Page 70 - Fourth Wing

A bird whistles to the left, and I look over the crowd, my heart leaping

because I immediately recognize the tone. Dain.
The call sounds again, and I narrow it down to somewhere near the door

to the rotunda. He’s standing at the top of the wide staircase, and the second

our eyes lock, he motions toward the door with a subtle nod.
“I’ll be—” I start saying to Rhiannon, but she’s already followed my line

of sight.

“I’ll grab your stuff and meet you there. It’s under your bunk, right?” she
asks.

“You don’t mind?”

“Your bunk is next to mine, Violet. It’s not a hassle. Go!” She gives me a
conspiratorial smile and shoulder bumps me.

“Thank you!” I smile quickly, then wade across the crowd until I break
free at the edge. Lucky for me, there aren’t many cadets headed into

commons, which means there aren’t any eyes on me once I slip inside one

of the four giant doors of the rotunda.
My lungs pull in a sharp breath. It looks like the renderings I’ve seen in

the Archives, but there is no drawing, no artistic medium, that can capture
just how overwhelming the space is, how exquisite every detail. The

rotunda might be the most beautiful piece of architecture not only in the

citadel but in all of Basgiath. The room is three stories tall, from its
polished marble floors to the domed glass ceiling that filters in the soft

morning light. To the left are two massive arched doors to the academic

wing, echoed by the same on the right, leading to the dorms, and up a half
dozen steps, there are four doorways in front of me that open into the

gathering hall.

Equally spaced around the rotunda, shimmering in their various colors of
red, green, brown, orange, blue, and black, stand six daunting marble pillars

carved into dragons, as if they’d come crashing down from the ceiling
above. There’s enough room between the snarling mouths at the base of