The black prism l-1

by Brent Weeks

  Much.

  Despite having been on the Jasper Islands for the last three years, Liv hadn't come over to Big Jasper very often. The other girls came every week to listen to minstrels, get food not made in the Chromeria kitchens, meet boys who weren't drafters, shop, and drink too much after examinations. Liv couldn't afford any of those, and didn't want to ask charity of anyone, so she begged off, always saying she needed to practice or to study.

  The benefit of that was that she wasn't yet jaded to the wonders of Big Jasper. The entire island was stuffed with buildings, but nothing was haphazard, unlike back home or in Garriston. The buildings were white stucco, blindingly bright in the sun, rising in terraces with the shape of the land. Geometric shapes dominated: hexagonal buildings and octagonal buildings topped with domes. Every building large enough to justify one-and many that weren't-sported a dome, and the domes were every color in the rainbow. Blue domes the color of the Cerulean Sea, beaten gold domes on the homes of the rich, copper domes turning gradually green and scrubbed every year to gleam again at Sun Day, domes painted the color of blood, mirrored domes. And with the domes, the doors, too, were beautiful. It was as if all the irrepressible personality of the Jasperites rebelled against the conformity of their white walls and similar-shaped homes, but only in the decorating and designing of their doors. Exotic woods, chiseled patterns from every corner of the Seven Satrapies and beyond, doors apparently carved of living wood with leaves still growing from the Tree People, Tyrean horseshoe arches, Parian chessboard patterns, huge doors to small buildings, keyhole doors in huge edifices.

  But at least as iconic as the colored domes and shining white walls of Big Jasper were the Thousand Stars. Every street was laid out perfectly straight, and at every intersection stood pairs of narrow arches, thin, looking impossibly spindly on their white legs, at least ten stories tall, connecting high above the intersection in a groin vault. Mounted on swivels at the pinnacle of the groin vault was a circular mirror, highly polished, flawless, as tall as a man. With the special layout of the streets, as soon as the sun conquered the horizon, light could be directed anywhere.

  Long ago the builders had said, In this city, there will be no shadow that Orholam's eye cannot touch. Day was longer on Big Jasper than anywhere in the world.

  The original purpose, as near as Liv could guess, had been to extend the power of drafters on the island. In other densely populated cities, the buildings eventually crowded out the sun. Not only did that make a city feel dark, but it meant drafters walking down those streets were vulnerable. The buildings here were separated carefully according to height and width, leaving lightwells, but with the Thousand Stars, a drafter could have as much power available to her as she could handle for hours longer than she would otherwise.

  On Sun Day, every one of the Thousand Stars was slaved to the Prism. Everywhere he walked, every mirror turned, illuminating him. Obviously, some beams were blocked by buildings, but no matter where he walked-even in the poorest areas-at least a few had unobstructed views. Indeed, before anyone built a building, their plans had to pass inspection that they wouldn't interfere with the Thousand Stars. Only a very few had been able to circumvent the rules, like the Guile palace.

  Of course, Liv thought, the same rules don't apply to the obscenely rich. Never do. Not here.

  Every principality in the city was allowed to determine how it wished to use its stars when they weren't needed for defense, law enforcement, or religious duties. Some moved their stars in rigid schedules, making a light clock that everyone in the district could easily see.

  Today, the first principality Liv walked through, the Embassies, was having a market day. They'd fitted diffuse yellow lenses over half of their stars, lighting an entire great square with cheery light. A half dozen yellow drafters, hired specially for the occasion, were-without spectacles-juggling brightwater, liquid yellow luxin. Dragons exploded in the air, great fountains of shimmering, evaporating yellow luxin shot skyward, drawing great crowds toward the market. The other half of the stars, fitted with lenses of every color, spun in great circles around the market in a dizzying display.

  Liv pitied the tower monkeys-the petite slaves, often children-who had to work the ropes here today. Among slaves, they were well treated, even paid, their work for the star-keepers considered important, technically difficult, and even holy, but they spent their days in two-man teams in the narrow spindles, one spotting and one working the ropes with deft hands, often working from the first shimmer of dawn until the dark of night without reprieve except for switching with their spotter. When the Prism or a superviolet traveled and needed use of the stars, they could do so directly, magically. But every mundane purpose required the services of the monkeys.

  Idly, Liv considered reaching into a superviolet control line embedded in the street and taking control of a star, just to wreak some havoc on the rich people's party. That was the beauty of being a superviolet. No one could tell you were drafting who couldn't also see superviolet.

  Still, it wasn't like she would be the first student to do such a thing. Punishments for such pranks were swift and severe.

  Liv's stomach was doing backflips, though. Despite the hubbub of the morning crowd and shouts of merchants and the singing of minstrels and the crackling of the brightwater fireworks, nothing could distract her from her upcoming meeting.

  The Crossroads was a kopi house, restaurant, tavern, the highest-priced inn on the Jaspers, and downstairs, allegedly, a similarly priced brothel. It was centrally located in the Embassies District for all the ambassadors, spies, merchants trying to deal with various governments, and drafters having just crossed the Lily's Stem, because the Crossroads was housed in a former embassy building. As a matter of fact, it was in the old Tyrean embassy. Liv wondered if her handler had done that on purpose, or if she'd just chosen it because she knew it was far too expensive for Liv to afford.

  Liv hiked up the grand staircase to the second floor where the kopi house was. A beautiful greeter met her with a dazzling bright smile. The Crossroads had the best staff in the city: every last man, woman, and table slave attractive, immaculately dressed, and unfailingly professional. Liv had always suspected that the slaves here earned more than she did. Not that that would be hard. Actually, it was Liv's first time inside.

  "How may we serve you today?" the greeter asked. "We have some lovely tables by the south window." She politely didn't stare at Liv's rough clothing.

  "A private table, if possible. I'll be meeting a… friend from the Ruthgari embassy, Aglaia Crassos."

  "Of course, I'll be sure to send her over." The staff here knew everyone who was anyone, by name. "Will you be needing muting for your table?"

  Muting? Oh. Liv tightened her eyes to see into the superviolet. Of course. She'd forgotten; she'd heard about this too. A third of the tables here were surrounded by superviolet bubbles. The bubbles had holes, of course, or the patrons inside would suffocate, so the sound couldn't be completely cut off, but it would certainly help make sure it was a hundred times harder to eavesdrop. Some of the bubbles even had small spinning superviolet fans to blow fresh air into them. Which, Liv realized, was eminently practical. Those patrons who had opted to have the bubble but not the fan looked uncomfortably warm.

  Liv was going to go way out on a limb and guess that the fan was available for a small additional cost.

  Now that she was looking, she realized the greeter was herself a superviolet drafter, her pupils bearing the halo barely a third of the way through her irises. No wonder Liv hadn't noticed right away. When a superviolet drafter got much further along, the color in their eyes began to bleed over into the visible range, lending a slight violet tinge that was difficult to see in brown eyes and made blue eyes astonishingly beautiful-not that Liv was ever going to get that, with her bland browns.

  "Actually…" Liv said. She turned her cloak so the woman could see the back. It was common for superviolets to weave some extra pattern into their clothing so that oth
er superviolets could identify them.

  The greeter's pupils tightened to pinpricks in a heartbeat as she glanced at Liv's cloak. "Very finely done. Superviolets are welcome to draft their own muting, just let us know you're going to be using muting when you visit so our servers don't make any mistakes."

  The woman took Liv to a table by the windows on the south side where she could get sunlight through open windows. There was plenty of sunlight here in the clerestory-the arches and flying buttresses supported all the weight of the roof easily, so the second story had windows from floor to ceiling-but one of the downsides of being a superviolet was that thick windows like those used here interfered with light collection. Any skilled drafter could still use magic, but it took longer and gave some drafters headaches.

  Liv sat and watched how the staff worked, weaving effortlessly between tables, giving a wider berth to those surrounded by superviolet shells. A slender young serving man with short kinky hair and a gorgeous smile came to her table, pausing just outside where her bubble would have been if she had already drafted one. He was probably only a few years older than her, and devastatingly beautiful, his jacket expertly tailored to a leanly muscled body.

  Somehow, she managed to give him her order. Just a kopi. Which would doubtless cost a full danar. When he brought it back, steaming hot and dark as hellstone, and gave her a long smile, Liv decided the kopi was definitely worth a danar. Maybe more.

  Her good mood died at the sight of Aglaia Crassos climbing the stairs with her butt-puckered gait. The twenty-something-year-old Ruthgari was, as best Liv could tell, the youngest daughter of some important family. She had the prized, vanishingly rare Ruthgari blonde hair, but other than that, she was no beauty. She had the blue eyes that were wasted on non-drafters, a long, horsey face, and a huge nose. Stationed at the Ruthgari embassy to get some political experience before she married some fiance she hadn't met back in the city of Rath, she had always acted like she was too good to handle Liv. She'd even told Liv that being assigned Liv's case had been her punishment for some indiscretion with the Atashian ambassador's son. Mostly, she handled bichromes and polychromes and real spies.

  Catching sight of Liv, Aglaia came right over, giving a little wave to a few patrons and a wink to one.

  "Aliviana," Aglaia said, coming to stand before her table, "you're looking so… active this morning." The pause said it all. The searching expression, as if she was really trying to find something good to say. From some women, it might have been an accident.

  You want to play it like that? Fine. "Such a pleasure to see you, Aglaia. You wear petty malice so well," Liv said. Oops.

  Aglaia's eyes widened momentarily, and then she faked a laugh. "Always were a sharp instrument to handle, weren't you, Liv? I love that about you." She sat across from Liv. "Or is it just that you're too stupid to understand your situation?"

  My father told me not to come here. Sharks and sea demons, he said. I should have listened. I'm antagonizing the woman who holds my future.

  "I…" Liv licked dry lips, as if a little lubrication would help her force submissive words out. "I'm sorry. How may I be of assistance, Mistress?"

  Aglaia's eyes lit up. "Say that again."

  Liv hesitated, clenched her jaw. Forced herself to relax. "How may I be of assistance, Mistress?"

  "Draft us a bubble."

  Liv drafted the muting bubble, complete with a fan.

  "Such a proud girl you are, Liv Danavis. The next time I have a party, I'll have to remember to have you come serve the food. Or perhaps clean the chamber pots."

  "Oh, I love cleaning chamber pots. And I love telling all my friends who haven't yet signed contracts how well the Ruthgari treat their drafters," Liv said.

  Aglaia laughed. She really did have an unpleasant laugh. "Well played, Liv. That was an empty threat, and I deserved to be called on it. You're from Rekton, aren't you?"

  Liv was instantly on her guard. Aglaia had let an insult pass? Liv would have expected that after being called on an empty threat, Aglaia would lay out a real one-and she had quite a few possibilities at her disposal. That she didn't should have made Liv feel better. It didn't.

  "Yes," Liv admitted. There was no reason to lie. Nothing came from Rekton. Besides, Aglaia would have a record of where Liv was from. It was on her contract. "It's a small town. Inconsequential."

  "Who is Lina?"

  What? "She's a serving woman. Katalina Delauria. Takes odd jobs." An addict, a disgrace, and a nightmare of a mother. But Aglaia didn't need to know that, and Liv wasn't going to say anything bad about the folks back home.

  "Any family?"

  "None," Liv lied. "She settled in Rekton after the war, like my father did."

  "So she's not Tyrean?"

  "You mean originally? I don't know. Some Parian or Ilytian blood, maybe," Liv said. "Why?"

  "What's she look like?"

  Too skinny, with bloodshot eyes and bad teeth from smoking haze. "Tall, short kinky hair, mahogany skin, stunning hazel eyes." Now that Liv thought about it, Lina had probably been a real beauty once.

  "And Kip? Who's he?"

  Oh, hell, caught. "Uh, her son."

  "Oh, she does have family, then."

  "I thought you meant does she have any people around Rekton."

  "Right," Aglaia said. "How old is Kip?"

  "Fifteen now, I suppose." Kip was nice, though it had been obvious the last time Liv was home that he was terribly infatuated with her.

  "What's he look like?"

  "Why do you want to know all this?" Liv asked.

  "Answer the question."

  "I haven't seen him for three years. He probably looks totally different now." Liv threw up her hands, but Aglaia didn't relent. "A bit chubby. A little shorter than me, the last time I saw him-"

  "For Orholam's sake, girl, his eyes, his skin, his hair!"

  "Well I don't know what you're looking for!"

  "Now you do," Aglaia said.

  "Blue eyes, medium skin, not as dark as his mother's. Kinky hair."

  "Half-breed?"

  "I guess so." Though Liv couldn't have said what Kip's halves would be. Parian and Atashian? Ilytian and Blood Forester? Something else? Probably not simple halves, whatever he was. "Half-breed" was a mean description, though, and completely unfair. The finest families and all the nobles in the Seven Satrapies intermarried far more often than commoners, and they were never called half-breeds.

  "Blue eyes, though. That's interesting. Not many people in your town with blue eyes, are there?"

  "My father has blue eyes. There's a few among people who settled there after the war, but no, we're like the rest of Tyrea."

  "Is he a drafter?"

  "Of course he is. My father's one of the most famous red-"

  "Not your father, idiot girl. Kip."

  "Kip? No! Well, not the last time I saw him. He was twelve or thirteen then."

  Aglaia sat back. "I should let you grope in the dark after your attitude today, but then you'd be even more likely to muss everything than you already are. I have an assignment for you, Liv Danavis. It turns out that my punishment of having to deal with you was Orholam's gift in disguise. We intercepted a letter this woman Lina wrote to the Prism."

  "She what?"

  "She claimed Kip was his bastard."

  Liv laughed, it was so ridiculous. Aglaia's face said she wasn't kidding.

  "What?!" Liv asked.

  "She said she was dying, and she wanted Gavin to meet his son Kip. We don't know if it's their first communication or not. But she didn't ask for anything, or threaten him. Kip's the right age, and Gavin had blue eyes before becoming the Prism. The rest is inconclusive, but the note was written as if it were true. As if Gavin knows her." Aglaia smiled. "Liv, I'm going to give you an opportunity at a better life, and I hope I don't need to tell you that I can already make you have a much worse life, if I so choose. You tested as a superviolet and a marginal yellow. For obvious reasons, your sponsor chose not to train
you as a bichrome."

  Yes, Liv knew it well. A bichrome was expected to be kept in a certain style, or it reflected badly on the sponsor and the sponsoring country. And yellow was so hard to draft well that few who were trained in yellow passed the final examination. So supporting a yellow bichrome was a huge investment, with little possibility of a return. Liv's sponsor had pretended she wasn't a bichrome to save his money. It wasn't fair, but there was no one to speak up for Tyreans.

  "Here's your assignment, girl. I've maneuvered things so that your class will be up next for the Prism's personal instruction. Get close to him-"

  "You want me to spy on the Prism?" Liv asked. The very notion was nearly… blasphemous.

  "Of course we do. He may solicit you for information about his son and this woman Lina. Use that opportunity. Become indispensable to him. Become his lover. Whatever you need to-"

  "What? He's twice my age!"

  "And that would be horrible-if you were forty years old. You're not. It's not like we're talking about someone old and decrepit. Tell me the truth, you've already dreamed about him tearing off your clothes, haven't you?"