappear.”

  “That’s crazy,” Piper said. “What about a trial? Can they just make us disappear?”

  Selene nodded. “They can do whatever they want.” She walked over to the corner and slumped down. She rested her head on her knees, looking dejected. “We’re dead. We’re both dead...”

  Piper walked over to her friend and gently patted her on the shoulder. “My dad always said to focus on the positive. I’m sure we’ll find a way out of here.”

  Selene raised her head enough to look at Piper with one eye. “Was your dad ever locked in the dungeon of a Dawn Citadel?”

  “Well, no…”

  “Then I doubt he’d find anything positive about our current situation.”

  Piper withdrew her hand from Selene’s shoulder, unsure of how to console her friend. Instead, she decided to examine their cell. The room had filthy straw scattered on the floor, a chamber pot in the corner, and thick stone walls. The only opening was the narrow window near the top of the door, with bars across it.

  Walking over to the opening, she tugged on the metal bars. Nothing happened. She braced her feet and used all her strength to pull on the bars. The door creaked alarmingly, and she felt the metal buckle slightly.

  Piper hurriedly released her grip. The last thing she wanted to do was get them in trouble for an attempted jailbreak. But she felt fairly certain she was strong enough to break them out if their situation became dire enough.

  Once again, she’d been underestimated. Instead of putting her in a cell meant for someone who had a high level, she’d been put in a basic one most likely built for a peasant. That might work to her advantage.

  Returning to Selene, she squatted in front of the raven-haired woman. “What should we do? I don’t know anything about the Dawnward Host. Should we try to escape?”

  Selene scrubbed her face. “I wish I hadn’t drunk so much wine. I can’t think straight. Ugh…. This is terrible!”

  Piper’s own thoughts had cleared on the walk to the citadel. But that was probably because of her relatively high Vitality. The others would take much longer to sober up.

  “What should we do?” Piper repeated, more urgently.

  Selene shrugged hopelessly. “We just have to hope that an inquisitor takes mercy on us. It happens now and then.”

  “What if we escape?”

  Selene chuckled. “Oh sure. We’ll just fight our way through a fortress of warrior nuns. Unless you have a demon in your back pocket, I doubt we’re going to get very far.”

  The mention of ‘demon’ made Piper's heart skip a beat. But she quickly realized it had been nothing more than hyperbole. For a second, she feared the woman had suspected her true nature. And she wasn’t ready to reveal that yet.

  Before she could continue, she heard the sound of a key turning in the lock. The door swung open, revealing a nun standing in the doorway.

  The woman stood slightly taller than Piper, and short curly hair framed her angular face. Her dark eyes shone in the dim light as they scanned the room. She wore the red robes that seemed universal in her order, but unlike the others, hers had intricate golden stitching forming patterns on the fabric.

  Entering the room, the woman closed the door gently behind her. “My name is Elissa, and I will be conducting your interrogation today.”

  Piper stepped forward. “What happened to my friend?”

  “I know nothing of a friend. My fellow sisters only apprehended the two of you.”

  Biting her lip, she decided to not push the matter. If Ophelia had somehow managed to escape, she didn’t want to draw the inquisitor’s attention. Then again, if they had done something to her friend and were attempting to hide it, she was going to tear this place down to the foundation.

  “Now, if you would be so kind as to cease talking, I wish to ask you a few questions. Know that if you have nothing to hide, you are in no danger.”

  Piper closed her mouth and crossed her arms. While Selene feared this place, maybe it wasn’t as bad as she thought. So far, the inquisitor had been pretty easy to deal with.

  Elissa removed a piece of parchment from a pouch on her belt. She took her time unrolling it, the vellum crackling softly. “My records indicate that both of you took part in a quest to eradicate a den of ratfolk. Is that correct?”

  Selene stumbled to her feet. “We did, Inquisitor.”

  The nun looked at them with cold eyes. “Which of you used infernal magic during the battle? If you tell the truth, the Undying Emperor may grant you mercy.”

  “Infernal magic?” Selene looked confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Please do not lie to me,” Elissa said cooly. “Our augur confirmed that a powerful infernal spell was used at that very location.”

  “I didn’t see any infernal magic,” Piper said. “Just lots of rat people.”

  “Ratfolk,” Elissa corrected her. “Did your parents provide you with such a poor education that you don’t know the name of a race of monsters threatening the empire?”

  “Sorry, I meant ratfolk,” Piper corrected herself.

  Elissa unrolled the parchment further. “Another powerful infernal spell was used during the quest to push back the undead attempting to gain a foothold near the city.”

  Selene stepped forward and held out her manacled hands. “We didn’t use any infernal magic. We almost died there.”

  “The keyword is almost,” Elissa said flatly. “The odds of a group of aspirants surviving against such a powerful foe are almost zero. A necromancer and a bone monarch? Even a high-level member of my own host would struggle against opponents such as those.”

  “A bone monarch?” Selene looked over at Piper. “There was no bone monarch…”

  “Do not lie to me,” Elissa snapped. “The augurs confirmed its presence mere moments before you were detained.”

  “I didn’t see a bone monarch,” Piper lied, keenly remembering the crowned skeleton. “There was only a necromancer.”

  “We were both unconscious,” Selene added. “The necromancer cast a spell that knocked out our entire party. Why don’t you ask Lukas? He’s the one who saved us.”

  “Lukas?” Elissa hurriedly searched her pouch. Her hand emerged with another roll of parchment. Opening it, she hurriedly scanned the contents as her eyes grew wide. “The same Lukas who was the sole survivor from the expedition to the Black Pyramid?”

  Selene shrugged her shoulders. “If so, he never mentioned anything like that to me. But we ran into him near the ratfolk den as well. Which I thought was pretty weird.”

  Piper tried to hide her shock at Selene’s words. Lukas hadn’t been there with them at the den. In fact, he’d been imprisoned by Demetrio’s brothers during that time. Why was she lying?

  Elissa leaned forward, her eyes sparkling. “Did you perchance see what he was doing there?”

  Selene shook her head. “I remember him casting a spell at a tree to try to scare the ratfolk. That probably doesn’t help much, though.”

  “This information helps me more than you may think,” Elissa replied. “Do you know where Lukas is staying?”

  Piper felt a cold dread seep up her limbs. She suddenly understood the reason for Selene’s lies—the young woman was implicating Lukas as an infernal caster. And Piper was powerless to stop her. If she contradicted anything her new friend was saying, the suspicion would just shift back to them.

  “He took a room at the Dancing Gnome Inn,” Selene said. “The innkeeper will know which one.”

  “I apologize for detaining you,” Elissa said curtly. “Normally, I would provide recompense for inconveniencing you. However, you injured one of my sisters during your detention. If I were you, I would thank the Undying Emperor that I am granting you mercy after such a grievous transgression. And the only reason I’m doing so is because you have provided valuable information on a potential heretic.”

  “That’s it?” Piper asked, with hope blossoming in her chest. “We’re free to go?”

  “Yes,” Elissa said. “All you must do is present yourself to the augur before leaving. Once she confirms you aren’t a heretical caster, you are free to leave.”

  The burgeoning hope shattered in Piper’s chest. The second she was brought before the augur, the truth would come out. She would be exposed in a fortress full of armed women trained to hunt down infernal casters. If that happened, she didn’t like her chances one bit.