Page 25 of A Forgery of Fate

There wasn’t time to explain that I needed over double the original amount. “What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me.” Gaari’s nostrils were flared, and his cheek twitched more violently than I’d ever seen it. But my focus was on his eye, ever bright and burning. “Go now, my friend, and—may you have the luck of the dragons.”

That was all the warning I had as I reached the top of the stairs, where Tangyor—ever-helpful Tangyor—pushed me out the window.

Chapter Seven

I fell onto the roof, clay tiles digging into my back as I slid toward the ground. Too late I noticed the rip in my knapsack. Before I could catch it, my scroll tumbled out, rolling down the slope of the roof in the opposite direction.

Panic ratcheted in my chest. But thank Amana, my scroll caught against an eave. It lay ten paces from me, completely unraveled, edges flapping.

“Sons of the Wind,” I cursed. Inch by inch, suddenly mindful of every breeze and draft, I crawled toward my dragon. Its inky eyes watched me, silently judging. I glared back. “You’d better be worth all this trouble. Now, don’t move. Don’t even think about it.”

I was on my knees, not daring to even breathe as I stretched my arm out, reaching with my fingers before the parchment blew away. There! I pinched the corner. I nearly rocked back with relief. But as I raked my dragon toward me, a powerful gust of wind knocked me off balance—and carried my scroll into the sky.

“No!” I shouted as it flew away. “Damn it!”

And that was how the prefects found me.

“Truyan Saigas,” they shouted from below. “You are hereby charged with the criminal offense of reproducing sacred imperial art. Come down at once.”

I wasn’t listening. My eyes were on the scroll. It had shot up high above the trees and was cruising over the festival like a kite. I had to get it back.

“Get down right now!” the head prefect cried. “Or else we shall use forc—”

He didn’t get to finish his threat. I leapt down, tackling him to the ground and cutting him off midsentence. Before his colleagues could grab me, I shot up and ran.

The streets were packed, and I wove through the parades of people beating pots and hand-strung drums. I needed to get lost in the commotion. Needed to blend in.

I fumbled at my sash, quickly draped it over my blue hair. From one of the merchant tents, I lifted a fan and flicked it open, pressing it against my face.

At every corner, children were setting off firecrackers. “Thunderbolts of Saino,” they chanted. “Protect us from evil!”

I whispered a quiet thanks to all the boisterous festivalgoers. Soon I couldn’t even hear the prefects shouting for me. But I knew better than to get smug.

Don’t look back,I told myself.Keep moving.

Nine Hells of Tamra, what godforsaken spirit had possessed my scroll?

At least it was making for the hills, the opposite direction as the prefects. I scrambled after it, almost getting run over by a carriage in my haste. Maybe therewassuch a thing as the luck of the dragons. At the last moment, I vaulted ontothe back step of the carriage, clinging to the gilded ledge as it trundled up.

By now I’d lost my pursuers. Then again, what fool would ride straight toward the Fengming Hills, where the governor himself lived? Here, every house was walled off, each a private compound marked by towering willows, with patrols circling every corner.

Anyone would tell me I was doomed. But I happened to be an optimist.

The carriage trotted up the peak, only a turn away from Oyang Street. The winds were still here, and bless the Sages, my scroll was finally making its descent.

It wended down with the grace of a swan, skimming the tops of the willow trees toward one of the manors.

Fall in a tree,I prayed through clenched teeth.Don’t pass the walls.

As though it heard me, the scroll landed on a thick bough with a gentle sigh.

Yes!I thought, hopping off the carriage onto the road.

I ran as fast as I could, my hair whisking my back as I cut toward the tree. I’d climbed the first branch when the spirits of misfortune decided to possess the scroll one last time. To my horror, it tumbled off the bough and dove past the wall. Straight onto the manor’s property.

I wanted to scream. Honestly, this day couldn’t get any worse.

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