Shadowplay

by Laura Lam

  He paused again, letting the words sink in.

  “The royals have lied to you, citizens of Ellada. They have lied to their very core. We do not wish to expose them, for it would turn both our worlds upside down. So we give them this chance to acquiesce to our demands. To let our voices be heard, and changes be made. If they do not, then we will let the secret of the Snakewoods be known. So spread this knowledge far and wide. Together, Ellada can be great once again. And we will do what it takes to make this happen. Whatever it takes.”

  Fog filled the stage. I smelled pine needles and dried roses. It was the same Vestige machine Bil had used at the start of every circus show. The smell filled me with such nostalgia and loss. When the fog cleared, the Foresters were gone.

  I shivered in the cold. The snow still danced upon the wind. The gaslights rose, bathing us all in a yellow glow. I looked back at the Celestial Cathedral, light again blazing from its windows. Yet the sight of it gave me no comfort. A small trickle of people returned to the cathedral, but most of them stayed in the square with us, cold and confused.

  “What secret is he talking about?” I wondered.

  “No idea. Hence the secret,” Drystan said. I glowered at him.

  “Maybe they don’t even have one, and they’re hoping the threat will work,” Cyan said. “What royal family wouldn’t have secrets that would turn the world upside down if they were known? I must admit, I hope the royals don’t comply and we can find out what it is.”

  Cyril’s face was especially drawn. “Do so many of the people really feel that way?” he asked. He looked lost.

  Cyan looked at him, and there was no pity in her features. Her long hair whipped about her face. “Many of us do, young Lordling. So many of us have so little, and you have so much you don’t even realize it. I’ve slept in a cart most my life. Your world and mine are too different for us to ever understand each other.”

  Cyril stared at her, mouth agape.

  “I’ve been in both worlds,” I said, hesitantly.

  “Not for long,” Cyan said, and though her words cut me, they were true.

  My brother hunched his shoulders. “Perhaps things will change.”

  She laughed, and it was not a friendly sound. “The nobility will never give up a copper of their wealth to help the like of us and you know it. This isn’t going to end well.”

  A strong winter wind whipped around us, snow flurries so thick we could barely see.

  “I should head back,” my brother said, and we all knew he was heading back to a room of comfort and roaring fires, while we returned to the old theatre that was never warm.

  “Luck be with you on the Lady’s Long Night,” I said the traditional words, but they sounded hollow.

  “And Luck of the Lady to you, Gene,” he said, bending down to kiss me on the cheek. We watched him walk back toward the Gilt Quarter.

  25

  THE DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT

  “The loss of Miss Iphigenia Laurus as a subject is great. The slow, steady heartbeat, the oxygenation of her blood, the immunity to illness – all combined is something I have never seen in the history of my medical practice. Selfishly, I hope that they find her, and bring her back to me for further study.”

  Unpublished notes of Dr Leonard Ambrose.

  The next day I couldn’t focus at all on magic practice. My only thoughts were for the night and the looming visit with Doctor Pozzi. Maske told me off multiple times for dropping things or for missing my cues. He was wound tight. The Specter Show had unnerved him. He was redesigning the final act and would tell us nothing about it. He said only that he was close and we would know soon enough.

  Maske grew thinner, his eyes wide in his skull. The only breaks he made were to visit Lily or when she came to visit him, and he was only briefly rejuvenated before disappearing back into the depths of his workshop.

  I went up on the roof to watch the sun set. Cyan came up to visit me.

  “I hope you’ve stayed out of my head,” I said without turning around.

  “I’ve tried, but you’ve been shouting your thoughts. I know where you’re going tonight.”

  I turned toward her. “And?”

  “And be careful. Pozzi is the first person I’ve come across I couldn’t read at all. I don’t like that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Welcome to how the rest of humanity feels.”

  She glared at me. “No need to be sarcastic.”

  “Sorry. I didn’t realize until recently just how much I want answers about where I came from.”

  She sighed. “I wouldn’t mind some answers, either. But… you won’t mention me to him, will you? I don’t think he learned much from Shadow Elwood, and I’d like to stay beneath his notice. Just in case.”

  “No problem,” I said. “I wish I hadn’t poked my head out from behind the wall like an idiot. Now I have to see him. He knows everything about me. He could force me back with my family at any time. And what he said…”

  “Yes. That you might be dying.” She rested a hand on my shoulder but I shrugged it away. “It might be a lie. Just saying it so that you’ll come. Do you feel like you’re dying?”

  “No.” Even with the fainting, I felt perfectly fine the rest of the time.

  “See? It could be a trick.”

  “Doesn’t feel much better, going to the house of a liar in the middle of the night.”

  “You’ll be fine.” Her eyes shadowed. “Are you going to take Anisa?”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “I don’t know – it just occurred to me to ask…” She scowled. “Stars! I thought she said she was going to stop meddling.”

  “Do you think I should take her?”

  She shook her head again. “I don’t know, maybe. I think she knows more about this than she’s letting on.”

  I sighed. “I’ll take her. She probably just wants to listen. And then maybe I can ask her advice. She is ancient, after all.”

  “Yeah, though maybe living one hundred lives turns you mad as a hatter.”

  I laughed. Cyan had managed to put me at ease, somewhat. She left me alone to watch the sun fade over Imachara. And then I crept down to the loft to meet Drystan.

  “Are you alright?” Drystan asked me as we changed into our black clothing to go to Pozzi’s. I was shivering like a leaf.

  He came over and wrapped me in a hug, offering wordless comfort. I sank into it gratefully. He rested his forehead against mine.

  “I’m alright,” I said. “Just… it’s frightening.”

  “Hopefully he just wants to check on you and then he’ll leave you alone.”

  I snorted. I doubted things would be that simple. “Come on,” I said, pulling the hood of my coat over my head.

  We shimmied down the frozen drainpipe again. The night was clear, the just-waning moon bathing the streets in a silver glow. I would have preferred snow flurries for cover.

  We made our way to Ruby Street, keeping to the darkest shadows or scaling the roofs. It felt good to have Drystan at my side. I wished I could take him with me to meet Doctor Pozzi, but the less the doctor knew about my new life, the better.

  Taking a circuitous route, we entered the side of Ruby Street where we wouldn’t have to cross the front of the constabulary headquarters. As we passed the back of the building, I wondered what information they had gathered about me, and how hard they had looked. So far I had more fear of Shadows than searchers or policiers.

  Statues of griffins stood guard before Doctor Pozzi’s tenement. The large, sweeping staircase in front was welcoming, but the iron bars across the door were not.

  We circled around the building until I saw the ivy trellis. I eyed the lit window to the top left, propped open. A silhouette passed the window, waiting. I took a deep breath.

  “I’ll be right here,” Drystan said. “If anything happens, go to the window and signal at me, and I’ll be up there faster than you can say “vivisection”.”

  I managed a weak laugh. Chewing my li
p, I looked up at the window again. Then I climbed.

  Some of the ivy grew so thick that it was difficult to find a good handhold. I had already lost some of my aerialist calluses. But long years of climbing meant I made short work of it. At the window, I glanced down.

  I could make out the glint of Drystan’s eyes from the shadows, and only because I knew he was there and my eyesight was keen.

  Here goes, I thought, and opened the window to slip inside.

  At least I entered the right window. Doctor Pozzi stood in front of me in a pressed suit and white gloves. I swallowed as I closed the window behind me, leaving it propped open in case I needed to make an escape.

  Doctor Pozzi smiled pleasantly. “Welcome, Micah. Thank you for coming. Please, sit.” He gestured to a chair.

  I crossed the room and perched gingerly on the spindly chair. Pozzi’s apartments were not unlike Shadow Kameron Elwood’s. His possessions were lavish displays of wealth. A large anatomical chart, expertly rendered, hung on one wall, and a cabinet that looked a little like our spirit cabinet dominated another. On the top of it was a glass case with a gilded human skull – or almost human. The canines were pointed, reminding me uncomfortably of Juliet the Leopard Lady from the circus.

  Doctor Pozzi noticed my stare. “It is my cabinet of curiosities, housing some of my most prized artifacts from my Vestige collection.” He paused, as though he expected me to ask what was in it. I wanted to know, but at the same time, I did not. It could be morbid, like the gilded skull, or, even worse, an artifact could speak to me, like Anisa. I felt her in the corner of my mind. Crouched, listening to our every word.

  “I am here, as you asked.”

  “Still not one for pleasantries, are you?”

  “I’m not here for pleasantries. I’m here for answers.”

  Pozzi smiled again, as if he found my insolence amusing. “Would you like some tea?”

  “No. Thank you.”

  His smile grew. He made his way to the kitchen and brought out a full tea set, setting it on the low table between us. I gaped at the rare Vestige set, made of a dark material that would not burn a hand but keep the liquid warm almost indefinitely. He could have boiled the water last week and it’d still be ready for tea.

  Pozzi poured tea for both of us, even though I’d declined, the steam rising between us. My chest tightened, anxiety thrumming through my veins.

  “Milk or sugar?” he asked.

  “Milk and two sugars,” I managed.

  He passed the tea to me. I held it in my hands. When did you know if it was cool enough to drink?

  “You’re not my child,” he said. I started. I’d never actually considered that possibility. “I found you on a warm spring evening. I heard the crying from my laboratory. I opened the door and there you were. A perfect little pink thing, squalling at the top of your lungs.” He sipped his tea.

  My heartbeat pulsed in my throat. He shook his head ruefully, stirring his tea with a spoon. “I have to admit I just looked at you at first. I had no experience with children, you see. But eventually I picked you up and you quieted. I glanced around the street, but naturally nobody was there. So I took you in. I unwrapped you, examined you to make sure you were healthy, and what I found gave me a shock.”

  I looked away from him, crossing my legs.

  “I’d never seen a case quite like yours, but you seemed healthy enough. But I wasn’t sure if I could look after you. I couldn’t afford the distraction.”

  At those words I looked at him. His gaze was rueful. “I regret that, but I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  I wished that Cyan was with me and could read Pozzi. He dripped sincerity, so much so that I was immediately mistrustful.

  Slyly, I switched on the Augur in my pocket, reclaimed again from Maske without his knowledge. “I asked a fellow doctor,” Pozzi continued, “who specialized in fertility and asked if he knew of any couples of… comfortable means that would be open to a quiet adoption. He found the Laurus family for me and I made my enquiries and found you a home.”

  “And what did you tell them, exactly?” I found my voice. Why didn’t he give me to an adoption agency? Because they might have given me to a hospital to be studied? The Augur was silent. Perhaps he danced around the lie.

  “I told them… to cherish you and keep you safe.”

  I said nothing.

  “I never thought they would operate.”

  “Did you speak to my parents? After I left?”

  “I did. They did not mention the surgery.”

  “Do many know about your anatomy?” he asked.

  Such a medical way to describe it. But at least he hadn’t called it a disorder. “A few. A few I trust.”

  He nodded. “Good. That’s good. You shouldn’t be ashamed.”

  “But I have been, for most of my life. Unable to trust almost everyone. Growing up my… my mother told me no one could know. My maid was bribed to keep silent. Only she and my brother knew. You have no idea what that was like for me.” I kept my voice low but it shook in anger. I rose, ready to leave.

  “You’re right. I don’t.”

  His words deflated me. I sank back into my chair.

  “I’m glad you were not changed, and that you were able to decide for yourself in the end, though it cost you.”

  I said nothing.

  “I meant to make sure you developed as expected and had the support you needed. But… business kept me detained.”

  “How long were you abroad?”

  “One year’s sabbatical.”

  “I’d been around fifteen years longer than that, and you never came calling.”

  “Business kept me detained in Imachara.”

  “I ended up seeing plenty of doctors anyway, believe me.”

  “Quacks, I’m sure, who had no notion what they were dealing with.” He made a dismissive gesture.

  “And you do.” I made it a statement rather than a question, gripping the sides of the armchair so hard I feared ripping the leather. My heart pattered in my chest.

  He paused. “I do. Though it’s unrelated to your anatomy, I believe.”

  “What?”

  “You have heard, I assume, that there has been a rise in birth defects over the past few decades especially? All around the Archipelago, not only Ellada.”

  I nodded.

  “Many are not malformed, but they are born with certain… anomalies. Children who are special, with unique abilities. Things that have not been recorded in history since the time of the Alder and the Chimaera.”

  My mouth felt dry. I did not trust myself to speak. I dared a sip of my tea. It nearly scalded my tongue.

  “I have a feeling this is not exactly news to you, in some ways.”

  I said nothing, staring at the patterns of the carpet beneath my feet.

  “Telekinesis. Regeneration. Telepathy.”

  “Are any born physically different?”

  “Yes, a few have been born with strange physical anomalies. Scales, a lion’s tail, webbed feet. Almost all of them do not survive infanthood.”

  “I don’t have any scales.”

  “This I know. As I said, your sex may not even be related to these abilities. But I noticed things about you even during the few days I had you as a babe. I gave you an immunity shot and within hours the mark was gone. And you started crying precisely half a minute before someone knocked at the door or the telephone rang.”

  The tea quivered in the cup I held. What I was might have nothing to do with my abilities. I didn’t know how to feel.

  “The things these people can do are things that Chimaera could do. Whatever you are, it’s extraordinary.”

  I already knew that Cyan and I were different. Anisa had told us more, and Chimaera was as good a name as any, just as calling myself a Kedi had been. But to hear it from an outside source – from a medical professional – frightened me to the core. Did he know about the different kinds of Chimaera – the Theri and the Anthi? “So you
’ve never come across anyone like me?”

  His eyes softened. “I have seen many people on a spectrum of sexual development, but no one with your exact condition. I am sure you’re not the only one. The world is a large and wonderful place. What’s more, I have come across a few of these other children with abilities. You yourself probably have as well, without ever realizing it.” His eyes flashed, and with a twist of my stomach, I wondered if he knew about Cyan after all.

  Pozzi cleared his throat. “One of the reasons I brought you here tonight was to make sure you are healthy. On the sexual development side, there can be complications which I am familiar with, but that is not my main concern. I didn’t mean to alarm you, but there is a high risk of side effects with some of the children I have studied, and some have been dying without ever knowing they were ill.”

  “And where are these other children that haven’t perished?” I asked.

  “They’re with their families, but they come to one of the doctors of a group I work with for occasional study. Some of them can be dangerous. Some of them are helping their various countries and the Archipelago at large.”

  “I don’t want to join any such group. I want to be left alone.”

  “I’m not asking you to. It’s entirely voluntary. Now, Micah, will you allow me to examine you?”

  “I’d prefer if you didn’t,” I said, as evenly as I could. “I’ve seen many doctors in my life, and none of them mentioned any health problems. I hardly feel as though I’m dying.”

  “That’s what a few others have said. The illness came on very suddenly, and within days or weeks, they were gone.”

  I bit my lip. “I still think I’m fine.” I set my teacup down and stood. “Thank you for telling me more about my past. It’s appreciated. But I think I’ll be going now.”

  “Any dizzy spells? Or fainting?”

  “Only when I met you at the séance. The shock must have gotten to me.” I moved toward the window. But I lied, even if the Augur stayed silent for me. I had almost fainted at Shadow Elwood’s house and just after the shared vision with Cyan.