Witch's Pyre

by Josephine Angelini

  Carrick couldn’t figure out how she could possibly know about the two Lillians. She would have to have someone confirming Lillian’s presence in Salem after Lily was found at Bower City’s gates. Nobody could get from one end of the continent to the other that fast, and no one could mindspeak that far—not even Lillian. Carrick could sense that Bendingtree was powerful, but she was no Lillian. How was she getting her information? He started listing all the spies he could think of in his head, and stopped. She’d corrected him when he said “spies.”

  “Eyes, not spies,” he muttered. He looked up at her. “What eyes?”

  Grace sighed, disappointed. She was finally realizing that she wasn’t going to get anything out of him, and maybe that she had given more than she’d gotten. She was experienced enough to see that, at least.

  “I really don’t see why you won’t cooperate, Carrick, Son of Anoki. Your witch isn’t going to last much longer.”

  “So sure the sick one’s mine, are you?”

  “The healthy one isn’t desperate enough to claim the likes of you. I’d torture you for more information, but I have the disturbing feeling you’d like that.” She stood, but paused at the door before leaving. “Please. Do enjoy the wine.” Lily flipped her pillow over to the cool side, only to find that it was still warm from when she had flipped it five minutes ago.

  She rolled over in bed, an arm crooked over her eyes. The window was open and a salty breeze stirred the curtains, but the night was still too mild for her. Her overheated brain kept slinking back to Rowan like a kicked dog. Sleep wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. On top of that, she kept thinking she heard steps above her, and she wondered how many floors this villa had. She had thought she was on the top floor.

  You’re thinking too loud, Juliet said in mindspeak.

  Come keep me company, Lily replied, more excited than she should be that her sister had heard her. A minute later Juliet trudged in, sporting a red crease down her left cheek. “You’ve got pillow face,” Lily told her.

  “You’ve got pillow hair,” Juliet said back.

  Lily pushed a hand into the mad tangle on top of her head. “It matches what’s going on under it, I guess.”

  “Man trouble?” Juliet flopped into bed, sprawling out wide so Lily had to move over.

  “Am I being too hard on him?” Lily asked, knowing that Juliet would understand she was talking about Rowan.

  “Yes and no.” Juliet tipped her head from side to side, like her head was a scale for her thoughts. “No, if you consider what he put you through, and, yes, if you consider what he’s been through since. We had each other on the trail. Rowan was alone.”

  “He shared his memories?”

  “Some. Caleb and Tristan insisted.” Juliet pulled a goose feather out of Lily’s duvet. “He didn’t sleep much. Couldn’t. There was no one else to watch for Woven or help fight them off.” She rolled the feather between her fingers. “He went through hell.”

  “Damn it.” Lily let out a gusty sigh. “Did he show you why he left the tribe and followed us?”

  He got into a huge fight with Alaric over the bombs. There’s still two Carrick didn’t get around to dismantling. Juliet looked down at the feather. Alaric’s name was stuck on a loop inside her head.

  “That must have been hard for you to watch. Just seeing Alaric, I mean.”

  “I’ve been thinking. I never should have run away from him,” Juliet whispered. “I should have fought him harder.”

  “You left for me. And his choices aren’t your fault.”

  Juliet looked up. Her big brown eyes were burning. I know that staying here on the other side of the continent looks a lot more attractive when you think about the bombs, but we can’t. We have to go back and stop him.

  Images of the Thirteen Cities flashed through Juliet’s mind. Cities that Lily had never seen. Wondrous places—some built on pontoons floating over water. One was built up among the trees, like an enchanted elfin city. Juliet imagined the trees burning. People screaming. She clutched at Lily’s hand, unable to bear her own thoughts.

  Lillian’s cinder world swam to the front of Lily’s mind, and she had to switch out of mindspeak to shield her sister from seeing it. There was no point in hiding what she was about to say from the Hive anyway.

  “I know. I don’t know how to stop him from here—but I know.” Lily breathed a bitter laugh. “I dragged you all across the country because I had some crazy idea that the solution to the Woven was out west, like west was some miraculous place. I thought I’d find a way for people and Woven to live together so the Outlanders wouldn’t be trapped and there wouldn’t have to be a war.” Lily wanted to kick herself. “Well, people and Woven can live together. This wasn’t what I had in mind, though.”

  “It’s not really living together. It’s more like living under,” Juliet said, shuddering. “And I don’t care if they’re listening.”

  Lily shrugged. “We’re already their prisoners.” For now, she added in mindspeak. Lily almost didn’t ask it, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Nothing in Rowan’s memories about me?”

  “He did it to save you,” Juliet said.

  “Juliet,” Lily said disbelievingly. “He took my willstones and put me in a cage.”

  “Alaric believed you had sided with Lillian. He was going to slit your throat where you stood. Rowan did the only thing he could do to keep you alive without having to slaughter his sachem and his whole tribe to protect you from them.”

  Lily looked away. She thought of Rowan’s expression when he’d taken her willstones. There was no anger. No resentment. He didn’t take her willstones because he was bitter or hateful. It was a calculated action performed without passion, like he was making a choice that had more to do with other people than with himself. If there was any feeling in him that she could detect, it was regret. What he’d done, he’d done for her, and even then he knew that the cost of saving her life would be her love.

  Was she that unforgiving?

  “I didn’t really cry that much after it happened. I was too confused to cry because I knew Rowan would never betray me. Despite what it looked like, I knew there had to be more to it,” Lily admitted.

  “I can replay his memory for you. He showed us. Do you want to see it?” Juliet asked.

  Lily shook her head. “Don’t need to. Don’t want to.” She knew Juliet was telling the truth and that Rowan had probably saved hundreds of lives, including hers, but she still felt the grating edge of resentment inside her. Resentment and something else full of yearning that she couldn’t quite place yet. “The cage isn’t the problem between us anymore.”

  “What is?” Juliet prodded gently.

  “What’s your father like? The James of this world,” Lily asked in response. “What is he like?”

  Juliet smirked. “I barely know him. He wasn’t really interested in us as children, and then Lillian sent him away when he became too interested in what she was doing as an adult. You know, once she was the Salem Witch.”

  “My father was never there,” Lily whispered. Her whole chest felt sore. Juliet waited for Lily to continue, but Lily stayed silent.

  “Are you ever going to forgive Rowan?” Juliet asked.

  “I’m not good at forgiveness.” Lily thought about how she’d refused to forgive Scot. She never really got around to forgiving her father for abandoning her or Tristan for cheating on her, either. And now they were all dead. “I never give anyone a break,” she whispered, repeating Toshi’s words.

  “Is that the person you want to be?” Juliet asked gently.

  “No. But I haven’t figured out how to be anyone else yet.” Lily shook herself. “Enough of this. Are you up? Like up up?” she asked. Juliet nodded. I feel like snooping around, Lily said, switching back to mindspeak. Want to come?

  Juliet grinned. Lily took that as a yes, and the sisters slid out of the room, quiet as moonlight.

  They followed their path from earlier in the evening and found their way
back to one of the places Lily had noticed earlier. Lily and Juliet didn’t dare allow their magelight to get too bright as they ascended a flight of dark steps.

  Juliet asked in mindspeak—Did you hear it, too?

  Footsteps above? Yes. From the veranda it doesn’t look like there’s another floor above us, but there must be, right?

  I thought the same thing, Juliet replied. Go this way, she said when they reached the top of the stairs. Our rooms will be below.

  They went down a long, narrow corridor with no windows. It was stuffy and baked dry from the daytime heat. The walls seemed to stare at them. The corridor ended at a door with a conventional lock.

  There was no ward set to the door—just a simple lock. Lily shrugged at Juliet and easily knocked the tumblers into place with a nudge from one of her willstones. The door clicked open, and Lily peeked her head inside. She let her magelight glow a touch brighter and saw hulking shapes throughout the room. As her eyes adjusted, she could discern dusty crates and furniture covered with sheets.

  Dead end, Lily said in mindspeak.

  Not necessarily, Juliet replied. Let’s go to the back. I think I can see another door.

  They wended their way through the attic, passing crates, coatracks, broken armoires, shoe racks, a telescope, and even an old globe. Lily stopped at the globe and moved the sheet covering it. She noticed that there was no Canada or Mexico—just one big continent with the Thirteen Cities on one side and Bower City on the other. She had no idea how old the globe was, or how long Bower City had existed, but the globe looked like an antique—a hundred years or more.

  They reached the door at the back of the attic and tested it. It was unlocked. Lily pushed the door open and found a room with nothing in it but a stairway set in the middle that led into the ceiling, and another door on the opposite side of the room.

  This room isn’t dusty, Lily noticed.

  It gets used, Juliet replied. She started heading straight to the stairway.

  Wait, Juliet. I want to check the other door first. Lily could feel the pull of magic around it, and as she got closer she realized that it was set with a powerful ward. She stopped, not daring to go any closer to it. This room was hidden on one side by a room full of forgotten objects, and protected on the other by powerful wards. Whatever the stairs led to must be important to merit so much protection.

  Juliet asked—Why set such a strong ward on this door but leave the door we came through unlocked?

  Maybe there was a ward set to it a long time ago, but it dissipated. The way we came looks like it’s been forgotten, Lily replied. Do you want to go up? She could feel Juliet hesitating.

  Lily, I have no magic and I’m Lillian’s claimed, not yours, Juliet said.

  It was strange to think it after everything they’d been through together, but this Juliet wasn’t her actual sister—she was another version of her. No matter how much Lily loved her, this Juliet, and her willstone, belonged to Lillian.

  If something were to go wrong, Juliet continued, I couldn’t be your vessel. Maybe we should go back and wake Rowan.

  His name had just popped into Juliet’s head. She hadn’t intended to name Rowan out of all of Lily’s mechanics, she was just naturally gravitating to the one who could defend them the best. His name shot through Lily like a bolt, like it always did when she wasn’t expecting it.

  Sorry, Juliet said, grimacing.

  It’s okay. And I don’t want to go back, Lily said, her pride making her stubborn. She pushed the trapdoor open and climbed up onto the roof of the villa.

  Lily could see the whole city and beyond. The Governor’s Villa was set on the highest point and they stood at the very top of it. The bright moon allowed Lily to see all the way to the ocean on one side, and over the wall and across the vast field of flowers beyond to a dark smudge on the other horizon.

  Lily. Come and look at this, Juliet said.

  Juliet was standing beside a large, softly glowing structure that dominated the center of the roof. As Lily approached she realized that it was a giant crystal, supported at the bottom by metal struts. The crystal was at least fifteen feet tall and five or six feet wide.

  “What is it?” Lily asked aloud.

  “It’s a speaking stone,” said a low voice behind her. Lily turned and saw Rowan ascending the stairs behind her.

  “How did you—”

  “Know you left?” Rowan finished for her. “I set a ward on our rooms.”

  “How’d you know where I went?”

  “I can always find you,” Rowan answered with a shrug. “Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

  Lily shut her mouth with a snap. He’d found her in the oubliette. He’d found her after the City Guard had raided the subway tunnels. He’d even managed to track her across the continent. Rowan had always found her. She’d think of him, and there he’d be. Lily considered that maybe he could always find her because some part of her was always calling to him.

  “You shouldn’t have come up here without a mechanic. No offense, Juliet, but you can’t defend her.” He was just about to get angry with Lily when he remembered that he didn’t have that right anymore. She noticed that he stopped several feet away from her and didn’t try to initiate mindspeak. This was their new normal. Something in her contracted to know that. She turned back to the speaking stone.

  “What does it do?” she asked.

  “It allows a witch to reach the minds of her claimed over long distances,” he replied. “They’re set up spaced apart every few hundred miles or so, and they work like a relay system. Years ago, the Salem Witch used to embed one of her claimed in the ruling Coven of each of the other Thirteen Cities to keep watch over them, and she’d stay in touch with her claimed through the speaking stones. That way, the Witch could maintain control from Exeter to Savannah without ever having to leave the safety of Salem.”

  “They haven’t been used in years,” Juliet said. “I didn’t even know what they looked like.”

  “There’s still one in Salem,” Rowan said. “On top of the Citadel, over Lillian’s rooms.”

  “Did Lillian ever use it?” Lily asked.

  “I don’t think so,” he replied. “What’s the point? She didn’t have any claimed in the other Covens, where the other speaking stones were set up, and it only works between a witch and her claimed.” He narrowed his eyes. “But why don’t you ask her? You two talk all the time, don’t you?”

  “How did you know—” she began, and hastily cut off. Lily looked down at her hands. “Yes.”

  Something like a smile softened the corners of his mouth. Lily felt her cheeks heating up.

  “Who would she contact?” Juliet asked, still staring at the speaking stone.

  Lily had lost the thread of the conversation. “Who would who contact?”

  “Bower City doesn’t allow witches to claim,” Juliet said, frowning. “I’m assuming this is Grace’s. If she doesn’t have any claimed, how could she use this?”

  Rowan walked around it and ran his finger across the surface. “Someone’s been using it. See the lights inside?”

  Lily looked more closely at its center and saw the roiling play of light and dark that almost looked alive. “Is this a willstone?” Lily asked, incredulous.

  “Same family, different capabilities. Speaking stones are far too large for one mind to bond with, so they can’t be used for all the different kinds of things a willstone can, but what they lack in nuance they make up for in raw power,” Rowan answered.

  Lily stared up at the giant crystal. “Can anyone use it, or does it attune itself to one witch?” she asked aloud.

  “Anyone can use it. But you can only reach your claimed, and another witch could only reach her claimed. It’s not like your telephones, where anyone can call and anyone can answer.”

  “Ah,” Lily said. She was reminded of teaching Rowan how use a telephone back in her world. He’d loved them, like he’d loved computers and most everything else that had to do with science
and technology. He’d loved them because anyone could access them, not just witches and mechanics.

  My world really is magical in its own way, she said to Lillian. Look how large the speaking stone has to be, and still its range is only a few hundred miles. I wonder how many of them are set up and which direction they go? North–south? Or is there a line of them reaching all the way back east?

  “You’re talking to her right now, aren’t you?” Rowan asked. His brow furrowed.

  “She’s not really listening. She’s busy,” Lily replied.

  “Then why are you reaching out to her?”

  “Because I want to,” Lily snapped. She turned to the speaking stone. “Is there any way to find out who is using this and who’s listening?”

  Rowan still looked troubled. “No,” he answered distractedly, and then went back to what was really on his mind. “Lily. Have you told her about this place?”

  “Of course I have,” she said, throwing her hands up.

  “Lily!” Juliet said, shocked.

  “What?” Lily replied, starting to feel sheepish under Juliet’s disapproval. “She’s not against us. Not about this.”

  “Has Lillian told you what she’s going to do about it?” Rowan asked.

  “Not exactly.” Lily looked down at her feet. “She’s been busy, like I said.”

  “Doing what?” Rowan asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Lily shrugged, feeling stupid. She’d been sharing so much with Lillian but she hadn’t bothered to ask what Lillian had been up to in return. Lillian had seemed so busy, and there were times when Lily could feel that she was in pain.

  “Why would you do that? Why would you tell her?” Rowan looked concerned, rather than upset.

  “Because no one else gets it,” Lily said, looking away. “No one else knows what it feels like.”

  “What what feels like?” he persisted.

  A lump formed in her throat, and for the life of her she couldn’t say the words aloud. An image of Tristan running across the burning plain to face the Hive welled up and set her eyes stinging before she could stuff it back down.