The Bone Thief

by Breeana Shields

  I search his expression for the answer to that question, but just like the illusions in the Fortress, I can no longer tell what’s real and what’s not.

  Bram’s heart is a puzzle box that I don’t know how to open.

  Jacey turns toward me, her hair gathered in her fist to keep it from blowing in her face. “So, will you tell us now?”

  I raise my eyebrows in a question. Is she talking about me and Bram? Am I that transparent?

  “Tell you what?”

  “Why Latham wants you dead?”

  The question makes something inside me recoil. I think of times I’ve trusted too easily and been betrayed. Like with Declan. And on my other path, by Latham himself. But as I look around at their faces, I see my own fear and vulnerability reflected in their expressions. We are all raw and hurting. All of us had our secrets exposed in the Fortress. If I can’t trust them, then I can’t trust anyone.

  So I take a deep breath and I tell them the truth.

  The story spins out of me like a dropped ball of yarn. Some details unfurl quickly. Others tangle and jumble in the telling. By the end, my voice is as raw as my emotions.

  My teammates sit quietly for a moment, digesting the details of my mother’s death. Of Gran’s.

  “There’s more,” I say. “I think Latham is designing our challenges.” The idea began to take shape in my mind after I saw Latham in the Fortress. And the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve become convinced. After the first trial, the other teams came back to Ivory Hall talking of mazes and obstacle courses, while our team got a challenge that seemed tailor-made to torment me with visions of a future spent on Fang Island. And after the horror of this last trial, I know I’m right. Latham must be using the bone games to torture me, to make my bones more powerful before I die.

  “But that’s impossible,” Jacey says. “He couldn’t design them unless—”

  “Unless there’s a traitor on the Grand Council who gave him control,” I finish for her. “Yes, I know.”

  She sucks a sharp breath through her teeth. “Who?”

  “I don’t know,” I say. “Maybe the Bone Charmer? He seemed to be watching me especially carefully during our first trial. Like he was enjoying my discomfort. But until we know, we need to be careful.”

  Tessa frowns. “We need to tell Norah. She can help protect you.”

  “Absolutely not,” I say. “She reports to the Grand Council, and if she doesn’t believe us, it could backfire.”

  “She’ll believe us,” Tessa says. “She cares about your safety. That’s why she hired Rasmus. It’s why …” She trails off, twirling a finger around a lock of her hair.

  I sit up straighter. “You told Norah you’d spy on me.” The moment the words leave my mouth, I know I’m right.

  Tessa’s hands drop to her lap. She turns to me, crestfallen. “No, it wasn’t like that. Before you arrived, I agreed to look out for you. Make sure you were adjusting.” Her gaze slides away. “And let Norah know how it was going.”

  Bitterness hits the back of my throat.

  “Those are just pretty words for spying. It was exactly like that.”

  And then I think about how Bram waited outside the training room after my first session. About Norah whispering something to him before he joined our team. And suddenly it all clicks into place. I spin toward him and he flinches. The guilt is written all over his face.

  “You too?” A swift waterfall of disappointment floods over me.

  “Norah was trying to protect you,” he says. “We all were.”

  I stare at him in stunned silence as he studies me with an expression full of questions. But I don’t have any answers. After everything I just confessed to them, I feel as if I’ve been kicked in the stomach, as if all the air has left my lungs.

  Maybe it’s my fate to be betrayed by everyone I care about.

  “I was wrong,” Tessa says. Her voice is small and soft. “I didn’t know you then. I do now. And I won’t tell Norah another thing without your permission, I promise.”

  “I promise too,” Bram says.

  I look back and forth between them. My heart feels made of lead. But I know what it is to have secrets. I have plenty of my own.

  Talon lays a palm on my arm. “We won’t let Latham hurt you.” It’s such an earnest statement that it makes my throat feel thick with tears.

  “I’m not sure you can stop him.”

  Niklas leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “We can try.”

  “There are six of us and only one of him,” Jacey adds.

  Tessa puts an arm around my waist. “You don’t have to do this by yourself.”

  I’ve felt alone for so long now that being surrounded by people who care about me is an unfamiliar sensation. But a welcome one.

  “What do you need from us?” Jacey asks.

  I wipe at my eyes. “I’m not sure yet.”

  The ship turns slightly. Jacey lets go of her hair, and the wind lifts it, blowing it behind her like a banner. “When you decide, let us know. We’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

  I close my fist around the pendant Avalina gave me. “I don’t know what to say.”

  Tessa nudges my knee with her own. “Just say ‘thank you.’”

  So I do.

  Chapter Twenty

  After surviving the Fortress, returning to my training at Ivory Hall feels false. Like I’m only pretending to practice bone magic.

  Master Kyra leans against the table in the training room, watching as I tip a basin full of aviary bones—keel, rib, coracoid—onto the cloth in front of me and study them.

  I started flame readings earlier this week. At least Master Kyra thinks I started them.

  Master Kyra has given me a series of tasks—divining who would enter the room next, how many Mixer apprentices were crowded into the adjoining room, which bones the Masons were carving across the hall. I haven’t made a mistake yet.

  “You’re making wonderful progress, Saskia,” she says. “Your mastery tattoo should appear soon. Any sign of it yet?”

  The question knocks me off-balance, as if an hourglass has been tipped over and it’s only a matter of time before the sand stops flowing. How long until she actually checks for the tattoo and realizes I’ve broken the law? How long before I end up on Fang Island?

  Or maybe Latham will get to me first. Either way, my fate seems bleak.

  I put my hand into the pocket of my cloak and run my fingers over the parchment Avalina gave me. The address is the only lead I have for finding Latham. And finding him is a yawning need inside me. A hole that won’t be filled until one of us is dead.

  I look up to see Kyra studying me with a quizzical expression. She’s still waiting for an answer about the mastery tattoo.

  “No sign of it yet,” I say.

  She smiles. “Don’t worry. It should be there any day now.”

  My gaze goes to the window and the rushing water of the Shard below. I feel like a tree branch caught in the current—bobbing along on the swells of fate, powerless to change direction. But maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. I need to take control.

  It’s time to become the river.

  “I’m going to find Latham,” I tell my team later that night over the evening meal.

  Talon pauses, a seasoned potato wedge halfway between his plate and his mouth. “Right now?”

  “Not this very moment. In the morning. We have a few days before the next challenge, so the timing seems right.”

  Tessa wipes her fingers on a napkin. “What’s your plan?”

  I hesitate—what if she reports me to Norah? Tessa’s mouth thins. She sets the napkin beside her plate. “I’m on your side, Saskia. I promised no more secrets, and I meant it.”

  I believe her, and yet my first instinct is to guard information carefully—pull it close to my chest and curl my entire body around it. But I fight the urge and answer her question. “I’ll leave early enough that no one will be awake yet. Othe
r than that, I’m not sure there’s a plan to be made. All I have to go on is the address of a shop in the city. If I don’t find anything there, it’s a dead end.”

  “But what if you do find something?” she asks. “After seeing that vision of Latham in the Fortress …” She shivers. “Saskia, you can’t go alone.”

  Bram tenses beside me. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Yes,” Tessa agrees. “Me too.”

  “Count me in,” Niklas says.

  My chest feels tight. “No, you guys, I can’t put you all in danger.”

  “I don’t mind a little danger,” Talon says. “It makes me feel tougher than I am.”

  Jacey stabs a piece of roast beef with her fork. “It won’t work. They lock the doors at night.”

  “How do you know?” Talon asks.

  “My brother almost got expelled for trying to sneak out when he was here a few years ago. The doors were locked, and when he tried to leave, it set off some kind of silent alarm system.”

  My heart sinks. “Oh. Well, I guess I do need a plan then.”

  “They don’t lock the upper-floor windows,” Jacey says. She pops the meat into her mouth and chews slowly.

  Bram shoots her an exasperated look. “Yes, because no one would be stupid enough to try to climb out a window that far from the ground.”

  Jacey swallows her food and grins at him. “If they had the right tools, they might be exactly that stupid.” She uses her fork to point at Niklas. “Tell them what you’ve been working on.”

  Niklas pushes his hair out of his face. “Bone-carved climbing equipment. For hikers.”

  “Or for scaling walls,” Jacey says, her expression triumphant.

  Talon blanches, which makes his freckles stand out in even sharper relief against his pale skin. “When I said I didn’t mind a little danger, I meant a very little. Doors are more my style than heights.”

  I ignore Talon and lean across the table toward Niklas. “Is that possible? Could you get the tools for us?”

  He shifts uncomfortably in his seat. “I don’t know, Saskia. It would require sneaking into one of the training rooms and stealing them. I could get in a lot of trouble.”

  His uneasy expression should be all the answer I need—Niklas isn’t one to say no without a reason. But I need to find information—some clue about where Latham could have hidden my mother’s bones. And then I need to make him suffer for what he’s done.

  “We’ll put the tools back before anyone knows they’re missing,” I say.

  “I’m not sure—”

  “Please, Niklas. This is important.”

  A heavy silence settles over our table. Niklas fidgets with the ring on his index finger, spinning it around and around with the opposite hand.

  Finally he looks up without quite meeting my gaze. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Niklas leaves the table and I feel as if I’ve swallowed a brick. It’s more than I should ask of him. But I can’t ask anything less. Tessa bites her lip. “I don’t like this,” she says.

  “Do you think I’m making a mistake by trying to find Latham’s shop?”

  “No, of course not.” Tessa massages her temples. “I just didn’t think we’d have a plan quite this … morally ambiguous.”

  I put an arm around Tessa’s shoulders. “We don’t all have to go, you know. I won’t hold it against you if you don’t come along.”

  She leans into me. “Of course I’m coming. I just wish we had a better option.”

  “So do I.”

  And it’s true. I feel as if I’ve spent my whole life wishing for better options.

  Three long days pass while Niklas tries to get his hands on the climbing equipment. The entire time, I’m so impatient that I want to crawl out of my skin. But finally he comes through with six sets of grips fashioned from the bones of black bears and shaped like claws.

  We’re gathered in the room Tessa and I share, staring at the window. The horizon is just visible in the predawn sky. We decided to leave in the wee hours of the morning. The instructors are more vigilant at night when they expect rebellious apprentices might attempt to sneak out. I doubt they’d anticipate an escape at dawn. And our presence in town is less likely to cause suspicion in daylight. If we can manage a clean getaway, it will give us a few hours before we’re expected to be anywhere.

  But now I’m second-guessing myself. The ground is alarmingly far away.

  “These are called descenders,” Niklas says, handing a set to each of us. “You’ll want to make sure at least one stays in contact with the outside wall at all times. And don’t look down.”

  “You’re sure they work?” Talon asks. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “I’d really rather not die today.”

  “As sure as I can be, considering I’ve never tested them,” Niklas says.

  Talon’s eyes bulge. He swallows. “A simple yes would have sufficed.”

  Niklas goes first, reaching through the window to anchor one of the descenders to the wall before climbing out. He starts to descend, sliding the claws down one at a time, moving faster than I would have thought possible for such a long distance. He drops to the ground below and he’s so small, I can barely see his hand moving as he waves up at me.

  My mouth goes dry. His quick descent made it look easy, but every time I glance out the window, I feel like I might be sick. But I have to go next. I can’t ask my friends to put themselves in danger if I’m not willing to do the same. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Then I try to imitate Niklas as precisely as I can, placing one of the tools on the wall before carefully lifting myself through the window.

  But I make the mistake of looking down.

  The ground spins beneath me and I gasp. My sweaty palm slips on one of the claws and I lose my grip. It stays attached to the wall while my body flings outward. I’m dangling by one hand. I’m going to plunge to my death. My vision goes blurry and I squeeze my eyes closed. My heart slams against my rib cage.

  “Hang on,” Bram says. “You’re doing fine.”

  I pull in a deep breath, and with all the force I can muster, I swing my body back toward the window. My fingertips graze the tool stuck to the wall, but I can’t quite reach it. I try again. This time I get closer and my fingers close around claw, but my torso slams against the wall with a thunk. It hurts, but still a wave of relief goes through me. I press my entire body against the bone facade, but I don’t move. I don’t dare. What if my hand slips again? My pulse pounds in my neck. I’m not close enough to the window to climb back in, but the ground is so distant that one wrong move would end me. So I cling to the side of the building, frozen.

  “Saskia, look at me.” Bram’s voice is gentle but commanding. I lift my eyes to his. “Good,” he says. “Now slide your right hand down just a bit.”

  I bite the inside of my cheek and inch my hand down without ever taking my gaze from him.

  “Yes. Now your other hand.”

  Soon I find a rhythm—one hand and then the other—until my toes touch the ground. I sink onto the grass and pull my knees to my chest, shaking as I watch the others scramble down the wall.

  The sun has fully risen by the time everyone is on the ground. But before we set off, Niklas quietly collects the tools from each of us and carefully places them in his satchel. Guilt worms through my stomach. He’s obviously worried about what we’ve done.

  I touch his elbow lightly. “Thank you.”

  He nods. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

  I pull out the parchment Avalina gave me and offer it to Talon. Watchers are notoriously good with directions. It’s a must for controlling animals. “Will you lead the way?”

  He snatches the page from my fingers. “Yes. I’ll do anything you ask as long as my feet can stay on solid ground.”

  We hike down a path behind Ivory Hall in the opposite direction of the pier and I agonize about our half-baked plan the entire time. What if we don’t find the shop Avalina told us about?
What if I risked Niklas’s future for nothing? And then we round a bend and the city comes into view. Awe snatches away my worry.

  I’ve seen Kastelia City dozens of times in different readings, but I’ve never spent any time exploring on my own. My experience with the capital has been limited to the pier and the view from Ivory Hall.

  A beautiful stone bridge arches gracefully over the Shard, and couples walk hand in hand on the cobbled streets that run alongside the river. Sunlight glints on the water. Farther ashore, the boulevard is lined with small shops and bundled shoppers. A flash of memory: warmer weather, full trees, flower boxes spilling colorful blooms perched in every window. I don’t know if I’m remembering my own experiences on my other path or recalling a reading from someone else, but Kastelia City feels both familiar and foreign. Both exactly what I expected, and nothing like I thought.

  Talon leads the group, and when he stops walking to study the parchment I gave him earlier, I’m forcefully pulled back to reality.

  “I think it’s just up this way,” he calls over his shoulder.

  “Relax,” Jacey says, “before you break that in half.”

  I follow her gaze and, with a start, realize that my fist is closed around the pendant at my throat. My fingers went there without my permission, needing the comfort of knowing I’m safe from Latham’s prying gaze. My stomach clenches and I drop my arm back to my side.

  We pass storefronts painted in bold colors—cobalt, seafoam, coral—with their names brushed in swirling gold script. Outdoor stalls selling bouquets of flowers and fresh vegetables. Magic shops filled with shelves of bones already prepared for a variety of uses.

  Finally Talon stops in front of a nondescript shop with peeling white paint and darkened windows. “It looks abandoned.”

  “I don’t suppose anyone knows how to pick a lock?” I say, trying not to let despair creep into my voice.

  But Bram is already hunched over, poking at the mechanism. I glance around to see if anyone is watching us. We can’t just break in. What if someone catches us? What if we find Latham inside?