by T. A. Miles
“Does Ersana know?” Vlas asked while he contemplated what was meant by ‘hindered’.
“Ersana is not her mother.”
“Who is?”
Vaelyx held up a hand. “It’s not important now. I came to you to tell you what is important. To show it to you.” He pushed off the wall and began up the stairs. “Come with me.”
“There have been two more disappearances, these in the vicinity of Cade’s Pier.” Cayri lifted her gaze from the book spread open in her lap, making brief eye contact with Irslan before continuing to read aloud. “By accounts it was two young brothers. This makes fourteen in the last two months. Where are these people being spirited to, and why?”
Her fingers slid down the page. “Another empty body was found. The boy was emaciated, as if all the blood had been taken from him. What remained was a lightless and abandoned vessel, the soul vacated. Why are these incidents continuing to happen before our eyes with no resolution presented nor any attempt at one being offered? What’s possessed Raiss? I used to know him.”
Cayri turned the page, skimming over other journal entries made by Irslan’s uncle. There were entries upon entries of accounts made of disappearances and unexplained deaths that had been plaguing Indhovan for what appeared to be years. Vaelyx had also painted a portrait of Raiss Tahrsel as a man who more than willingly turned a blind eye as well as a man who had undergone significant change over the years. The two of them had been friends and colleagues, both of them cherishing Edrinor and the Islands, a small collection of land that almost seemed—to use Vaelyx’s words from his journal—as petals scattered on the surface of the pool Edrinor perched beside. The locals had not named their home and out of respect it had been left nameless by its visitors and guests. It became simply referred to as the Islands. Over the years there had been much shared effort in bringing the two cultures together. The governor himself was a native of the Islands, adopted by the previous governor, who married Tahrsel’s mother later in life. It would appear that the current governor returned the gesture in adopting Ilayna’s child after he also elected to marry in his elder years.
“Where did you find these?” Cayri asked, gently closing the book in her lap. On the table between them, several more books were stacked.
“As it turns out, my uncle had left them for me,” Irslan replied, his hand resting on the cover of the journal nearest him. “Apparently, he felt it would be dangerous to simply give them to me all at once, so he’d hidden them strategically, but still in plain sight throughout the library.”
As he spoke, Irslan scanned the surrounding floor and its overfull shelves. There was an air of chagrin and of nostalgia in his tone. Cayri had been gleaning aspects of his mood since not long after she sat down to join him.
“He’d put it on Stacen to draw certain journals to notice subtly by relocating them, leaving them out on tables … whatever might draw my eye. Well, it drew Merran’s eye recently, which you may know.”
“Yes.” Cayri nodded.
Irslan returned the gesture, looking at her before nodding toward the door and presumably the house beyond it while he said, “Earlier this evening, I happened upon Stacen relocating another. With everything that’s been happening, my suspicion is sufficiently bristled. I insisted that the man explain himself and show me all my uncle intended me to see. And here it is.”
Cayri’s gaze returned to the collection of journals as attention was put back on them. “People have been aware of the danger before the curfew was ever suggested,” she said. “The governor’s been ignoring it until now, when the murders became more exposed.”
“Possibly,” Irslan said and they both silently agreed that it didn’t seem quite accurate.
Cayri paused before asking delicately, “Why didn’t your uncle tell us about these incidents sooner? We could have been helping long before now.”
A mildly sheepish expression came to Irslan’s face as she was speaking. He waited for her to finish, then said, “What I failed to tell you is that my uncle felt … under someone’s eyes. He couldn’t say who, but it was enough that he felt watched.”
“Was this after his investigations into the coven?” Cayri asked.
Irslan nodded. “Though … I don’t want to say that he felt the victim of any spells necessarily. He carried on with his role as an informant for the Old Kingdom, reporting to Vassenleigh on his findings. Unfortunately, he felt as if his correspondences were not making it to the Seminary.”
“Someone was intercepting his letters?”
Irslan shook his head slowly. “I’m not sure what he believed. Truthfully, with as quickly as my letters were answered, I believed that he’d grown so paranoid over affairs—many of which he did not share with me—that he simply didn’t realize he hadn’t sent them off.”
“Did you know about the disappearance and murders before the most recent?” Cayri asked directly.
“No,” Irslan replied immediately. “My uncle went on most frequently about the coven itself and his frustration with Tahrsel. There was a point where he blamed Konlan for their falling out.”
“Konlan?” Cayri echoed. “Why?”
“Competition,” Irslan answered easily. “Konlan and Tahrsel are cousins. It’s presumably one of the reasons our friend holds his station as a dignitary regarding relations with the Islands and it’s also presumed that their relationship is the primary reason Tahrsel hasn’t more strongly criticized his political views … and activities.”
Cayri considered the information as it was placed before her. As she found it odd, she decided to say, “Yet your uncle is held at the constabulary for twenty years over….”
“Riotous behavior, reckless insinuation, public slander….” Irslan drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “Very suddenly two friends had become enemies. Tahrsel decided that my uncle was dangerously insane and that under lock and key was the best way to keep him. I assumed his duties. The unofficial ones, at least.”
While Irslan forced a smile, Cayri said gently, “What you do for the Seminary and the war effort is invaluable. Thank you, for sharing these books.”
“You’re exceptionally welcome,” he replied with a better smile now.
Before anything more could be said between them, there came a knock at the door. Stacen let himself in almost immediately afterward.
“Excuse me, sir,” the man said. Holding out his hand, he approached them. “This arrived for the Lady Mage.”
“Thank you, Stacen,” Irslan was saying while Cayri’s eyes went to the folded parchment in the man’s hand.
When he was near enough, Stacen transferred the note to her hand and she thanked him. Irslan’s thanks and her gaze followed him to the door when he dismissed himself. Her attention returned gradually to the slip of parchment in her hand and she opened the note, which invited her to another meeting with the governor’s wife.
“Where exactly are we going, Master Treir?” Vlas asked after they had traversed three levels of stairs and come to a flat common area that overlooked the city and the water lapping against its edges.
Vaelyx walked to the low wall and scanned the view. Both Vlas and Imris hovered a few paces behind, waiting. When Imris paid Vlas a sidelong glance, he assured her with a simple nod. They were both going to see whatever this was through. They were going to have their answers and they were going to deliver them to their respective superiors.
“The last twenty years,” Vaelyx said, “have been long.”
“Spent in a cell? I don’t doubt it.”
Either the ungentle tone or the words themselves garnered a look from the man. It was not a particularly hard or affronted one. He seemed caught up in his introspection. When he drew out of it, he focused on Vlas more directly, including Imris as well when he spoke. “My daughter provided a passage out, eventually. Until then, the constabulary provided shelter. When I was approached with the char
ges against me, I didn’t resist. I knew it would be better to work from there.”
“Are you saying you didn’t make a public statement against the governor?” Vlas asked.
Gray eyebrows lifted and Vaelyx shook his head. “No,” he said simply. After a moment, he expounded. “There would have been no point to resisting. I was too close to too many secrets, some of which could have been legitimately used against me. Even so, I suppose the best way to ensure I was kept away would be to portray me as an active danger.”
“There must have been witnesses to the act you were accused of,” Vlas insisted.
Vaelyx cocked his head slightly and spat out a dry laugh. “Were there? I never met them.”
Vlas and Imris looked at each other.
And then Vaelyx said, “It doesn’t matter. I found the circumstances more useful than fending off constant attack. I’d made other allies.”
“The coven,” Vlas presumed.
Vaelyx nodded. He asked next, “Did Ceth receive half of what I corresponded to him?”
“He received a response to his query in your interest that stated you were quite done with the Seminary and everything except your new allies.”
“But before that,” Vaelyx pressed. “All of my letters regarding the Islands.”
Vlas shook his head. Truthfully, he and others west of the coast scarcely knew of their existence.
Vaelyx nodded and drew in a long breath, letting it out evenly before he looked to them both again. “Well, that’s where we’re going.”
Stubbornness had Vlas argue that immediately. “We have very little time for….”
“You’d better spare some of that time for this,” Vaelyx said to him. His gaze drifted to Imris. “You can escort me back to Constable Rahl once we’ve returned.”
“I’m coming with you,” Imris let him know, on the chance that he intended to take only Vlas.
“You’re welcome to,” Vaelyx said, very readily for a man who had ‘no desire to speak with them’.
In spite of Imris’ willingness, Vlas was himself still undecided. “What makes you believe that I’m going to accompany you to a place that I at least know very little about, on so little information?”
Vaelyx looked at him again. He had an ease with speaking to others that reminded Vlas of Irslan, but he’d adopted several layers of severity—perhaps some paranoia to go with it—if he wasn’t always that way. He did know things. Vlas had no doubt about that.
“You’re the one my daughter dreamed would accompany me back to that place,” Vaelyx said.
Vlas frowned. “She has Foresight?”
“Fever dreams,” Imris said, casting a hard and simultaneously worried look on Vaelyx. “The children of Serawe have them.”
“And who, or what, is that?” Vlas asked both of them.
Imris reaffirmed the castigating look she had on Vaelyx while answering. “The children of Serawe are begot from union with evil. Serawe was a queen in legend. The Queen of the Great Pit and the birthmother of demons.”
Well, all right, then. It still wasn’t much information, but it was enough to know he couldn’t ignore this.
“I’ll need time to leave word with my partner,” Vlas said, because all legends were rooted in truth and ignoring this could be far more dangerous than the time lost to investigating it.
The corridor persisted with little change except that the water level lowered the further Korsten and Merran walked. Korsten could feel the movement of the Vadryn in the periphery of his senses. It inspired him to be watchful for connecting entryways of any kind, particularly as the ceiling seemed to drift lower. The idea of being ambushed by these oddly bodied demons in tight quarters made it difficult to concentrate.
“At the very least,” Merran said. “Having their interest down here may mean that they’re distracted from their agenda above.”
“I’m not sure that I feel comforted by that,” Korsten replied. “But I see your point.”
“What I want to know,” his friend continued, guiding his Lantern to either side of the narrowing corridor as they walked, “is why the first demon we encountered was so typical and somehow separate of these.”
“With so many others present, it should have felt intimidated,” Korsten said, following Merran’s reasoning. “Perhaps to leaving altogether. If the Vadryn here have developed a sort of pack mentality….”
Merran stopped walking and turned to face Korsten. Korsten drew to a stop as well and they both looked at each other as they contemplated their shared revelation.
Was that what the Vadryn had done? Had they banded together as animals, adopting a community and maybe even a localized hierarchy? But the vessels … they were too uniform. And the demon they’d encountered first wasn’t leaving the city, but it was desperate to possess. To possess a young girl who Korsten still felt had responded strangely, even if not dangerously to the event.
He shook his head slowly. “I feel that there are too many hidden elements at play here.”
Merran answered with a nod of agreement. And then he asked, “Where are they now?”
Instinctively, Korsten thought that he couldn’t possibly have any idea, but just as instinctively, the feeling of their presence contradicted him. He realized in that moment that he was fighting himself. His talent was evolving. He yet had two talents that had been dormant since Emergence and while Song and Will may not have had any direct influence on matters at hand, Allurance and he still had growing to do. It had only recently come to Ambience. The full range of its potential would likely take many years to discover.
“They’re still moving around us,” he said to Merran.
“Staying relatively close?”
Korsten nodded. “If we do find an outlet, they’ll likely meet us there.”
“Yes,” Merran said contemplatively. “I hoped to find more than one outlet and take on fewer at once.”
They began walking again and Korsten voiced his next thought. “Blast seemed to do little. It may require very directly physical efforts to evict them from their hosts.”
“It may,” Merran agreed.
Korsten accepted that without dwelling on it, giving himself back to the task of searching their environment for useful or dangerous deviations. He took a moment to appreciate the silvery illumination the combined effect of their Lanterns and the metallic composition of the surrounding rock created. It made sense if these passages were utilized by magic users that they surround themselves with elements which naturally conducted energy, such as water and silver. He had to wonder how often the witches used the caves. With the Vadryn present, perhaps they’d been chased out. That would suggest they had no abilities—or perhaps no trained abilities—to combat the demons. It could mean that they were forced into the world outside, forced to witness a society they fundamentally disagreed with, which only worsened the social tension. But why would the Vadryn choose to occupy the caves? Was it to gather a force that could take the city by surprise? Korsten could easily envision the Morennish troops arriving, and from within the city itself an army of demons would emerge … literally out of the shadows.
Merran stopped abruptly, ending the thought in the moment he put his arm out to ensure that Korsten stopped with him. “There’s a drop off,” he explained.
Korsten looked down into the darkness in front of them. As Merran lowered his arm, Korsten crouched down and waved his Lantern forward. The light painted itself over a definitive pit. The corridor looked to continue on the other side. It would require a considerable leap, but it wouldn’t be impossible to get across. Studying the rim they stood on, Korsten spied a cord attached to a metal ring that was bolted into the floor. It draped into the pit and had a twin cord not far away.
“There’s a ladder,” he announced.
Merran knelt beside him and tested the rope’s connections to the rings. It was looped on ei
ther side with the rope tightly clamped together instead of knotted. Clearly, it was meant to be used. Merran sent his own Lantern down the descending passage and they both watched it light the shadows for several feet before the spell began to weaken and Merran summoned the Lantern back to the top.
“It’ll be a long climb,” Merran pointed out needlessly.
And just as needlessly, Korsten added, “Or a long jump.”
They looked at each other. Silently, they agreed to take the ladder, Merran moving back to allow Korsten access. It didn’t require much thinking to consider that whatever outlet lay across the gap, the Vadryn would likely find it. Descending seemed a better way to divert from a head on route and the ensuing confrontation. Perhaps if they got ahead of the demons they could devise a way to ambush them instead.
Korsten eased himself over the lip and found his footing on rope. He wouldn’t say that he liked the way his weight pulled the ladder from the wall, but it did feel secure. With his Lantern and Analee hovering near his shoulder, he began down. Merran gave him several rungs’ distance before adding his own weight and Lantern. The Vadryn were still present, but Korsten did sense a less dramatically impending crossing of their paths.
They agreed to meet at Cade’s Pier within the hour. Vlas had no idea where that was and was grateful to have Constable Imris with him, though she pointed out along the way to Irslan’s that they were taking a large risk in trusting Vaelyx. Yes, they were, but at the same time the man had approached them. It made little sense for him to do so only to disappear immediately afterward. That logic put the lady constable at ease, something that the two of them seemed to be at naturally in each other’s company. That suited Vlas fine. He had little patience for needless tension or animosity.
Returning to Irslan’s, they found no one at home or no one awake. Not even Stacen greeted them at the door, or at any point along the route to Cayri’s room. He knew that Cayri would not be sleeping, given the importance of their assignment and the relative youngness of the hour, so when she did not answer his knock on the door, he let himself in. Locating a pen and parchment, he composed a note for her to let her know he might be gone from the house for as much as a day—Vaelyx assured them that the nearest of the Islands would be easily reached by small vessel before the night was over—and that the matter was extremely urgent. He decided not to mention Vaelyx or the Islands specifically, but did include that he was assisting and being assisted by Indhovan’s constabulary.