One more match. One final match standing between her and Kovine. After that ... Minerva hobbled to the chair Tobias had been sitting on. After that, she might need a couple days to let her body recover. She didn't want to linger and let her wheels sink into the mud, but the trip across the desert wouldn't be easy when traveling alone.

Even with the delays added between matches to give the fighters a moment to breathe and collect themselves, there wouldn't be time for a nap. Minerva needed to be awake and have all her faculties razor sharp. Still she yawned, eyelids feeling like lead weights.

Stretching her aching muscles, Minerva pushed back the chair and walked toward the gates. She needed to work through some forms to keep her body warm and limber. Where had Pyra gone? Maybe to relay the message about Azuki.

She didn't realize anyone was around until a hand clapped over her mouth and she was pulled into the shadowy corner near the stairs.

"It's me," Kaolin whispered in Minerva's ear.

Relaxing, Minerva moved Kaolin's hand. "You're lucky I didn't have a dagger on me. What are you doing here? How are you here?"

"I have my ways. The wardens are much more interested in keeping people in than out, believe it or not." Kaolin caught Minerva's hand in hers and dragged her down the stairs. She summoned a ball of flame to her hand. "I can tell you're happy to see me, despite all your grumping."

Minerva winced as her tender feet hit the stone steps, too tired to disagree. "I'd be happier if you told me why you needed to jump scare me. Also, didn't I dismiss you?"

"Politics, my dear. And dismissing me was the worst mistake of your life." When they reached the basement, Kaolin guided her behind the screens to their immediate right. Being a spy lent her more caution than the average person as if she knew how easy it could be for stray words to reach hidden ears. "Circumstances have reached boiling point and I'm not about to let you become a frog floating dead in the water."

"Kaolin." Minerva pulled her hand back and looked at her former maidservant with wary eyes. "Who are you really working for? Is it the Twilight Enclave? Dracovan intelligence?"

Kaolin's eyes glowed honey-gold. "Myself." Her head tilted to the side as if she were sighting downrange. "Minerva, very soon it's going to look like I have betrayed you. I'm telling you now because I need you to trust me. If events from here on out are not guided by a wise hand, they're going to erupt. There's no margin for error or mistrust."

Minerva remembered her dream—the dizzying sensation of hanging from a height and the brief seconds that the face had shifted to Kaolin's. "I trust you. Even if it's the death of me."

"It won't be. I promise." Kaolin tapped two fingers to her lips before pressing them against Minerva's collarbone to seal the pledge. She smiled. "We didn't make it out of the Inari-Nakiryu job alive just to die to ... what? A couple angry Empresses? Terrons with brass bones and hearts of stone?"

"Brass knuckles more like." Minerva shuddered. "Terrons fight dirty."

"So do you and you bloody well better fight dirty because everything hinges on this final round." Kaolin took Minerva by the shoulders and shook her. "No matter who you face or how they fight, you need to win. Do whatever it takes."

Minerva dropped her head. She'd been holding back. No matter how much the hollow place itched at her to use its power, she'd resisted. But if the choice lay between the using it or defeat, could she choose to win with her curse? She didn't know the answer. "Do you know who I'll be fighting?"

"Kodak or Tobias."

He hadn't lost. He hadn't gone home yet. Tobias she could beat. She'd watched him, knew all his strengths and weaknesses. But Kodak ...

She sank into a crouch on the floor.

"Hey. You're going to be fine," Kaolin encouraged, kneeling beside her. "I believe in you. If you get pushed into a corner, you can use the hollow place. You won't be at risk since you're not killing anyone."

Fighting didn't make Minerva sick anymore—not like it had in the beginning—but all the nervous energy amassed in the pit of her stomach, churning like a bowl of batter being stirred. "The hollow place isn't infallible, Kaolin," she whispered. "There's a flaw in it."

"What kind of flaw?" Kaolin asked in surprise. At least that meant she'd hidden the weakness well, deep enough that the eye of a spy hadn't found it.

Minerva didn't want to tell Kaolin and expose the chink in her armor. In the moment she hesitated, she lost the opportunity. She heard Kodak's voice as he clambered down the stairs. "She'll be at the gate instead of down here. Always likes to warm up for matches."

Kaolin snuffed her fire and flattened on the ground. "Get down so they won't see your shadow," she whispered.

They? Minerva dropped to the stone. The cold, hard surface pressed against her warm cheek. For a moment she was back in the Rocklands, listening to the earth whisper in her ear as she fell asleep. Then she heard the Hydro King's deep timbre and saw light and shadow dance across the wall.

"You said the first mission failed. Why are you still competing? Do you believe there is hope that you will succeed after all?"

Their heavy tread passed by the screens that concealed Minerva and Kaolin. She closed her eyes, hoping Kodak wouldn't see them.

"I believe I can still succeed, but it won't be in the way you wanted," Kodak answered. "I've had to improvise since your initial assumptions proved false. Her decisions are not driven by politics, not even by her heart. We were betting on a need to rule and conquer that isn't there. Her need is bare survival and in that she and I are the same."

Taras growled and his chilly tone made the hairs on Minerva's neck stand on end. "You're still a dam rebel. I thought you'd learned how to follow orders after being on a ship."

"I have learned," Kodak answered quietly. "I've learned the importance of discipline but also know that there will be other things more important than blind obedience."

"Like what, following your heart?" Taras scoffed. "We've seen where that takes you."

"No, like refusing to kill someone in cold blood."

Minerva let out a small gasp, as if her feet had been dunked in ice water.

"We agreed that would only be a last resort. You say you're not blind, son, but I warned you about developing feelings for this girl. She's not human. You said yourself that the rumors didn't do her justice."

"I know what I said, but listen—"

"No, you listen. Remember what we came here for. The girl is a weapon meant to bring an army to its knees and our enemies intend to use her against us. If they declare war, so be it, but she will either agree to an alliance or we remove her from play. That is your mission. Your loyalty is to the kingdom first. Do you understand?"

Minerva's jaw ached from how hard her teeth pressed together. The warm pressure of Kaolin's hand on hers kept her from doing anything rash but within she was all thunderstorm and silent fury. How could he? Kodak sounded reluctant, but he'd been playing a part all along—played it well even. He rang false. False as an empty promise or a forgotten dream.

Kodak sighed. "I understand." There was a soft thud that sounded like his fist against his chest. All Minerva could hear was a gentle death knell in her ears.

"If you win the champion's crown, there is a chance the Pyros will rethink their madness in breaking the old alliances," Taras said. "As long as you're here, you may as well finish what you've started. Show them that our blood does not spill so easily—that we are a match for even their strongest."

"I will."

"And if she remains intractable, then I trust that you will make the right decision and conceal the truth of the matter from their eyes. Make it look like an ... accident."

"Where is your honor?" Minerva wanted to scream at them. But she couldn't. Hadn't she done the same to her enemies? Silenced them forever to prevent even the chance that they would fight against her in the future? She had no honor either and now she wanted to break the mirror that showed her the truth of her own crime.

"Understood," Kodak said.

Minerva hated him. Yet she couldn't justify her hatred. He did only what she would have done in his place. Kodak was her reflection just as much as he was her polar opposite, as if they were different substances—fire and water—that had been shaped by the same mold.

"They're gone." Kaolin nudged Minerva. "You can get up now. We'll give it a few minutes before we sneak upstairs. We won't run into them on the way to the gate that way."

Minerva sat up slowly. "You knew about their plans and didn't tell me sooner. Was that your betrayal?"

"Maybe." Kaolin placed a hand on Minerva's shoulder. "Knowing their plans earlier would have harmed the course you'll need to take. You can't go south, Kozakura. There will be no refuge for you there. You need to go north but with the awareness that there are snakes even in the land of ice."

Minerva buried her face in her arms. Kaolin was right. If they remembered her, the Terrons would avenge their fallen. Even if they did not, she'd likely be taken captive and chained as a slave before she ever set foot in the Cloudlands. But north ... into the cold and snow where the sun seldom shone ... She shuddered. "Is the north safe for me? Or will they harness my ability and try to use me in the war against my own people?"

"I don't know," Kaolin said. "I hope they'll be content with your neutrality, but it may be a problem you'll have to face when it arises. Maybe if you're cured, you'll even want to fight for them."

Pushing to her feet, Minerva growled, "I am many things, but I'm no traitor." Her head spun. She didn't understand the consequences of the tiny shifts on the board, but Kaolin did. Trust. Kaolin held out the hand to keep her from falling. "What do I need to do to get through this? Tell me."

Kaolin blew her bangs away from her forehead. "Must I always be the brains behind the operation? I don't have anything to tell you except what I've already said. Win. Go for the throat and show no mercy." She took a deep breath. "As an extra incentive though, the Empress is expecting you. If you're not the one who shows up to the champion's bout, well ... let's just say you shouldn't have let the Hydros compete."

Minerva paced in the small screened box. "So what you're saying is my mother will kill the Hydro prince if he beats me. But there's also the chance that he'll carry out his father's orders and kill me in our match?"

"Exactly."

Would Kodak really be capable of murdering her? Minerva didn't want to find out.

"Earlier you were saying the hollow place has a flaw." Kaolin tilted her head to the side. "What is it?"

Minerva summoned a flame to her forefinger and pressed it to the rice paper of the screen. It disintegrated at her touch, a small hole forming in the barrier. For all her supposed strength, it would only take that much force to kill her if the flaw were exploited. Matsudo's term "glass cannon" fit perfectly. She held power, but it only took a stray piece of rock or a slip in her composure for her armor to shatter.

"You already know that the hollow place doesn't make me invincible, right?" Minerva said, staring at the hole in the paper. "If the enemy panics, it's more difficult to sense their intentions. If I'm caught in crossfire and there is no safe action to take, then I can only choose the path of least pain. I can tire. I can be wounded. Eventually, I can be killed.

"The hollow place's failing is that I must be willing to prioritize my own survival above all else. If I dare to hesitate or consider sparing the enemy trying to kill me" —Minerva's hand dropped to her side— "I lose the sense of what they'll do."

Kaolin poked her finger through the tiny hole. "So that's why you looked at people as obstacles to be destroyed. You couldn't afford to see them as anything else."

Minerva nodded. The hollow place hated softness. No matter how she'd tried, she'd never been able to use it against Vren or Kovine. Even after all they'd done, her love for them tainted the resolve the hollow place demanded.

Matsudo's mercy was a far-off thing, a beautiful ideal. Mercy left her without armor and on the wrong end of the blade. The hollow place kept her alive, but it made her a monster to do it.

"This might be a problem, a really convoluted one," Kaolin said. "Will you be able to fight Kodak like this?"

Could she do it? Was she willing to place her life above his? In her mind, it came down to whether he would decide to carry out his mission. She couldn't know or predict that until it happened. By then it might be too late.

"I don't know." Minerva thought she'd broken free, but now she had even more to lose. Defeat Kodak and risk her life or accept the loss and risk his?

Kaolin silently guided her upstairs and cleared the corners ahead of them.

In the few minutes she had until the gates opened, Minerva flowed through her forms. Her bare feet brushed patterns in the sand. The forms didn't change or vary, as if they'd been set into stone rather than soft dirt. Maybe her life and decisions were the same, she could grow and become more skilled, but ultimately the pattern could not change.

After completing the form and weighing the risks, she'd decided on her answer.