Page 60 of A Tribute of Fire

One was purple, one blue, one yellow, and the other green.

There had to be a reason behind it. What was it?

It felt like the answer was right there, at the edge of my consciousness, but I was too beat up and too exhausted to figure it out.

“What are you staring at?” she asked.

“The edges of the walls. They’ve been painted.” Had they been that way the whole time and I just hadn’t noticed? Too focused on being pursued and not paying enough attention to my surroundings?

“Why?”

It was a good question. Why would someone paint the walls? The colors were faint. Someone not from Troas, like me, would easily overlook them.

Which meant they’d been created for the people of the city.

Then the answer hit me like a bolt of lightning.

Directions.

They were coded directions.

Jason’s voice filled my head:Head to the blue, the blue.The blue must mean the way to the docks, next to the blue ocean.

And purple would lead me to the palace, the color of royalty.

I didn’t know what the yellow meant—the marketplace, full of bread made from wheat, maybe?

But green ... green was the color for the earth goddess. The color of her trees, bushes, and grass.

While Jason couldn’t assist me, he had given me a clue without my even realizing it.

Excitement bubbled up inside me. “The green paint will lead us to the temple!”

“How do you know that?” she asked.

I briefly explained my thought process as we followed the green path. While this would make it easier to reach our destination, I understood that it was also going to put more hunters in our way.

“I’m not sure if I’m right,” I said when I finished, “but it’s better than us wandering around.”

“Agreed,” she said.

The green path led to an opening, and the buildings here were nicer than the first residential area we’d gone through. I saw a mixture of homes and businesses, and we had just stepped onto the street when I heard a sound I recognized.

I wasn’t fast enough this time. I called out a warning, but a bola wrapped around Quynh’s ankles before I could get her out of the way. She went down, face-first. I dropped my sword and raced to help her.

When I rolled her over, I saw that her face was bloody. My heart leapt into my throat, pulsating with terror. I quickly realized that she had only scraped it up and had hit her nose, which was where most of the blood was coming from.

“Behind you!” she called out.

A man had started to thrust down at me with his sword, and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to stop him. I crossed my arms at the wrist, knowing that they would absorb the blow but that I was about to lose one or more limbs and bleed to death. Now I wished I had worn armor.

I braced myself, waiting for the moment his steel sank into my unprotected flesh.

It never came.

A loud whistle was the only warning of the arrow that struck the man full in the chest, knocking him back. I watched in disbelief as the bright yellow feathers at the end of the shaft quivered.

I got to my feet, looking for the shooter while I went for my sword. I had no defense against an arrow attack, other than to keep moving. I turned my gaze in the direction the arrow had come from but didn’t see anyone.

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