Anger flashes through me, which surges even hotter as he shoots an oily, sycophantic grin to Kyor.

‘You look hot, Commander,’ I say, taking a glass and filling it to the brim with the laced water. ‘You should drink. I’d hate for it to appear that you weren’t able to keep up with one of the Rettlings so early in the morning. What was it the prince called it? A warm-up?’

His nostrils twitch, and his sneer exposes the slightest sliver of yellow teeth. I don’t wait to see if he drinks the glass. I can’t. I’m too afraid my expression will give away what I’ve done. So I turn and stride casually back to my normal table. When I finally muster the courage to look back, both Kyor and Holden are gone, and both glasses are empty.

Seconds later, I look up to see Llinos coming down the stairs. She gives me a questioning look, and I nod, implying I got the job done.

‘It was getting weird, just standing at the top of the stairs,’ she explains.

‘Thanks for that. We’ve already got our first victim. Maybe two.’ I wince a little.

Her eyes bug. ‘You have?’ She looks up but frowns when she sees Zara’s group are only now walking down the stairs. ‘Who?’

‘Kyor,’ I say. ‘He grabbed himself a drink after training. Picked the wrong jug.’

Llinos’s mouth forms an ‘O’ of shock. ‘You just poisoned the prince and heir to the throne of Morathka?’

‘I did.’ I try to suppress my slightly hysterical laughter, but it’s impossible, and what leaves my lips is the closest thing to a giggle I’ve ever made. ‘And it gets even better.’

‘How?’ she says. Her look of disbelief borders on comical.

‘The other person? It was Holden.’

Llinos bursts into laughter. When she gets a hold of herself, her face is an expression of pure elation. ‘You know, if I wasn’t spoken for, I’d kiss you right now.’

‘I think that would draw a little unwanted attention. But thanks.’ I grin back, helping myself to a large pastry from the plate in front of me. ‘Now all we have to do is wait.’

After watching Zara and her Rettlings fill and drink their glasses, I go straight to the battle yard. Zelle is already waiting, and judging by the rivulets of sweat rolling down his forehead, Holden isn’t the only person Kyor was sparring with this morning. For now though, he and I are the only people here.

‘Morning, Kultavaris,’ he says as he strides over to me. ‘Sleep well?’

I wonder briefly if that’s a dig at my purported lie-in, but his face is open, genuine. He really does hope I’ve slept well.

‘Not bad, thank you.’

‘Excellent …’ He picks up a sword from the rack beside him. ‘What do you say we have a bit of practice?’

‘Now that you’ve been thoroughly tired out by a proper warrior, you mean?’ I sass. I expect him to laugh, but instead, his cheeks pull in slightly.

‘He’s not had it easy.’ The solemn air has returned to his voice tenfold. ‘The prince. He doesn’t have many good people around him. Never has. And I know that doesn’t excuse what he did to your family. The lie he told.’ Zelle drops his voice low. ‘But whatever the prince said, I fear the outcome would have been the same. Kyor was a boy – a child, as I’ve said before. His word wasn’t the deciding factor in your punishment. The king was. And I think you know that.’

Some part of me did, but right now I can’t verbalise that, can’t speak it aloud and make it real. I’ve clung to my hatred of Kyor for over a decade, and without it I’m not quite sure who I am anymore.

‘He’s been helping you, too. Training you with me. He didn’t have to do that.’

‘Other than your bet, you mean?’ I fire back.

A curl of amusement twists the commander’s lips. ‘Is that what he told you? That we have a bet going?’ He shakes his head. ‘Sorry to disappoint, but as I already told you, he’s helping you purely because he wants to atone.’

I stare at him, eyes wide in disbelief. No bet?

Zelle isn’t done yet. ‘Your father would be so proud of you, Rose.’ His voice is almost a whisper. ‘He was the most formidable fighter I’d ever encountered. Should have had my job – would have if it wasn’t for politics.’

Politics. I scoff at the word. He means how my father was a bastard.

In my shell-shocked silence, Zelle continues, ‘He was one of the best men I knew. Loved with his whole heart. You remind me a lot of him. A lot of your mother, too.’

I don’t know when the tears started falling, but when I lift my fingers to my cheeks, I find them soaked. Hastily I scrub the tears away.

‘That’s enough gassing.’ Zelle pushes back his shoulders with a smile, as though we’ve been happily chatting away about the weather this whole time. He reaches over to the weapons bench, selects a sword, and throws it to me. I catch it without a second’s thought. ‘Let’s put those reflexes to use in a fight.’

An hour later, I’ve had the best spar of my life. That’s not an exaggeration. It’s the first time I can remember being truly pushed to fight, and I’ve actually risen to the challenge. My training with Kyor and Zelle has really started to sharpen me into the fighter I should always have been. Every strike Zelle aimed at me, I blocked. And I even got in a few of my own.

When we stop, we are both dripping in sweat.

‘You’re not the weakest here, Lady Kultavaris,’ he says with an approving nod. ‘Not by a wide margin. Don’t let your lack of magic make you believe otherwise.’

‘Thank you,’ I say, my chest burning with unexpected pride.

Not the weakest. Not by a wide margin.

The way he looks at me … it’s like Zelle actually believes I can survive this. Survive it and maybe even win.

‘Loch also thinks it’s going to be soon,’ Benny says as we sit in the dorm that night. ‘He keeps saying they’re whispering. All whispering.’

‘They are.’ Loch whips his head up from where he was staring blankly at his lap. ‘They think no one can hear them. But I can. I can hear them all.’ He starts to rock.

I open my mouth, ready to ask Loch what exactly he’s heard them saying, but Benny shakes his head. I suspect he’s already tried that.

‘I just hope it’s the one without magic,’ I say instead. ‘I know I’ll stand a chance then.’ I’m determined to build on the confidence my spar with Zelle gave me, even if it’s the conversation beforehand I still can’t stop focusing on.

‘Do you think it will be a group task again?’ Llinos joins in. ‘Most of the trials only have two group tasks, or three at the very most. And normally for at least one of them we’re in pairs.’

‘But that’s only because the numbers are so much lower by the end,’ Jonas interjects. He’s sitting on the end of my bed, which is sweet but also annoying. There are plenty of spare beds in here, and with him on mine, I can’t stretch out fully unless I put my legs on him. And I know exactly what response the others will have to that. ‘I’m sure as long as all of us stay alive, then we’ll all be able to keep helping each other through. And we know for certain that one of us is through to the third trial regardless of how this next one goes.’

He lifts his glass to Benny and tilts it towards him. Since he snapped at him for being in my room, Jonas has been making a concerted effort not to be a dick, but now he’s going too far in the other direction, and if he sucks up to Benny any more he’s going to get some seriously chapped lips.

‘Well, I’m going to head to bed early,’ I say. ‘That fight with Zelle wiped me out. Besides, I want to be up early again tomorrow.’

As I catch Llinos’s eye, simultaneous smirks rise on our faces.

‘Why? What happens tomorrow?’ Jonas questions, his brow furrowing. Unlike Benny and Llin, I’m not sure exactly how Jonas will respond to finding out about my plan for the Rowells. Which is why I haven’t told him.