by Nick Martell
“Michael!” Kai said. “We need to leave!”
We did. On our way out of the Isle, we walked in silence and took as many alleyways as possible to avoid the crowds. As the others crossed the bridge to western Hollow, I paused to look back. There was still a big crowd outside the courthouse struggling to get away, Advocators forcing everyone into single file to check for guns before they could.
I don’t know why that bothered me so much. But it did.
We kept looking back toward the Isle, expecting the crowds to catch up to us, but they never did. By the time we reached my house in the Narrows, it was clear that Scales wouldn’t let the riots spread beyond the Isle. It was a relief for all of us.
Gwen’s hand was shaking as she put it on the doorknob. “They should have killed her.”
None of us said anything.
“Does that make me a bad person?” she asked. “That I wish they had killed her, even if two of them found her innocent? My father had less evidence against him than she did, so I don’t get why she gets to live when he didn’t. Her head should be rolling down those steps.”
High Noble Margaux ran her fingers down her arm. “Gwen, we should go inside. It’ll be easier to talk in there.”
“No,” she said, taking her hand off the doorknob. “I’m not going to stand by and let the Emperor get away with mass murder. I’m going to deal with her myself. As I should have with the Corrupt Prince last night.”
“That’s murder, Gwen,” Kai declared. “And watch your tongue. It’s treason to threaten the prince, no matter if everyone agrees with you.”
“So?”
“So they’d execute you for touching either of them! I doubt you’ll get off because of her Sacrifice brand—not after they recognized her as a citizen of Hollow by putting her on trial.”
“I don’t care,” she seethed. “If she’s dead, then I can stop her from killing others and using my father’s name as a rallying cry for rebellion. I’m already marked as a traitor, so who cares about my life if I can save—”
High Noble Margaux slapped Gwen, silencing her mid-sentence. Gwen was so shocked at the slap, she didn’t even move her hand to the red mark that was beginning to appear on her cheek.
“Your life,” she began, voice rising, “is important. All our lives are important—from the guards in my keep to the dye pit workers on the East Side. Don’t throw it away just because you’re angry at some bitch in red and grey. What would your father think of that? If you want to stop her, change the country. Ensure that we never see another rebellion like this again. If you’re angry with the Corrupt Prince, aid the princess so he never sees the throne. You are a Kingman, and sacrificing your life would be pointless and cowardly. Do you understand me? Or should I explain it again?”
No one responded at first, all three of us glancing at each other instead.
“Do you understand me?” she repeated, staring at Gwen.
Gwen nodded, the anger that had its hold on her long gone.
“Say it.”
“I understand. I won’t throw my life away trying to get revenge against the Emperor or the Corrupt Prince.”
“Good. Now let’s go inside, get a drink, and…” She trailed off, noticing a letter stuck between the door and the frame. She pulled it out, saw my name, and then handed it to me, wordlessly.
It was written in a scratchy short script I wasn’t familiar with. I opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. In black ink it read:
I have your friend.
Don’t miss our appointment tonight or he’ll get a bullet in the back of his head before I throw him in the river.
I didn’t hear myself scream, but, judging from how everyone reacted, it was clear I had.
My friends and sister were at my side in an instant, asking me what had happened and what was wrong. I couldn’t speak. I pulled at my hair hard enough to rip some out. Dark had Sirash. There was no one else it could be. Dark had found Sirash and taken him hostage. This was my nightmare.
High Noble Margaux grabbed me and forced me to look her in the eyes. “Michael, what happened?”
I slammed the note against her chest and walked away. I couldn’t breathe as she read it aloud. It felt so hot out here.
“Michael, who is that note from? Who do they have?” Kai asked.
“It’s from a Mercenary,” I said, my breath ragged. “He hired Sirash and me to steal some documents. There was an ambush and I escaped with them, and he’s been hounding me for them ever since. I was going to return them last night, but… Naomi and everything with the prince happened and he accepted a deal with a Raven and… and… and he has my friend.”
It was High Noble Margaux’s turn to scream. “Michael! You stole from a Mercenary? What did you think was going to happen? Are you insane?”
“As unlikely as it sounds, it was an accident.”
“How?” she questioned.
“Who does he have?” my sister said.
“Sirash.”
“Shit. Are Arjay and Jean safe?”
“Not really.”
“Wait,” High Noble Margaux said. “This Mercenary is holding one of your friends hostage?”
Another nod. “He must’ve taken him after Domet had him released from jail.”
“Jail? Why was he in jail?”
“Domet? What does he have to do with this?”
Everyone was asking their questions at the same time. My head was pounding. I couldn’t focus and held up a hand for them all to stop.
“I made a deal with Domet to free him. It was one of the conditions of me participating in the Endless Waltz.”
“Domet wanted you to participate in the Endless Waltz?” Kai said.
High Noble Margaux was shaking her head. “Michael, we can’t help you unless you tell us everything.”
I steadied my breath and looked at them. She was right. It was like they were participating in the Endless Waltz without understanding who belonged to the Royal Family. It wasn’t fair to expect them to know or understand everything when they were playing at a disadvantage. If I wanted their help, they needed to know everything. Maybe if I had trusted any of them earlier, one of them could have helped before it reached this point.
I did the only thing I could do. I told them the truth about everything.
I didn’t skip a single detail.
I began at the beginning, as all stories should, with how I had met Domet and the deal we had formed out of a mutual interest instead of a friendship. From there I went on to detail how I had met Dark and accidentally stolen his documents, and lost Sirash in the process. After that it was Naomi and how she had begun to blackmail me during the Endless Waltz to suit her own agenda. With an idea of what I had been dealing with during the Endless Waltz, I explained all the minor interactions I had dealt with that they might not have been aware of. I spoke without pause and told them everything. Even how I had watched Trey’s brother die in front of me and how I had given Dark’s name as the culprit who had burned down the shrine.
The only things I withheld were the burning of the shrine and Domet’s immortality. Both were my burdens to bear, not theirs, and, given how much I had to share, it wasn’t hard to omit those details. They bought it. Maybe they suspected I was hiding something, but none of them questioned my story. There was too much else to focus on instead.
They sat in silence afterward. The only sound around us was the flickering of the fire burning in the lights and a gentle wind whistling through the spaces between the buildings.
Gwen spoke first. “Michael, that’s… a lot.”
I kicked at the ground, wondering if they saw me differently. I wasn’t a traitor before I had told them the story, but I might be one now, considering I had wanted to steal from the king and help Domet prove my father had been framed for the murder of Davey Hollow.
“Is that everything?” Kai asked.
I nodded. “That’s everything.”
There was more silence. I couldn’t keep still,
kicking at the ground and pacing back and forth. I wanted someone to say something. Anything.
“None of that explains why the Mercenary went after Sirash if you two were supposed to meet tonight,” Gwen said.
“Maybe Dark knows Domet believes he burned down the shrine?” Kai asked. “This could be his revenge.”
I shook my head. “Domet wouldn’t have acted that quickly.”
“What else could it be?”
“I don’t know,” my sister said, “but it doesn’t make sense. Domet’s too calculating to rush something. He wouldn’t have—”
“The ring.”
We all turned to High Noble Margaux. It was the first time she had spoken since hearing my story.
“The ring you said was in the envelope? It’s about that. Someone else must want it; that’s why Dark is so determined to get it tonight. Whoever else is after it must have figured out he doesn’t have it.”
“What’re you talking about?” Kai asked. “It’s a ring. Why would a Mercenary care about a ring more than dozens of incriminating documents?”
“Most of them were about my family, too,” I added.
“How do you hide something you don’t want people to find? Put it in plain sight. What’s better to hide something in than a bunch of documents about the traitorous Kingman family?”
It couldn’t have been that simple. She had to be wrong.
“Think about it,” High Noble Margaux continued. “You said something was off about him after he found out who you really were the night you met. He was probably running through the variables of bringing a Kingman to an exchange of documents about the Kingman family. He killed the person who knew the contents but let the one who saw a Kingman and Mercenary together live.
“Anyone who investigated the contents would assume you were the one looking for information about Davey Hollow’s murder and that you hired the Mercenary to facilitate the deal. They’d have to investigate you. The king might even order them to devote an entire division of Scales to it… but no one would think twice about the Mercenary who was there that night. Even if they were initially there for him, you’d become the focus and he’d get away with his ring. Unnoticed.”
“He couldn’t have planned for that,” Kai said.
“He didn’t. He got lucky and stumbled upon Michael, then took advantage of it.”
“You think he did all of that for a ring?”
High Noble Margaux nodded. “Unless he’s secretly a member of your family, I doubt anyone else would kill for a page of the investigation into Davey Hollow’s murder or for a handwritten account of the Day of Crowning. Do you have the ring with you, Michael?”
I reached into my pocket, took the ring from the envelope, and handed it to her.
She held it up to the light and gasped as the light passed straight through it. All the colors in the rainbow radiated from it. “You are so dense, Michael. Do you realize what this is?”
It was a glass ring. What was important about that? I asked as much.
“A glass ring is popular as an engagement ring in the Warring States and on the Gold Coast,” she said. “It’s been gaining some traction in the Hollow Court, though most still use the memory tattoo. How did you miss this inscription around the inside? Did you even look at it, Michael?”
“What does it say?” I asked.
“To the light of my life, forever will I be yours.”
“So this ring is his?”
“No,” she said. “Women wear glass rings. I’d wager this is for someone he loves. That’s why he did so much to get it—and why he’s still after you.”
“But you suggested someone else might be after it, too. Who else would want it?”
“Maybe it was his mother’s ring,” High Noble Margaux offered. “I don’t know.”
Suddenly I saw Dark’s comment about his father in a different light. If it was his mother’s ring, and his father wanted it back, it would explain why he had been so cautious about retrieving it at first, and how determined he was now that so much time had passed. I wondered how powerful his father must be to make a Mercenary nervous.
Whether High Noble Margaux was right or not, I still had to bring Sirash home. No Mercenary was getting in my way.
I had tried to play according to everyone else’s rules and failed.
Now everyone was going to play by mine.
“I need to get to Kingman Keep before Lights Out.”
“Well,” Gwen said, rising to her feet and clapping her hands, “we’d better be off, then. Who knows what has happened on the Isle since we left.”
“Scales has probably blocked the bridges off,” Kai said.
High Noble Margaux gave the ring back to me. “We’ll find a way. But, more importantly, we have the upper hand now,” she said. “We know what he really wants.”
I felt the weight of the glass ring in my palm, amazed at how much effort Dark had gone through for something so small. “You don’t have to come with me. This isn’t your problem.”
Kai laughed at me. “You can’t use your Fabrications reliably and you’ll need all of us if it gets ugly. Especially if he can use two types of Fabrications. Anyway, I gave up my eyes to save a friend once; I’m not scared to help save someone else. I know the risks of using Fabrications better than most.”
“And stop being so dramatic,” my sister said with a wide smile. “Sirash is family, and family is there for family.”
Maybe my burdens weren’t mine to carry alone.
It was time to bring Sirash home.
YEARNING
I clung to the edges of the rowboat, splinters digging into my hands as we floated down the gentle river toward Kingman Keep.
This wasn’t my idea, but we had exhausted every other option. The bridge to the Isle was blocked off by Advocators, we didn’t have the time to walk around to the other one, and neither High Noble Margaux nor Kai could use their status to help—they’d risk being escorted home for their own safety. So we had traded a dimmer four bottles of wine from our house for his rotting old boat, some rope, and a lantern. It was the only viable way to get to Kingman Keep in time. It helped that it would give us an element of surprise, as Dark would expect me to come through the servants’ entrance. Coming by boat, we would be able to enter through the waterway, creep up through the basement, and catch him off guard. That was our plan, at least.
Hopefully I wouldn’t drown before we got there.
I had almost drowned too many times recently for my own liking.
As I clung to the sides, my friends navigated down the river without light, the mist enveloping us. High Noble Margaux was working the rudder while Gwen rowed. Kai was sitting across from me, holding the unlit lantern close to his chest, breathing steadily. It was cold and dark out on the water, and none of us were really dressed for it, but we weren’t willing to risk using the light in case we were seen. We went slowly, navigating carefully. So long as we didn’t go too far and hit the rocks, we would be fine.
Hopefully.
As we neared Kingman Keep, it struck me how much more intimidating it was from the water than from the land. From here it looked like a decrepit pillar of stone extending far into the sky, the top hidden by the mist and clouds. Even the Moon’s Tears did little to soften its appearance. High Noble Margaux turned to me. “Michael, Gwen, do either of you remember where the water entrance is?”
I pointed to the bend in the river, upstream from pointed rocks that could shred flesh from bone faster than a butcher. “Stay by the bank close to the Isle. It’s just past the bend.” I took the rope in my hands. “Once I get this around the post, we’ll be fine.”
No one responded. They were all concentrating. If I didn’t get this right… well, we would all be taking a dip in the water tonight.
Hopefully they were better swimmers than me and Gwen.
I was hoping for a lot of things tonight.
That probably wasn’t a good sign of my chances.
The water crashed
against the rocks ahead of us as High Noble Margaux and Gwen maneuvered the boat to the edge of the river, struggling against the increasing current. Kai held the other end of the rope, fumbling and cursing as he tied it to the boat. Moments after it was tethered, it rocked violently. Gwen and High Noble Margaux cursed and adjusted as Kai and I grabbed the sides for support. The current was getting stronger, propelling us faster as more and more water splashed over the sides. Kai bailed the boat out with his hands as I went to the side, waiting for us to turn the corner toward the water entrance.
That’s when the waves hit the boat full on the side and I went over. It felt like a gunshot when my face hit. Water went up my nose and down my throat and burned like coals and I gripped the rope for dear life and sank back into the darkness of the water. I kicked for the surface as shadows nipped at my ankles, trying to force me down, and felt a pocket of warmth spread from the center of my chest and down to my legs. Someone was pulling on the rope as I struggled upward until my head broke the surface. Such a bittersweet breath came when it did. Right before my shoulder slammed hard against the boat, sharp pain tingling through it.
“We’re going to hit the rocks!” High Noble Margaux shouted as she steered the boat to the left. “Throw the rope!”
My head bobbed up and down in the current. I couldn’t get an accurate throw from the water. I had to try something else. As I wrapped the rope around my wrist and hand, I grabbed the side of the boat and then pushed myself off it toward the entrance. I went under again, but this time I didn’t feel cold or scared, the pleasant warmth on my body giving me courage despite the current dragging the boat—and me—further down the river. I couldn’t see anything underwater, in the dark, but I felt it when my back hit the dock and I grabbed the edge of it and pulled myself up. I was just in time: the rope went taut, yanking me back toward the boat. Pain ran through my tongue as I bit down on it, planted my feet on the dock, and pulled, head down and screaming. The rope burned my hands as the current tried to pull it away.
I looked up, expecting to see the boat. Instead, High Noble Margaux broke the surface of the water and climbed onto the dock moments later. She helped me pull Gwen and Kai out of the water. When they were on the dock, I let the rope go and it flew out of my hands, leaving a bright red, snaking burn behind.