Shadow City

by Francesca Flores

  One of the younger recruits, the boy Aina recognized from the night Arman and his men had cornered her in the Stacks, opened the door. His eyes widened when Aina and Tannis entered the tradehouse without a word.

  “Tell Arman to come out and meet us,” she said, and the boy scampered away to fetch his boss.

  Minutes later, the same boy served them drinks in the office at a desk across from Arman Kraz, who’d placed down a cigar on a saucer to greet them. He still had a bruise on the side of his temple from where she’d punched him. A small smirk tilted the side of her lips at the sight.

  Not bothering to take a sip of her drink, Aina said, “I don’t want to waste either of our time, so we’ll make this quick.”

  “I have a guess,” Arman Kraz said, sticking the cigar back in his mouth with a pop of his lips. A smoke ring unfurled toward her face. “The Sentinel is a mess and doesn’t know what to do since the Diamond Guards have turned, and now they want our help defending the city.”

  “Imagine what we’ll have once it’s over,” Tannis said as Aina crossed her arms and tried to hide her frustration at how quickly he’d figured this out. “We can ask the Sentinel for anything we want.”

  “We don’t ask,” he said harshly, his eyes narrowing as he stared at them. “We watch this city fall and we take advantage of the mess that’s left afterward. That’s how the tradehouses started and how they should have always been.”

  “They’ve also always survived on bribes and favors,” Aina said, talking over his last few words. “And the tradehouses were only formed after the war, not during. We’re trying to save our asses during the actual fighting because if you haven’t noticed, we’re in another war right now. If Bautix kills the Sentinel and takes over, he’ll come for us immediately, and he’ll have the entire army to do it with. He’s the one who attacked the Dom. If you think he doesn’t see us as a threat worth paying attention to, then you underestimate our entire institution.”

  A thick silence fell between the three of them as Arman took in her words. Even as they sunk in, though, something about his eyes still looked defiant, like he would search for any way to anger them and make them show weakness. It reminded her so much of Kohl that she almost rolled her eyes.

  “Tomorrow, you and the other tradehouses will go to the Tower with me and Mirran,” Tannis said. “She and I will have our own jobs in the Tower, while your job will be to help protect it when Bautix strikes.”

  Arman jerked his head at Aina. “And you?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “None of your goddess-damned business.”

  Arman shook his head so the smoke coming from his cigar spun erratically in front of him. “I like you, Solís. And I know you’ve stepped into some big shoes. You’ve done the best you can, despite how little experience you actually have. But promise me something: If you somehow stop this city from falling apart … we will continue to thrive in the chaos. That’s how the tradehouses were born. The chaos is what we take advantage of. We don’t exist because the Sentinel decides to do us a favor. Don’t do too good a job of getting rid of the chaos, or else we’ll have nothing left. Do you want to be a factory rat or do you prefer being in charge of your own life?”

  A silence followed, and she took in his words, knowing how true they were. The tradehouses were a sign of what people from the Stacks could become with no permission or blessings from the Steels who wanted to keep them poor. But Arman was more similar to the Steels than he would ever admit; he resisted change as much as they did.

  And while Aina was still figuring out what kind of tradehouse leader she wanted to be, she knew that change was something they all needed.

  She met Tannis’s gaze from the corner of her eyes and knew she felt the same—that the tradehouses meant more than just chaos.

  “Maybe we take care of the city for them since they’ve messed it all up,” she finally said to Arman. “But that means we’re the ones who have control over what it turns into at the end of all this.”

  He clasped his hands together and leaned back in his chair, a pensive smile on his face. “All right. We’ll go to the Tower tomorrow night, and I’ll wait for you to prove that to me.”

  * * *

  The next day, as fat gray clouds hung low in the sky threatening rain, Aina approached the train station in the Center with Tannis. It had reopened late last night, though it was emptier than she was accustomed to seeing it.

  So were the streets around them. People still went to work, but no one dallied in the streets or spoke to one another. Leather shoes clacked along the pavement around them, but the only voices were hurried whispers rather than the usual din.

  “I’ll make this quick,” Aina said, lifting up the bag she held with the poisons and antidotes for Kohl. “See you all on the train.”

  “Good luck with him,” Tannis said with a grimace before turning around to walk through the main doors of the station.

  Knowing that Tannis meant Kohl, Aina steeled herself before going to meet him. She had all the pieces of the plan in place, the Dom, and as for Teo … at least he was talking to her. The only thing to decide was what to do with Kohl. She wouldn’t let him rattle her like the last time they’d spoken to each other and he’d said he feared living without her … or think about the way his eyes had softened in relief when he saw she’d survived Bautix’s attacks, or the notes he’d left her proving he’d always cared.

  Teo’s words echoed in her mind then: Every time you go back to Kohl, you fall down that same self-destructive path.

  She shook the thought away and took a deep breath before entering the station café, which was filled with tired travelers and people who needed a place for quiet conversation. She’d expected to meet him in the tower of the train station, but that morning, a note had appeared under the Dom’s door asking her to meet him here instead.

  When she entered, a small bell clanging above the door to announce her arrival, she figured out why: He stood near the counter and held up a drink as she approached.

  “Toast me, Aina,” he said in an enigmatic tone.

  Narrowing her eyes at him, she took the drink. “What are we toasting?”

  “Our impending victory, of course,” he said with the quick flash of a smile. He raised his own glass and clinked it against hers. “I assume you’re ready.”

  She nodded, and after taking a sip of her drink, passed him the poisons under the darkened counter—four poisons, three antidotes, and one fake antidote. When he took the last of the vials, he clasped his hands around one of hers. Her breath caught, but she tried not to show anything on her face. Just like when they’d worked together, she never knew what direction he would take; if he’d try to hold her hand or break her arm.

  But when she looked up and met his normally sharp blue eyes, they’d softened somewhat. She remembered the letters in the horse. Had they really come from this man in front of her, who’d threatened her more times than she could count? His feelings for her had always been muddled, always confusing, always a mess, like hers had always been for him.

  “Thank you,” Kohl said, his voice nearly lost in the rumble of a train leaving the station. “Now we’re nearly ready. I couldn’t have done this job without you, Aina.”

  She stilled for a moment, not having expected him to admit that. As he put the vials inside a pack on the seat next to him, she took another sip of her drink and leaned against the counter, facing the rest of the café. He turned to do the same, and she watched him out of the corner of her eye, wondering how much of what he showed her was real and how much was a mask.

  “The smuggler’s ship will be docked at pier four,” Kohl continued. “And I instructed one of the Jackals on my side to leave a small boat on the side of pier eleven for your friends to reach the back of the ship. I’ll give the poisons to a Jackal who will transfer them to Bautix, and I’ll get the antidotes to the Sentinel so the plan at the Tower can pull through.”

  She pictured the plan playing out, Bautix’s death and the
city safe. Where would they all go from there? The apparition of the Mothers in the cave—which she still suspected might have had more to do with getting hit by those rocks than actually seeing the Mothers—came back to her now. Even if it had just been her imagination, their words rang through her thoughts now.

  Remember what we teach, they’d said. Because you, and all the people of this land, are in pain.

  “You were right about the benefits of poison,” she said after a pause. “It shows how much power you have over the person you kill. But it’s also a way of keeping your hands clean, at least for a while. Do you know what I mean?”

  He laughed a little at that. “Yes, I know what you mean, Aina.” He tilted his head toward her, smiling at the confusion on her face, then said, “I would have thought the way I’ve treated you should prove that I didn’t always want to be a killer.”

  The way you’ve treated me? Holding back a sarcastic comment on that, she crossed her arms and said, “You don’t want to be a killer—you want to be the best, most fearsome, most accomplished murderer and criminal this city has ever imagined. It’s the only way you can live with yourself, isn’t it?”

  “You’ve got me all figured out, haven’t you?”

  “I saw the notes,” she said abruptly, watching his features for any sign of what he thought. “The ones you left inside the horse. They tell your story well enough.”

  “You found them,” Kohl said, letting out a long breath. “You know, then, that only two things have ever mattered to me.”

  He met her eyes, and her heart stuttered a little. Teo was right—she was less of herself around him, and she couldn’t forget the things he’d done to her, no matter what he might feel for her.

  “You’ve wanted to get rid of me for years, Kohl,” she said, hoping he would simply agree—it would make her choice so much easier. “You’ve just never admitted it to yourself, because I’m the only proof you might have a soul of some sort.”

  “What’s the other thing that matters to me?” he asked, speaking over her last words in a rush.

  “The Dom,” she said after a pause. “The Stacks and the people who live there.”

  “And you took it from me. If I’ve ever wanted to get rid of you, that’s why.” He leaned toward her where she rested against the counter, his cold words and ice-blue eyes pinning her in place. “You took my life’s work, and without that, doesn’t that mean there’s only one thing left I care about?” Then he leaned closer, and for a moment, she thought he was going to try to kiss her—the one thing she’d dreamed about for years. Some twisted part of her still wondered what that would be like, but another part of her rose up in disgust. Then his hand drifted to her chin, and he ran a finger across her lower lip. It was cold, like the wintry feel of his breath on her cheeks.

  It was nothing like Teo.

  He pulled away, and instead of the usual amused smile he wore whenever he unnerved her, deep pain flashed in his eyes that she couldn’t figure out.

  She ran her tongue over her lips, noticing a slightly metallic taste as she did. Taking the glass of firebrandy, she took a long swig to clear away the taste of him too.

  As he turned and walked away, she exhaled, tense and breathless against the counter. The voices of the people in the café and the rumble of trains in the station behind her filled her ears. Kohl opened the door and it swung shut behind him, little bell clanging above.

  There was a cycle of revenge in this city, one where everyone was either debtor or collector. When people were hurting, they hurt other people in return. She’d taken his home from him, just like he’d done to her. The thought was like a punch to the gut. For so long, all she’d wanted was to get revenge on him. But that only continued the cycle and made her as bad as him.

  She couldn’t forgive him, but she no longer wanted to kill him.

  30

  When Aina reached the train platform a few minutes later, she spotted Teo, Ryuu, Lill, and Mirran in front of the large brass train that would take them to the ports. Looking up toward the roof, she shuddered a little, hoping any fights she got into today wouldn’t be on a moving vehicle.

  Before she reached them though, she heard a familiar voice to her right. Tannis and Raurie stood in the doorway to one of the station waiting rooms.

  “I’m really glad you and Lill were able to make it today,” Tannis said.

  “And miss all the fun? Never,” Raurie said, drawing out a laugh from Tannis.

  Aina was about to move on, not wanting to eavesdrop, but Tannis’s next words caught her attention.

  “I was also worried I wouldn’t be able to see you before going to the Tower,” she said in a haltingly nervous tone. “I’m usually never afraid before missions; I don’t think about the idea of failing because it’s not an option. But with this one, I fear failing more than I have with anything else.”

  “You won’t fail,” Raurie said in a reassuring tone, brushing a strand of Tannis’s blue hair behind her ears. “What makes you so sure you will?”

  “I always seem to mess up everything,” Tannis said, shaking her head sadly. “I’ve spent as long as possible trying to ignore my past and my guilt, focus only on the Dom—ignoring the problems affecting my people in this city just because I’d gotten away from it myself. And now that I’m finally deciding not to do that anymore, it’s scary thinking it might backfire.”

  Raurie rolled her eyes. “And what have I told you about giving up? Remember when you had to remind me not to do the same? It’s worthless. Why would you do that when you can do so much for the people you care about?”

  “You’re annoyingly encouraging.”

  Raurie shrugged with a playful expression. “You’ll have to get used to it.”

  “Good thing I like challenges,” Tannis said, then leaned forward to kiss Raurie.

  Aina turned away then, her ears hot. She hadn’t really wanted to listen in, but she couldn’t help herself—Tannis deserved some happiness.

  As she approached the others, Teo saw her first, and the smile he gave her was brighter than the sun. Her cheeks burned at the memory of almost kissing him yesterday. She wanted to believe she deserved some happiness too—but her heart sank a little and she wondered how she would ever prove to Teo that he could trust her again.

  She looked over her shoulder toward the clock hanging over the platform—only a few minutes before the train would open for boarding. Then she turned to Ryuu and pulled him into a hug. “Ryuu, thank you. The new manor looks beautiful.”

  “Maybe too beautiful; people will definitely try to rob us more often,” Mirran said with a grimace. “But seriously, thank you.”

  “It was the least I could do,” he said with a shrug, but Aina still noticed the pride in his eyes as Tannis and Raurie joined them.

  “We should go,” Mirran said to Tannis in a low voice. “We’ll have to start early to get the Kaiyanis out unnoticed and to a place where we can escort them all.”

  “You’re right,” Tannis said. “Aina, make sure the ports are safe by the time we get there. I don’t want to lose any of the people we’re helping.”

  The two of them left with a quick wave, Tannis’s eyes lingering on Raurie for another long moment. Minutes later, the rest of them boarded the train and searched for an empty compartment as it sped away toward the coast and left the clouds of the city behind. Sunlit fields began to flash by in the windows. Aina walked at the front of the group, with Lill right behind her.

  “About your mother…” Aina began slowly.

  Lill gave her a sharp look. “Was she the one who told you that Bautix would attack? I saw you look at me when you were telling us.”

  Aina nodded. “She wanted me to get you out of the city, because she knew it would happen.”

  “If she cared, then where has she been all this time? She just wants to avoid feeling guilty if I die because of her choices.”

  “I didn’t say she cared,” Aina said, falling back to walk next to Lill in the narrow hall.
“I don’t know what she feels. But she didn’t want you to get caught in it. There’s a chance she’s thinking about changing sides.”

  “I don’t know about all that. I’ve already agreed to this crazy plan of yours with the Sentinel. That’s enough trust for one day.” Lill went quiet for a long moment. “I used to be so afraid of living underground. It was so dark and I felt suffocated. I’ve always been afraid of ghosts, and one of the others was messing with me one day and told me the ghosts of all those who died in the civil war haunt the city from its tunnels. I was always afraid of the mines collapsing on us too. So many forgotten bones and secret passages and hidden stories there. I didn’t want to join them. I feel better now, even here, just because we’re above ground. And being with all of you.”

  “It’s much better than being afraid alone,” Aina said, knowing that was something she often did; tackling problems on her own rather than ever admitting she needed help.

  “Afraid or angry? Both?” Lill shook her head. “I’m tired of being angry and afraid all the time; I’m tired of being alone. I want this to be the last of it.”

  Minutes later and halfway down the train, they found an empty compartment and gathered around the table together.

  “Did you two have to sneak out again?” Ryuu asked Raurie and Lill once they’d all been seated.

  “Not this time,” Raurie said while Lill shook her head. “June and I talked about it last night. For the longest time, I thought she underestimated me … but she only wanted to keep me safe. She’d already lost her sister—my mom—fighting for Inosen rights. She doesn’t want to lose me too. But she admits we need to do something, and that using the Mothers’ magic might be the only way. If anything, she thinks the ports will be safer than the city—so I think she’s actually glad I’ll be gone, but somewhere I can still help.”