The Lantern-Lit City

by Vista McDowall

  No. Gods no. He shouldn't have survived. He couldn't have.

  Galen whinnied over the man's shoulder, turning her large brown eye to Sandu. The man turned.

  Oh, gods. Jagger. Scarred and thin, but alive. He smiled at Sandu, showing every last one of his yellow teeth. Jagger's eyes bored into him with a hard blue look. Like a dancer's, his hands crept out to his sides, fingers splayed. In anticipation? Sandu swallowed, hands shaking as he lowered his dagger. Veck. He tried a nervous smile, forcing his lips in what came out as more of a grimace.

  "Jagger! What's happened to you, what happened at the keep? I returned on my route and found everyone dead!" Sliding his dagger back into its sheath – I'm going to regret that. – Sandu held open his arms, still smiling in what he hoped was an agreeable fashion.

  "Don't lie to me, little bastard," Jagger growled. He rushed forward, pressed his hand to Sandu's chest, and pushed him hard enough to fall. The air flew from Sandu's throat as he crashed to the ground, and he shook his head, trying to regain it. He gripped the wet grass and stared up at his one-time friend.

  Jagger pushed down on Sandu's chest with his foot. He towered over Sandu, his weight pressing the air from his lungs. A dagger, conjured seemingly from nowhere, twirled between his fingers. Trying not to piss himself, Sandu spread his hands in a peaceful gesture. Lot of good it'll do. Mercy is not one of Jagger's virtues.

  "I hadn't expected to see you again," Jagger said, his tone even, almost placid. "A great gift, isn't it, two old friends happening to meet in the wilderness. When the walls crumbled around me, when my wife's body burnt in front of my eyes, I thought of you. Thought how lucky you were to have escaped the carnage. Counted myself fortunate for having known you."

  "Jagger..." Sandu reached out a hand. Immediately, Jagger stiffened, his foot pressing into Sandu's chest hard enough to hurt his bones. From the corner of his eye, Sandu saw Cara frozen a few feet away. Get out of here, Sandu thought desperately. Save yourself.

  "No!" Jagger yelled down. "Time for you to listen, Sandu! Time to realize all the damage you caused me! I may have become a beast made man, but I deserved a good death. I deserved that at least."

  He rambled, cohesive words mangled by obsessive madness. What has become of him? Sandu marveled, unable to tear his eyes from the...the thing above him.

  "I searched for candles and candles, hoping to find one other alive. My hands pulled the wreckage off their cursed corpses, and found only death. The blood of all their lives, soaked into my skin," Jagger muttered. "It wasn't supposed to end like that."

  Jagger went suddenly quiet, staring into space at something only he could see. His dagger slowly, slowly, lowered to his side. Sandu licked his lips nervously, hands trembling at his sides. He had barely mouthed Go! to Cara before Jagger snapped back to attention and leaned down, his cruel blue eyes fixated on Sandu's, his blade inches away.

  "It's your fault," he growled. Sandu could only look back into his unblinking glare. "You spied on us, you used us. For what? For money?" He spat, as if the word were poison. "We were friends! My closest friend in that hellhole, the only one I could count on. Why did you do it, Sandu?"

  Sandu said nothing. What could he say? 'Yes, Jagger, I betrayed you for coin. I am everything you claim and more.' He merely shook his head, holding Jagger's gaze, full of regret. Regret, sorrow, guilt, and fear. So, so much fear. He would die today, before the sun had even risen.

  Cara inhaled sharply. She stiffened, and, as Sandu watched in confusion, the skin of her face bubbled and stretched. Ridges grew on her forehead, her eyes sunk, glimmering with a red light, and long, pointed fangs protruded from her lips. Sandu's mouth dropped open, his heart clenching. In the place of his companion, a prowler now stood, the feral features hers yet not hers.

  Without a cry or any warning, she threw herself at Jagger, knocking him off of Sandu. Jagger's shocked expression turned to anger, then pain as Cara's sword tore through his shirt and ripped into his chest. Sandu scuttled to his feet, his lungs throbbing.

  "Get the horses," Cara shouted in a coarse voice that sounded only faintly like her own. For a second, Sandu stood there, a deer caught between a wolf and a bear, his mind blank. A part of his brain screamed, Run, you mad shit, run and he dashed past Jagger's groaning form and leapt onto Galen's back. He pulled her reins hard, kicking her to a gallop.

  Sandu heard the other horses behind him, but didn't look, didn't slow. Galen raced across the small meadow and onto the woodland path, hooves pounding detritus and dirt. Sandu's breath felt like it had overtaken his mouth, his ears dominated by the pounding of his heart. As the sun rose over the mountains, illuminating the world in sweet, sweet light, he tried to stop the mad crowding inside his brain. How did Cara...Why? What happened? How far behind is Jagger? Will he ever stop? I'm a dead man. I'm so, so very dead. But the rush of thoughts refused to calm, and the more he suppressed them, the greater the overflow when the dam breached.

  Veck.

  Eventually, Galen slowed, her coat lathered in foam, harsh breath pushing out her nostrils. Her legs shook as Sandu dismounted. He patted her side and rubbed her forelegs up and down, murmuring apologies. Cara, on an equally tired horse, rode up behind him, her face thankfully returned to normal. Still, Sandu walked around Galen, putting her mass between him and his companion.

  "You want to explain what happened back there?" Cara demanded.

  "I...I explain?" Sandu spluttered. "I'm not the one who turned into a vecking prowler! Explain THAT to me."

  "I didn't think you'd need to know," she said, mouth turned in a hard line. "You wouldn't have believed me if I told you."

  "I don't believe you now, despite the evidence of my eyes."

  For a moment, neither said anything. Then, with a sigh, Cara said, "I don't know what I am. I think Merick knew. At least, he knew more than me. I've always had this...power, or curse. When I'm angry or frightened, I turn into it. Somewhere, I can feel myself at the back of my mind, but the rest of me turns into this...this...beast. It terrifies me."

  "What are you going to do about it?" Sandu asked.

  Cara shook her head. "Nothing, except maybe find a cure. I don't want this at all. But I have to find Renna first." She paused, then said, "Now your turn. What happened back there?"

  For a second, Sandu hesitated, then decided to tell her the truth. Or, part of it, at least. "That man back there...his name is Jagger Cross. For a time, I worked as a peddler, and I sold to his people. Fauste's Shiv. Have you heard of them?"

  Cara nodded, expression neutral. Is that distrust behind her eyes? Or am I imagining it? Sandu continued, "I was one of the few who knew where they were located. They often spent a lot of money – more than most minor lords – so I kept my mouth shut. I traded goods, I brought them strange items that I couldn't fathom had any purpose, I did what I had to. For people like me, who can't see past the next day and spend whatever comes into hand...it was a great route. I spent a day or two whenever my route brought me to them, and I befriended Jagger. I knew his wife, even. A sweet woman, she was. I always felt at home with them.

  "A couple of months ago, I had a special order that took me farther off my route than usual. In years past, I might only go a quinn or two between visits. This time, it was over a month. I went up to the Shivs' hiding place and found it burnt to the ground. Not a soul left alive. At least, so I thought. Jagger, that son of a bitch, survived somehow. I don't know who attacked, but I guess he blames me. Maybe because I had been missing for so long. Maybe because the grief drove him mad. I don't think he's meant to live without his wife."

  He didn't tell her that he had taken the Shivs' location to the Realm's Protectors. He didn't tell her that he had been tasked to kill Jagger himself, and couldn't face it, so he put it on the honorable knights of the realm. He didn't tell her how many sleepless nights he had passed because of his betrayal.

  He didn't tell her that she was his next good to sell.

  Cara saved him from his guilt. "Then we
need to put as many leagues between him and us as we can. I don't fancy another scene like that; he's clearly a lunatic."

  "Agreed."

  "I'm glad he didn't kill you."

  "I'm glad you didn't turn me into a prowler." Sandu grinned. "Can you even do that? Turn people into prowlers?"

  "I hope not. I've not exactly tried it." Cara smiled. "How does a man like that find a wife? A sweet wife, at that?"

  Laughing, Sandu mounted Galen. "I've no vecking clue. For a hardened killer, Jagger does have beautiful eyes. Maybe Raven liked that about him? Or maybe he stole her, like Autorus stole Hebta to live with him in the underworld."

  "No, no, you've got the story all wrong," Cara said. "Hebta wasn't taken, she went willingly. She didn't love Autorus, you know; she loved his second-in-command, Donte."

  "That's not how Nan used to tell it." They bickered that day about old tales. When evening came, they settled beneath a wayfarer pine. Cara soon fell asleep, but shivered in the cold. Looking through Merick's saddlebags, Sandu found a wool blanket and draped it over her before he climbed beneath his own thin cover.

  Sandu did not sleep that night. Jagger's gaunt, maddened face lurked beneath his eyelids, though he did his best to ignore it. Take this burden from me, he prayed to the gods whom he too often turned from. And help me to make the right decision this time.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cara

  "WHERE TO next?" Sandu asked. They stood at the top of a switchback overlooking a valley.

  Cara patted her horse's neck, thinking. In the days since Merick's death and Jagger's attack, she hadn't thought beyond the next day. She knew that they had to reach Riverfen before the Masque, else risk losing any opportunity the festival granted them. She said, "We should head to Riverfen as quickly as possible."

  "And then?"

  "We find Renna and kill the Hooded Man."

  "That's all well and good," Sandu said, "but you don't know how to kill him. His magic took down Merick without much effort."

  Cara toyed with her braid and considered this. Perhaps I can kill him before the magic gets to me... Even with the beast's power, she doubted she could outrun those dark tentacles.

  "We had spoken about going to Mott." Sandu pointed below them where the road split into two, one branch going south and the other continuing west. "There's the crossroads for it."

  "That'll just waste time," said Cara. "Time that Renna may not have."

  "It only adds a few days to our journey, and the scholars there could have answers for us. If there's anywhere in Dotschar that holds arcane knowledge, it's Mott." Sandu mounted his horse and gazed off into the valley. "If the Hooded Man wanted Renna dead, she'd already be buried back in Kell. Wherever she is, I bet she's alive."

  Cara climbed onto her horse and nudged it to walk. "I hope you're right."

  They passed from the ridge down into the valley, reaching the crossroads just as the sun touched its zenith. Sandu pulled his horse to a stop and looked to Cara. "Which way?"

  Riverfen for Renna, or Mott for me. I could tell myself that we go to Mott to find more about the magic the Hooded Man used, but that would be a lie. I want the beast gone forever, and the scholars there might be able to help me.

  Cara knew she was stalling, but she asked, "Have you ever been there?"

  "I've passed through Mott before. It's...can you imagine a city where silence is the dominant sound? It's meant to be a haven for scholars, but I found it eerie. And they have a library filled with too many scrolls and books to count. All the secrets of our world, they say, lie within those walls."

  Cara tried to imagine it and couldn't. The concept eluded her. And excited her. All the secrets of the world?

  Would Renna last long enough for them to scour all those scrolls?

  And if we don't go, will I be able to suppress the beast forever? The thought of the beast overtaking her body, her own mind trapped forever in itself, persuaded her. Cara turned her horse south to Mott. Renna's still alive, and we'll reach her. Just not yet.

  Sandu followed with a knowing look.

  The weather took a shift from the breezy, calm days of summer to end-season squalls, with great winds blowing Cara and Sandu's horses into each other. The air chilled their hands as rain hassled them. Between these sudden storm bursts, the sun beat down, giving them harsh red marks that stung at the touch. Unlike the plains, where the beginning of autumn often marked a serene change of pace, the high mountains only brought worse and worse storms that gradually turned from rain to sleet to snow. In another two months, the snow would grow so high that many of the roads from the plains into the River Valley became impassable.

  On the third day since leaving the crossroads, a large snow-covered mountain loomed in front of them. It dominated the sky all that day and the next as they descended into a large vale. A river emptied into a clear blue mountain lake at the foot of the behemoth. Nestled between the lake and mountains was a small town.

  "There it is," Sandu said. He pointed at a large building in the middle of the town, which boasted a bell tower and multiple spires. "That's the university compound. All the classes and the library are there, as well as the novum. Don't be deceived, it's much larger than it looks from up here."

  Cara gaped at the town. She had never seen a building so tall. The town around it held hundreds of homes and businesses, more than she'd ever seen before.

  "Come on, country girl," Sandu said with a smile. "I want a hot dinner and a bath."

  The oranges and pinks of sunset had just started to color the sky when they rode into the town. Despite Sandu's earlier words, Cara had expected such a large town to be bustling with noise and people. The quietness unsettled her, though she saw townsfolk passing and speaking softly.

  Keeping her own voice low, Cara asked, "How do they convince everyone to be so quiet?"

  Sandu shrugged. "It's been this way for years. I expect the rustic folk simply grow up knowing how to act in this town. It's louder in the outskirts, where people are farthest from the university."

  The sun touched the mountains, and bells rang out over the town. After the quiet of nature and the strange stillness of the town, Cara jumped at the noise. The bells sang out a beautiful melody, not a single note discordant or jarring. They sounded for a quarter candle before the air grew silent once more.

  "Why are there eyes everywhere?" Cara asked, pointing to symbols of an eye surrounded by leaves. It seemed every building had at least one painted or carved on it.

  "The all-seeing, all-knowing eye. It's the university's symbol," Sandu replied.

  Cara and Sandu arrived at the town green, three sides of which were surrounded by university buildings. Each one was built of the same ivory limestone that had grown grey over time. The bell tower rose from the center of the middle building, brass bells shining in the last of the sunlight.

  At the far side of the green, multiple wagons lined the cobblestone street. Men in orange robes and tonsures scurried about carrying boxes and scrolls.

  "What's happening over there?" Cara asked.

  Sandu peered at the activity and said, "I'm not sure. Perhaps the university received some books from a lord?"

  Cara watched a moment longer, then shook her head. "They're loading the wagons. See? All the boxes are being put in, not taken out. Do the scholars here ever take their scrolls elsewhere?"

  "Not that I've heard of. Let's go closer, see if someone will tell us."

  They dismounted, tied their horses to a hitching rail, and walked over the green. After so many days on the road, Cara enjoyed the springy grass below her feet. She wouldn't feel that simple pleasure again for months after the snows came.

  "Excuse me," Sandu said, pulling at a monk's robes. "What's going on here?"

  The monk shrugged him off and bustled away. Just as Sandu reached for another, a tall man strode over to them. He wore a fine tunic stitched with an eye, but his dirty blonde hair wasn't shaved in a tonsure. He wore a cape draped over one shoulder, an
d Cara saw by the cleanliness of his boots that this man was not a rustic. The man stepped in front of Sandu with a suspicious glare. "Who are you? Who gave you permission to be here?"

  "No one," Sandu said, "but seeing as how we're all outdoors right now, I didn't realize we needed permission to enjoy the fine evening."

  "This is university property," the man said. His eyes swept over Sandu and Cara's travel-stained clothes. "And university business."

  "We were only curious," Cara said before Sandu could insult the man again. She shot a warning glance at her friend. "We didn't mean any harm."

  "Then satisfy your curiosity elsewhere." The man turned away, but Cara quickly grabbed at his cloak.

  "Before you go, sir, perhaps you could help us?"

  "The closest inn is down the road," the man said. "I–"

  "We need to speak to a scholar," Cara said, determined. "One who knows about dark magic or prowlers."

  That made the man pause. He turned back, his pale green eyes assessing her once more. "And why would a rustic need to know such things?"

  "Because both have accosted us in the last month, and I fear we will meet one or both again before the year turns." Cara bit back the words, and because I think I'm related to them.

  "You don't speak like a rustic." He crossed his arms, his gaze turning to Sandu. "Are these the ravings of a madwoman?"

  "I dearly hope not, otherwise I'd have pledged myself to lunacy." Sandu winked at Cara.

  The man's brows drew together. "A woman leading a man? Are you of noble birth?"

  "My mistress is," Cara said, snatching onto his words. "Her name is Lady Renna Nellestere of Kell. She was kidnapped through dark magic. We're trying to find her."

  For a moment, it seemed as if the scholar would turn them away again. His expression darkened, but then he nodded. "Follow me."

  The man swept away, and Cara glanced briefly at Sandu before following. He led them into the main building, up a grand staircase, and into a wide, airy corridor. Near the end of the hall, he opened a large wooden door and ushered them into a spacious study. Each wall was lined with bookshelves, and though there was a desk in the room's center, most of the books and paperwork were spread out over a smaller table by a stained glass window. The man sat behind the desk and gestured at the chairs opposite.