Shade and Sorceress

by Catherine Egan

  For as long as Eliza could remember, she and her father had moved from place to place, never staying put for long. He had been a veterinarian in various bleak, far-flung towns, mostly indistinguishable from one another, a rancher for one sun-scorched year in the plains of Huir-Kosta, and a trapper for many months in the snowy, inhospitable Karbek Mountains. The closest they had lived to the desert was in the town of Quan, on the outskirts of the Great Sand Sea, where he had trained horses for a season.

  Eliza was nine years old when they first came to Holburg. She was much darker than the island children, and her features were rather too severe for a child, with a pointed chin and a sharp little beak of a nose, big black eyes and heavy eyebrows. She was small for her age, all sharp elbows and knees, with hair that would neither lie down flat nor curl nicely, but whose disorderly tendrils sprouted from her head in total defiance of both fashion and gravity. She had a big crooked smile just like her father’s, but she was accustomed to solitude and wary of strangers and so she struck the islanders at first as a prickly, unfriendly little girl. In all those years moving from one isolated, sparsely populated place to another, she had never made close friends among the children her age who ran about, dirty and rough, in little bands. She had never grown attached to any place, because she knew her father was a nomad at heart and they would not stay long.

  She could not keep herself from falling in love with Holburg, though. They could pick mangos and bananas straight from the trees. The water was warm year-round, full of leaping dolphins and bright, darting schools of fish, and in the winter they could see the spouts of whales passing through the archipelago. And there was Nell, her first real friend. Together they invented secret languages, played pranks on the Mentors at school, built hide-outs in the caves, and had “sleepovers” during which they did not sleep at all but stayed up whispering ‘til sunrise. Three years on, Eliza looked people in the eyes, chatted breezily in island slang, smiled easily and often. Her father saw this, and so, although he worried, they didn’t leave Holburg. Sometimes Eliza would ask him anxiously if they were really going to stay, and he would say “for now.” He couldn’t make any promises.

  ~

  Ka and Aysu waited in the mayor’s office. The secretary had been told to bring them tea but had run home in terror instead. Rom Tok was with them, looking at the carpet, and so was the mayor, who hadn’t the faintest idea how to accommodate these most eminent guests. The four of them waited in silence until Obrad, Anargul and Trahaearn returned from their sweep of the island.

  “No sign of the girl,” said Obrad, with a bitter glance at Rom, who did not look up. “The police have gone through the school and the homes in the town. It appears she is not on the island. A friend of hers is also missing.”

  “Is the friend relevant?” asked Aysu wearily.

  “No,” said Obrad.

  “There is absolutely no way she could have left the island,” the mayor insisted.

  They all looked at Rom. He remained resolutely silent. Ka made a brief attempt at Deep Listening to hear his thoughts, but Rom was expecting it and his mind was firmly shut. Ka could try to force it but didn’t like to do so yet.

  “The caves!” cried the mayor suddenly. “They must be hiding in the caves!”

  Ka didn’t need to Listen to Rom’s thoughts to know that he had been keeping that piece of information buried deep.

  “Bring her here,” he said.

  ~

  Eliza and Nell crawled out of the cave onto Sunset Hill, blinking at the brightness. Lying down flat on a ridge overlooking the town, they saw the five giant, winged creatures in the square. Nell could not tear her eyes from them, but Eliza noticed two police officers climbing up the hill towards the cave opening and tugged urgently on her friend’s sleeve. After a quick, whispered consultation, they ran to where the trees were thickest and made their way down towards the town.

  They came out of the trees by Ty March’s house and followed a route through back gardens and alleyways. They reached the bakery through one of the alleys and entered the store through the back. There was nobody in the back room baking, so Eliza and Nell filled their pockets with misshapen or overdone cookies from the discard tray, which they usually came to claim after school, before peering out into the front of the shop. The baker and his teenage daughter were both standing outside the shop, which faced onto the square. They looked as if they were ready to dash back inside at any moment. Eliza and Nell hid behind the bread racks and peered out the window. The winged creatures in the square could only be dragons.

  “Let’s go closer,” said Nell in a low voice that trembled slightly. She looked as though she might faint from bliss. “They dinnay look angry, do they?”

  Eliza’s heart was pounding but she too wanted a better look at the shining creatures lying about the square. They crept to the door, and Nell said, “Hi,” causing the baker and his daughter to startle and scream. At the noise, one of the dragons lifted his head, swiveled it about and considered the onlookers with brilliant, awful eyes. Then he put his head down again, as if he was bored. The great leathery wings folded on his back twitched slightly. Nell and Eliza edged along the square, eyes fixed on the dragons. Rapt, hypnotized, they did not notice that the townsfolk were looking at something else now; they did not hear the hum of rising whispers. A light touch on the tops of their heads made them spin around. They looked up at the bright-eyed, golden being towering over them, and screamed in unison.

  The being smiled wryly. “Eliza Tok?” he said.

  ~

  Eliza knew no more about Mancers than anybody else – in other words, mainly what she had learned in history class. The Mancers had been the scholars of Tian Di, the One World, inventing writing in the Early Days when humans were still slaves to Faeries. They wrote the histories and studied the nature of the world and of Magic, creating an unrivaled Library of lore and spells. There were many legends as to how the separation of the worlds came about. One story said that during the Third Rebellion a human went to the Mancers and asked for help, requesting a place where they would be safe. Another story told that the Oracle of the Ancients foresaw the future greatness of the human race and commanded the Mancers to bring it about. In any case, it was the Mancers who separated the One World, Tian Di, into two worlds: Di Shang, where humans and dumb beasts thrived, and Tian Xia, where the beings of power remained. The Magic required to separate the worlds was very great and also very slow. The Mancers had been working this Magic for eons and continued to do so. It was still possible to cross over from one world to the other, but when the Magic was complete the Mancers would go to Tian Xia and the two worlds would be severed forever. For now they remained in Di Shang, the mystical protectors of humanity. It was the Mancers who had finally defeated the Xia Sorceress and imprisoned her in the Arctic within their powerful barriers, thus ending the war. They were like storybook figures to Eliza, only half-real. And now she sat in the mayor’s office next to her father, who was holding onto her hand and staring fixedly at the floor, across from five of them.

  The one with the red bird on his robe did most of the talking.

  “Eliza, have you heard of the Shang Sorceress?” he asked. His voice rolled over her, making her skin vibrate.

  “No,” she said truthfully.

  Obrad looked outraged. “What do you remember of your mother?” he demanded. Aysu put a hand on his arm to quiet him.

  This flummoxed Eliza entirely, leaving her speechless.

  “The line of the Sorceress is passed through the mother,” Ka explained. “You must have noticed, Eliza, that you have abilities unlike other girls your age.”

  “I’m a prize swimmer, aye,” said Eliza. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew this was not the kind of thing he was talking about, but it was all so bewildering that she didn’t know what to think.

  “She has no power,” said Rom Tok, almost inaudibly. “I am telling you the truth.”

  Eliza gave her father an imploring look, but he d
id not look up to meet her eyes. Rom Tok had faced down armed bandits in Quan; he had built their house in the Karbek Mountains with his own hands; she had seem him tame wild horses no other man could lay a hand on and heal animals so sick they were closer to dead than alive. She had always felt proud and safe to be his daughter, to see the way he commanded the respect of humans and animals alike. More frightening than the Mancers was his passivity now, the way he just stared at the floor.

  “That remains to be seen,” said Ka. “Eliza, your mother, Rea, was a very great Sorceress. You are her daughter and as such share her power. We have been searching for you for many years now, and we are not the only ones. It is good we found you first. We have come to bring you to the Mancer Citadel, where you will be safe and can begin your studies.”

  Eliza wondered why nobody had said anything about her missing school. Nobody seemed to care. She waited for her father to stand up and say that it was all a lot of nonsense and take her home. He would scold her for skipping out later, no question about it. He just didn’t want to do it in front of these...things.

  “Do you understand me, Eliza?” asked Ka gently.

  When she did not answer immediately, Obrad broke in. “What has your father told you, to keep you from the truth?”

  Eliza’s mouth was dry, and her father still would not look up. She hated the Mancers for frightening him, for implying that he had lied to her. She stood up suddenly and was startled and emboldened when the Mancers took a step back, tensing. They’re afraid of me, she realized, astonished.

  “You’re liars!” she said loudly. “You’re liars and you didnay know my ma and I’m nay going anyplace with you!”

  In a fury, she took one of the burnt cookies from the bakery out of her pocket and hurled it at the Mancers. The cookie struck some kind of invisible wall in the air before them and broke in half. The Mancers looked at the broken cookie cautiously. Ka poked it with his toe. Eliza pelted the rest of her crumbled cookies at them, emptying her pockets, only vaguely aware that they were all chanting something now. While the others fended off the cookie assault, Ka opened his hand and blew a light powder straight into her face. Her arms and legs went limp and she felt her father’s arms close around her. He held her tight, saying her name over and over, Eliza Eliza Eliza, while everything spun into darkness and then there was nothing at all.

  ~ Chapter 2 ~

  Eliza woke in what felt like an ocean of soft pillows and silk sheets. Straight above her was a high, gilded ceiling. There was a dizzying moment of incomprehension before she remembered the events in the mayor’s office. When it came back to her, she sat bolt upright. A Mancer was looking at her from the end of the bed with incandescent eyes.

  “I am glad you are awake,” the Mancer said. “I am Anargul, manipulator of wood. We were not properly introduced, before.”

  Eliza just stared at her a moment, too stunned to reply. Then she threw aside the covers and ran to the window, pushing open the ornate curtains to look outside. Sprawling grounds were walled in by a vast square of gleaming white buildings. A tower stood at each corner. She looked out onto woods and a lake and low grassy hills lined with rows of brilliantly flowering bushes and fruit-bearing trees. Colourful birds dipped and swooped and sang, and at the centre stood a white domed edifice. It was quite beautiful, though at that moment Eliza barely noticed the beauty, was only frightened by the strangeness of it all.

  “Where am I?” she asked, spinning around to face the Mancer.

  “If you mean where in Di Shang, the location is not fixed. It moves,” said Anargul. “But this place is the Mancer Citadel.”

  Eliza took a deep breath and managed to keep her voice steady as she asked, “Is my da here?”

  “A visit will be arranged soon,” said Anargul. “Now you must dress yourself. His Eminence the Supreme Mancer is waiting to see you.”

  Eliza looked down and saw that she was wearing a white nightgown. Her clothes were washed and pressed and sitting on a chair next to the bed. It was bright day outside, but she had no idea if she had slept for an hour or even for days. She turned away from Anargul and dressed herself quickly, closing her teeth over her fear, grinding down on it with her jaw. She willed her eyes dry and her voice steady and her gaze hard and sharp as an axe.

  “I’m ready, aye,” she said to Anargul.

  The moment she said it an ear-splitting sound rent the air, a wail so shrill and powerful that Eliza fell to her knees with her hands over her ears. She felt Anargul’s large hand close around her wrist. The brilliant face of the Mancer was transformed, twisted with fear, white and loathsome. Her voice leaped into Eliza’s mind, What have you done?

  Eliza cried, “Nothing! I didnay do anything!” but she couldn’t hear her own voice over the siren. The sound stopped all at once and the silence was like a great muffling blanket. Eliza was still on her knees, shaking. Anargul yanked her to her feet and without another word pulled her out into the hallway. Eliza had to half-run to keep up with the long, swift strides of the Mancer. The hallway was broad and tall enough that a Giant would be able to walk down it quite comfortably, which gave Eliza the unsettling feeling that this place was not designed for beings like her at all. Anargul led – or rather, pulled – Eliza down a staircase and along yet another hallway that seemed to stretch on towards the end of the worlds. There were no doors, no windows, no pictures, just the white marble of the walls and ceiling and a thick red carpet underfoot that swallowed the sound of their footsteps. Anargul stopped suddenly and knocked on the wall. Where she knocked, the marble seemed to ripple and then a door appeared. Eliza blinked, trying to take this in. But there was no time to wonder at it. Anargul opened the door and firmly directed Eliza through it. Then she shut the door behind her, leaving Eliza alone with the formidable being within.

  ~

  “Eliza Tok,” said a voice like a great bell. “I have waited too long to meet you.”

  They were in a spacious, wood-paneled study lined with bookshelves on two sides. Blank scrolls hung on the far wall, around a stone fireplace. There were two chairs facing the broad marble desk in the centre of the room, and behind the desk sat a Mancer. The brilliance of his eyes lit the room like sunlight bursting through cloud, and so she could not look closely at his face. What she saw of him, at first, were simply his powerful gold hands folded before him on the desk.

  “Sit, won’t you?” His voice reverberated in her very bones and at the roots of her hair. “Are you hungry?”

  “Nay,” she said. She didn’t want to sit, but her fear was greater than her anger now and she obeyed. The chair was much too large for her and her feet dangled foolishly off the ground.

  “But you had better eat, I think,” said the Mancer, and he smiled. Squinting at his face through the brightness, she glimpsed a row of gleaming white teeth. The smile was brief, crumbling almost as soon as it began. “I am Kyreth, Eliza Tok.”

  “What do you want with me?” she demanded. Her voice sounded small and weak to her but it was comforting, somehow, just to hear herself.

  It was difficult to make out his expression, but she could have sworn he looked puzzled. At that moment, the door behind her opened again and a small woman with grey streaks in her dark hair came bustling in with a tray of food. She very efficiently unfolded four long legs from the tray, so that it became a little table, and placed it in front of Eliza. It contained a plate of steaming waffles smothered in berries and whipped cream, as well as sausages and eggs and fried tomatoes and a big mug of hot chocolate.

  “Missus Ash,” Kyreth intoned, by way of introduction. “She will take care of you, Eliza Tok.”

  “Oh,” said Eliza, at a loss for words. Seeing such an ordinary-looking woman in a place like this was almost more surprising than being surrounded by Mancers, or doors appearing in walls, or sirens going off. Missus Ash gave Eliza a quick, friendly smile and then said cheerfully to Kyreth, “Let me know if she needs anything else, aye,” almost as if he were just a man and not this terrify
ing being with blazing eyes. Kyreth gave a single nod and Missus Ash left them alone again. The archipelegan aye had startled Eliza and she stared after the woman a moment, wishing she had stayed.

  Reluctantly, she forced her gaze back towards the Mancer.

  “Why am I here?” she asked again, more forcefully.

  “Has it not been explained to you?” The Supreme Mancer sounded shocked.

  Eliza couldn’t remember if it had been or not. What she had heard had not made a great deal of sense.

  “There’s been a huge mistake, aye,” she ventured. “They think I can do Magic, and something about my ma, but Ma could nay do any Magic and neither can I.”

  “I am sorry,” Kyreth said. “It must seem as if we have kidnapped you. To be accurate, I suppose we have kidnapped you, but believe me when I tell you it was absolutely necessary, that of course you will see your father soon, and that you will come to understand the necessity of our actions.”

  Hearing again that she would see her father calmed her slightly. The smell of the hot chocolate got the better of her and she raised the mug to her lips. It wasn’t as if they were likely to try to poison her, after all. It was the perfect temperature, hot and soothing, but not so hot as to burn her tongue. It was the best, richest, most chocolaty hot chocolate she had ever tasted.