Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 8)

by Shannon Messenger

  The words might as well have been a giant pair of scissors, snipping the threads of excitement that had been stitching Sophie’s newfound hope together.

  She’d been living with the elves for long enough that she’d forgotten how much more humans change than the elves. Everyone in the Lost Cities stayed mostly static once they reached adulthood. An elf looked the same at thirty as they did at one hundred thirty and three hundred thirty and one thousand thirty and on and on and on. The only notable difference would be the points of their ears or how they chose to cut or style their hair.

  Maybe that was even why the London cameras hadn’t found the guy.

  “Don’t look so disheartened,” Mr. Forkle told her. “I should be able to help Mr. Dizznee create some basic algorithms that will allow the cameras to predict the most likely appearance alterations and search for those as well. There will still be a margin for error, of course, but—”

  “You would do that?” Sophie interrupted.

  “Of course! That shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, Miss Foster,” he chided. “I fear you’ve lost sight of who I am. Allowed the fact that I’m unable to share information about your genetic parents to feel like an enormous chasm between us. When the reality is so much simpler. We’re still on the same side. We still share the same goals. Still crave the same answers. So how about we endeavor to focus on those similarities from this point forward?”

  He extended his hand for a handshake, and, after a quick glance at Keefe, Sophie reached out and took it.

  “Excellent,” Mr. Forkle said. “I’ll explain all of this to Mr. Dizznee as soon as he returns from Loamnore this evening, so he can make any necessary preparations before I bring him to my office.”

  “Why is he in Loamnore?” Sophie asked.

  Mr. Forkle released her hand. “That’s classified information.”

  “Right. And I’m the leader of Team Valiant,” Sophie reminded him.

  “You are. But no one else in this room has the necessary clearance. And it’s best if you don’t use your telepathy right now.”

  “It’s best if you don’t do anything right now,” Elwin added, before Sophie could suggest asking everyone to clear the room, “except drink a bottle of Youth, have some broth, and try to sleep. Give us at least the rest of today to get you a little stronger before you start diving into all the stressful conversations. Save the updates and worrying for tomorrow.”

  “Elwin’s right,” Livvy agreed, handing Sophie a bottle of Youth as Edaline conjured up a bowl of pale, purple-toned broth for her to eat. “I know you’re itching to get back to work—and I get it. Believe me. But right now, your focus needs to be on your recovery or you’re going to slow the process down. And the good news is, your friends are brilliant and talented and every bit as determined as you are, so it’s not like you have to worry that nothing’s getting done. They’re out there right now kicking butt and taking names. And you have to be here. So make it worth it. Get as much rest as you can.”

  Sophie sighed and forced herself to take a bite of broth, which was somehow both a little sweet and a little salty. “What is this?”

  “Panakes blossoms steeped with a few herbs Flori recommended,” Edaline explained. “She thinks it’ll speed your healing.”

  Sophie finished the whole bowl, and it eased some of the aching in her limbs, which made her want out of that bed even more.

  “Try to sleep,” Elwin told her, pulling her blankets back into place when she tossed them aside.

  “But I’ve been sleeping for three days!” she reminded him.

  “That wasn’t restful sleep,” Elwin insisted.

  “It must’ve been, because I’m not tired,” Sophie argued.

  “I can fix that,” Flori offered from the doorway. She padded over to the bed, singing a lullaby about windswept branches dancing in perfect harmony to the rhythm of the breeze, and the flowers on Sophie’s canopy filled the air with their sweet, soothing perfume.

  “That’s not fair,” Sophie grumbled through a yawn.

  “Yeah, wow,” Keefe said, rubbing his eyes as he stumbled to his feet. “If I don’t go now, I’m going to be drooling on your desk—unless you need me to stay.”

  Sophie couldn’t tell if he was asking her or her physicians. Either way, she told him, “Go home, Keefe. You’ve been stuck here long enough.”

  He shook his head, studying her with sleepy eyes. “I’m never stuck with you, Foster. Someday I’m going to make you see that.”

  “Sounds like I’d better get Hunkyhair home,” Ro said, striding out of Sophie’s closet in a silky pink gown that somehow looked both right and wrong with her armor strapped on top of it. “I was bored,” Ro added when she noticed the way everyone was staring, like that explained her new fashion choices. “I’ll bring the dress back tomorrow.”

  “Keep it,” Sophie told her. “You… look really good.”

  Ro glanced down, sliding her hands across the shimmering skirt, then rolled her eyes and muttered something about sparkles going to her head.

  * * *

  “You look better,” Biana told Sophie the next morning, glancing at Stina. “Doesn’t she look better?”

  “Does she?” Stina asked, with her trademark brutal honesty. “I mean, she’s not so greasy anymore, but she’s still awfully pale.”

  “It’s fine,” Sophie told Biana, before she could argue. Edaline had brought a mirror over when Sophie insisted on doing the sponge bath herself, so she was very familiar with her pasty skin and shadowed eyes and overall grayish pallor.

  She definitely still had some major recovering to do.

  The good news was, Elwin and Livvy had finally decided Sophie could have some pain medicine, so she could actually move without constantly wanting to say “ow.”

  Keefe had also been sweet enough to stay at the Shores of Solace that morning so she’d be able to have all the “classified” conversations with her team.

  And Mr. Forkle had kept his promise and taken Dex to Watchward Heath. They were supposed to be there all day, since it was a lot of camera feeds for Dex to tweak. But it was progress, and Sophie could at least feel like she’d played some small part in making it happen.

  The news from Loamnore was less encouraging.

  Nubiti had found ten more magsidian stones hidden in the same corridors where the deserters had sabotaged other things before fleeing the city. And while none of the stones had exactly the same facets, they were all a similar size and shape, and their cuts followed a similar pattern—close enough to be clear that the same person or group had made all ten of the new stones, as well as the three they’d found in the Grand Hall.

  And the stones were all hidden in places where magsidian wasn’t supposed to be.

  And all were impossible to remove.

  And no one seemed convinced that the putty Nubiti had covered them with would solve the problem.

  Wylie was still in the dwarven city, working with Nubiti to see if there was a way to determine how the stones responded to light without starting another fire.

  “That’s not the information we need, though,” Sophie realized after Biana finished her update. “The Neverseen aren’t going to attack with light. They’re going to attack with shadows.”

  “You say that like it’s a fact,” Stina noted. “But we don’t actually know if that’s true. The way those stones in the Grand Hall reacted to light couldn’t have been an accident. Someone planned that—lined them up so the beams would ricochet perfectly. So light has to be important too.”

  “I know,” Sophie told her. “But no one’s ever said that magsidian can’t be cut to serve multiple purposes. I think we need to get a Shade down there and see what they can figure out.”

  Stina sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that—so I’m calling ‘not it’ for being the one to convince Lady Zillah to go down there. She’s… intense.”

  “I’m pretty sure it needs to be the Council who talks to her,” Sophie realized, “since
they’ll need to work out the visit with King Enki. But someone needs to tell the Council—and make them understand that even if King Enki doesn’t want to cooperate, we need to know what a Shade can do in Loamnore, both with these stones and on the King’s Path.”

  “I’ll talk to my Councillor contacts,” Biana promised.

  “And I’ll hail Oralie and Bronte a little later,” Sophie decided. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

  Stina and Biana shared a look.

  “More bad news?” Sophie guessed, sitting up a little taller to prepare for it. “Nothing with Linh, right?”

  “No,” Biana promised, glancing at Stina again. “It’s just… Stina and I finally had a chance to meet with Lady Cadence.”

  Sophie stopped breathing. “You asked her?”

  Biana nodded, eyes shifting to her feet.

  Stina stood taller. “She definitely isn’t your biological mother.”

  “She isn’t,” Sophie repeated with the last of the air in her lungs—still not quite ready to breathe again.

  She isn’t.

  She isn’t.

  She isn’t.

  “That’s good news, right?” Stina asked. “You didn’t want her to be your biological mom, did you?”

  “No,” Sophie said, forcing herself to suck in some air—and triggering a whole lot of coughing—which unfortunately made her very aware of all the places she was still very sore from almost dying, even with the pain medicine. So there were several seconds filled with a lot of cough—“ow!”—cough—“ow!” before Sophie managed to grit out, “I’m definitely glad I’m not genetically related to her. But… do I want to know what she said after you asked her? Probably not, huh?”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Biana promised—and the “that” told Sophie everything she needed to know.

  She held up her hands before Biana could continue. “Never mind. Whenever Foxfire’s back in session, I’m going to have to train with her every week, and I’m pretty sure the only way I’m going to be able to do that without dumping curdleroots on her head is if I don’t let you finish that sentence.”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Biana assured her again. “But… yeah, you’re probably right.”

  “She did say one interesting thing, though,” Stina noted. “She said the Black Swan is too smart to have your biological parents’ abilities match yours. It’d be too much of a giveaway—especially since your abilities are so rare. That kinda makes sense, don’t you think? Like how Bronte isn’t your biological father even though he’s the only Inflictor? So I guess when we figure out more names, we should try to pick people who don’t have your abilities.”

  “Great, so basically it could be anybody,” Sophie grumbled.

  “Not true,” Biana argued. “You have a lot of abilities. And it rules out all of those.”

  “Yeah, but there are still way more abilities I don’t have than abilities I do,” Sophie countered, reaching up to rub her temples. “But it’s fine,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as them. “It doesn’t matter right now. We’re pausing the biological parent search.”

  “We are?” Stina asked.

  Sophie nodded, feeling ten pounds lighter for having decided it. “It’s just not the right time. There are too many huge things going on, and I can’t keep letting it be a distraction. We can always pick the search back up once things calm down.”

  “I guess that’s true,” Biana murmured. “But… what about the whole unmatchable thing?”

  Sophie sighed. “I’m just… going to have to deal with it. Fortunately, most people don’t know about that yet, and it won’t really be noticeable until our grade level starts picking up their match lists, which is still a little ways off. Hopefully I’ll have it figured out before then. But… even if not, that doesn’t change the fact that right now, we have to focus on the dwarves, and Keefe’s missing memory, and whatever else the Neverseen are planning. And I need to get out of this stupid bed.”

  She tried to kick off her covers and regretted it when her legs proved to be extra achy.

  “Want us to get Elwin or Livvy or Edaline?” Biana offered.

  “No, it’s fine,” Sophie said, hating the next words she had to say. “I think… I just need to rest for a bit.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Stina agreed. “Seriously, Sophie. There’s nothing wrong with taking the time you need to get better.”

  “Stina’s right,” Biana added, looking less uncomfortable with those words than she used to. “That’s why you have us. Is there anything else you need us to be working on?”

  “I can’t think of anything,” Sophie admitted, even if it felt like there should be dozens and dozens of things.

  Did they really have so few projects and leads?

  She tried to tell herself it didn’t matter—that they were definitely on the right track with the magsidian stones they’d discovered, and that was going to give them a real advantage. But she still wished she could come up with something better to say than, “Just make sure you talk to the Council about getting Lady Zillah to Loamnore. And maybe check on Linh at Choralmere?”

  “On it,” both girls promised, and Sophie had to marvel for a second at how well they were all working together—even if bossing them around still felt really strange.

  Stina leaped away after that to hail one of her assigned Councillors. But Biana lingered, and Sophie suspected Biana had a bigger reason than just helping her adjust her pillow and blankets.

  “You’re sure you don’t want me to keep working on the Biological Parent thing?” Biana eventually asked, tipping her hand. “I swear I can do it without it being a distraction! I mean, I’ve managed to test Bronte and Lady Cadence and keep up with all my other responsibilities.”

  She had—which proved Biana was definitely better at multitasking than Sophie was.

  But that didn’t change Sophie’s mind.

  “I’m sure,” she told Biana. “Things are getting way too real right now. It’s starting to feel like it always feels right before something really big and horrible happens. And if I’m right, I don’t want to have to wonder if we would’ve been better prepared if I hadn’t wasted time on selfish, unimportant stuff.”

  “This isn’t unimportant,” Biana argued.

  “No. But it’s not urgent, either,” Sophie had to remind her. “It can wait.”

  “I guess,” Biana said, and the way she was chewing her lip made Sophie pretty sure that Biana was asking herself the same question she was.

  Would Fitz wait?

  THIRTY

  HEY—YOU’RE UP!” FITZ CALLED across the pastures as he made his way over, and Sophie mentally thanked the universe that she’d decided to brush her hair and change out of her pajamas before she’d headed outside for a little fresh air and some baby alicorn snuggles.

  It wasn’t her first time out of bed since having her abilities reset—she’d managed that the day before. But she’d only been downstairs for a minute when her head got a little too spinny and her legs got a little too wobbly and Sandor had insisted on carrying her back up to her room.

  So making it all the way outside to a nice shady spot under Calla’s Panakes tree felt like a huge victory.

  If only it hadn’t taken her six days to get to that point.

  And if only she hadn’t been sitting on the grass with her forehead pressed against her knees, trying to fight off a dizzy spell when Fitz found her.

  The worry crease between his eyebrows looked especially deep.

  “I’m up!” she emphasized, offering him her best seriously-I’m-fine smile and wishing the flutter in her heart felt a little more like excitement and a little less like nerves.

  After all, her boyfriend was here to visit her.

  And he was very, very cute.

  Fitz’s fitted gray tunic made his shoulders look especially broad, and his dark hair was just the right mix of styled and tousled. And when his gorgeous teal eyes met hers and he flashed his movie-sta
r-worthy grin, her brain definitely turned to melty mush.

  Which was probably why she couldn’t think of something better to say than, “I… didn’t realize you were coming over.”

  “I know, I wanted it to be a surprise.” He sat across from her in the grass, studying her for several endless seconds before his smile faded. “You still look really out of it.”

  Sophie let her hair fall forward, giving her a curtain of blond to hide behind. “Yeah, that’s what Vertina told me too.”

  “Vertina?”

  “She’s this kinda annoying ‘girl’ programmed into Jolie’s old spectral mirror. And she usually tries to get me to do more with my hair, or put on makeup, or wear fancier clothes or whatever. But today she was like, ‘Wow, you look awful—why aren’t you in bed?’ ”

  “Well, I’m kinda with her on the ‘why aren’t you in bed’ thing,” Fitz admitted. “But.” He reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear. “I also think you look really beautiful.”

  And with that, he scored all the boyfriend points ever.

  But Sophie still didn’t know what to do with the compliment—except maybe get choked up. And she really didn’t want to do that again.

  So she leaned back against the tree trunk, giving herself a little breathing room as she responded to the first part of what he’d said. “I couldn’t lie around anymore. I had to move.”

  “Yeah, I remember having that same feeling when we were on bed rest in the Healing Center.” He scooted closer to her side, and Sophie couldn’t help noticing that his recovering leg still moved more stiffly than the other. “I just don’t want you overdoing it and setting yourself back, either,” he added quietly.

  “I’m trying not to,” she promised. “Honestly, the sunshine is helping a lot. And it’s nice to have some distractions.”

  She tilted her chin toward the pasture to their left, where Luna was galloping by with a stalk of swizzlespice sticking out of her mouth and Wynn was racing to catch up with her, probably trying to steal it.