Ishkyna stood and sketched an elaborate bow.
When Atiana finally found Bahett, he was in the stable yard, preparing to leave with a dozen other men for a stag hunt in the forest south of Baressa. Before Atiana had even finished explaining, Bahett interrupted her. “It wouldn’t do well to go now,” Bahett said, looking over Atiana’s shoulder to the servants, who were loading the last of the provisions to the coach that would accompany the men.
“You brought me here to help, did you not?”
He took her hands in his. “I did. Of course I did. But Atiana, I’ll be too far away to help if anything goes awry.”
She chose not to say that he didn’t help the last time-the man at the willow did. “It’s important to find her when she’s in her tower. You said so yourself.”
“I did, but not now. We’ll return in three days. And we’ll find a time-the proper time-on my return.” He squeezed her hands, as a father might to a daughter he was trying to talk down from a foolish decision. “As we planned.”
“Bahett-”
He squeezed her hands. Hard. “Atiana, I forbid it.”
She stared into his eyes. His face was as calm and pleasant as ever, but his eyes… They were not only fierce. They were fearful. He was afraid of what would happen were Atiana to take the dark.
Ishkyna’s instincts were good, but Atiana hadn’t been sure, up until that point, that she was right.
“Of course,” she said, swallowing hard to make as if she were cowed by his actions. “Of course you’re right. Please, forgive my eagerness. It’s only that the islands…”
“Say no more.” He stepped in and gave her a warm kiss on her cheek, one she immediately wanted to wipe off. “We’ll speak soon.”
She nodded and waved as he left to complete his preparations.
And then she returned to her apartments to make final preparations. They would go as soon as everything could be arranged.
That night, she left, though this time with Ishkyna instead of Yalessa. “You need proper looking after,” Ishkyna had said, though it seemed more likely that she had only agreed to come because Siha s had already left for the hunt.
She chose a man from her father’s guard as well. His name was Irkadiy. Irkadiy Adienkov. And he was a man who had been in her father’s service for fifteen years. He was a trustworthy soldier, and she felt far better for having him with her-not to mention foolish for thinking she could do without such protection the other night.
Bahett’s servants were easy to manipulate, especially when they knew she would soon be his first wife. Bahett would find out upon his return, but that gave her three days to investigate.
A different servant came this time, of course-the impostor who’d taken her had never been found, and Atiana was sure he never would be. This one-small, bald, soft of voice-looked nearly the same as the first had, which gave her no comfort whatsoever. He led her through the kasir and out once more through the rear door.
As soon as she and Ishkyna stepped from the kasir and onto the lawn behind it, she scanned the sky and saw a rook flying in the air. The rook, spotting them, winged away, and was lost in the cemetery.
Atiana felt better knowing that Mileva was watching over them. Her sister had become quite proficient in the aether, and though taking the dark was dangerous so near to the straits, the danger was muted while taking the form of a rook. The animals had a way of deadening the ill effects that could come from treading the aether’s currents.
Together, the four of them-the eunuch, Atiana, Ishkyna, and Irkadiy-wove through the cemetery, and soon they came to a different section than they had the previous night. Far off, she heard the caw of the rook, the signal that all was well.
Ishkyna couldn’t apparently keep herself from a look of disgust as they walked past row upon row of mausoleums. “Isn’t it dreadful?” she asked loudly enough for the servant to glance back at them.
For the moment, Atiana didn’t care if he heard. “ Da.”
At a large marble tomb at the end of a row, he knocked thrice upon a heavy copper door thick with bright green patina. A moment later the door swung open on creaking hinges. Inside was a woman as old as Atiana’s mother, dressed in white robes.
The woman glanced at them over the eunuch’s head. She leaned forward and whispered softly, after which the eunuch bowed his head and left.
“Come,” the woman said, and retreated into the darkness.
Ishkyna looked at Atiana seriously. “Pray to the ancients you never marry that man, Tiana.”
For some reason that struck Atiana as funny. She laughed long and hard, and it did not ebb until they had made their way inside the darkened tomb, which was lit only with a small lantern held by the old woman. She stood by a stairwell that led down into the darkness.
“Careful now,” she said as she made her way down, taking the light with her, “and close the door behind you.”
Irkadiy, standing guard outside the tomb, nodded once before Ishkyna shut the door with a boom. After a cross look from the woman, the three of them descended the stairs down, down, down into the bowels of the Mount.
At the bottom of the stairs they came to a room with a copper tub at the center of it. Three covered wooden crates sat next to the tub. Ice was floating in the water, but Atiana could already tell that it wouldn’t be enough.
“Prepare yourself,” the woman said, motioning to marble shelves that were set into the well. Upon them were bolts of cloth the color of sandstone and a jar no doubt filled with rendered fat.
As Atiana began to undress, the woman opened the crates. Inside were fist-sized blocks of ice nestled within a thick layer of hay. She took all of the blocks from the first crate and dropped them into the water, then she took half of them from the second and dropped them in as well, until the surface of the water was covered like a frozen pond succumbing to the early warmth of summer.
Atiana took a deep breath as she folded her small clothes and placed them onto the shelf. Ishkyna helped her to spread the rendered goat fat over her body. The chill of it was welcome. She had too long been away from the aether, and she would welcome its embrace.
As she stepped into the tub, the cold water chilled her feet and shins. And when she sat down, she shivered for the first time, though she was able to quell this quickly. Several paces from the tub was an inlaid wooden door set into the wall opposite from the stairs. For some reason, as she stared at the door, she had the distinct impression that this tomb was connected to others-a maze of them interconnected deep beneath the kasir like an Aramahn village.
She took the breathing tube from Ishkyna.
“Dreams of honey,” Ishkyna said.
It was something they used to say to one another as children before they went to bed in their shared room in Galostina. Atiana tried to smile, failed, and lay down in the tub, the ice parting and returning to place with dull clacking sounds. The water was cold, but there was something about it. It didn’t have the bone-numbing chill that the water from the depths of Galostina or Radiskoye had. Perhaps it was the temperature, or the source of the water, or some quality of the water itself…
She stopped herself. She would never be able to take the dark if she allowed these doubts to fester. She had to accept the situation. She had to believe the water would hold her, would cradle her as she wandered through the aether.
She breathed through the tube, feeling suddenly self-conscious-like a girl taking the dark for the first time-but then she relaxed, forcing her breath to release more slowly, drawing it in with the pace of an achingly slow breeze, releasing once more, until inhalation and exhalation were equally measured.
Like the tides, she thought.
Like the measure of night and day.
Like the turn of the seasons.
And soon… Soon…
She floats through the aether. Already she feels drawn toward the straits. It tugs at her like a piece of flotsam among the waves.
She fights, realizing that it will mean her rui
n if she is drawn to its center, the place the maelstrom was the strongest and most unpredictable. But try as she might, she cannot fight it. With the straits so near, so strong, she is pulled slowly but surely toward the gap in the island.
Knowing she cannot fight it-remembering as well the first tenet of life in the dark, that of submission-she allows herself to be pulled; she moves with it, faster and faster, until she whips past the straits, feeling the depth and power of the confluence below. How strong it is. How fearsome.
And how truly beautiful.
In the aether the tall cliffs are bright, blinding white. Chromatic whorls form and diffuse in moments. The water is dark as midnight, but above it the currents of the aether clash, driving their power high into the air. Lines of power arc over the straits as well. They shimmer and scintillate, towering high above Galahesh, glowing like the chromatic lights of the Great Northern Sea.
She remembers her purpose here.
Arvaneh. The tower.
She is on the northern side of the straits. As she drifts southward she once again finds herself at odds with the currents of the aether. They fight her every step, threaten to draw her downward. So she turns, using that movement to catch the whorls that are left in its wake. She slips like a salmon through a frothing white river.
At last, she approaches the tower. Arvaneh’s tower. She feels threatened, as though touching its stones would mean the death of her. But this is one of Arvaneh’s powers-fear, plain and simple-and Atiana will have none of it.
She crosses the walls.
And everything changes.
The typical silence of the aether is replaced by a low susurrus. The lights of the aether are dim, as if she’s lost her ability to see in the dark.
She does not sense Arvaneh, but she senses another, someone like her, waiting and listening in the dark.
Who’s there?
She receives no reply, but she feels them retreat.
It is not one of the Matri. Her mind is foreign, her movements clumsy.
Atiana moves quickly toward it. She catches up, and now she can sense the tendril that leads back east through the city, across the acres of towers and markets and homes, toward a hovel set among the battered remains of the Shattering.
She sees there a woman lying in a stone pool set into the earth. A feeling wells up inside her as she stares, wondering how this could be. The woman’s form is the diaphanous white of all living things in the aether’s midnight blue, but there are tinges of yellow and red and green. Most of all there is black. It is difficult to see against the aether’s dark hue, but it is there. This woman is clearly a qiram. She may even be arqesh, one who has mastered every discipline.
And yet this woman has managed to enter the aether, a skill that has been the domain of the Landed alone for centuries. Of the Aramahn, only Fahroz has ever been known to take the dark, and yet here is another.
Atiana seizes the woman. She can feel her surprise. She doesn’t know she’s been followed, and she is weak, defenseless against such an attack.
I asked you who you were.
Still there is no response. She could force the woman from the aether now if she so chose, but why? She needs to learn more.
She tightens her hold, feels the woman squirm beneath her grasp.
Ushai!
Atiana eases her hold.
My name is Ushai. Ushai Kissath al Shahda.
Atiana remembers her. She was a servant of Fahroz. She was the one who’d led her from the lake deep below the village of Iramanshah. It made sense, then. If Fahroz knew how to take the dark, surely she would have taught others. It is something she’d have to give more thought to.
Why have you come, Ushai?
I’ve come for the same reason as you, I suspect, daughter of Radia.
And why is that?
To study her.
Arvaneh?
Sariya. The Scourge of Ghayavand.
Atiana feels her body jerk in the basin. It cannot be, she says. Sariya is trapped.
Trapped no longer, and better you become aware of it now before her plans are unleashed.
You’re lying.
Arvaneh means “one of three” in Kalhani. She broke free of her bonds years ago, and when she did she returned to the desert where we believe she was born. From there she arranged to be purchased by one of the Kamarisi’s men. After moving to Aleke s ir to join his harem, she spent months watching him, creeping her way into his mind, and now she has taken him. She came with little, but now she has the resources of an Empire at her beck and call. It is her. Do not doubt these words. Now please, release me.
Atiana realizes that the hold she had on her would be painful. She releases her completely, confident she can find her should she choose to flee. I would-
Atiana feels a disturbance in the currents, a pressure that fills her, not with pain, but something akin to it.
I would speak with you. Face to face.
Ushai pauses. What’s happening?
The pressure increases. Atiana expands her awareness, allowing it to encompass more of the ruins, more of Baressa. She knows it must be coming from the straits, but it doesn’t feel like a simple disturbance or a clash of currents. It feels as though part of her is tearing, as though a part of her has begun to burn.
Memories and emotions come to her unbidden. Running through the halls of Galostina, bright with excitement. Unbridled fear while staring down for the first time from the gunwales of a windship. The drip of water in the drowning chamber. The earthy smell of rendered goat fat. Father staring sternly down at her, his sad eyes filled with disappointment. A candle that she touched with the tips of her fingers, heating them to the point of pain before yanking them away.
And on and on. She is in this moment completely and utterly at their mercy.
I do not-
And then the pain increases sharply, and her world goes white.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
T he air around Nasim was chill and damp, but it had a mineral sharpness that did much to keep him alert. The tunnels seemed only big enough for the sound of their climbing, plus the occasional drip of water. Neither he nor Rabiah had spoken since heading out from the collapse at the entrance. They hadn’t felt the need, and to speak felt as though they would give away their position-to whom, Nasim didn’t know; it simply seemed wise to talk as little as possible.
The tunnel was complete darkness, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t move through it. Nasim taught Rabiah how to draw upon her vanahezhan to feel her way along the tunnels. Nasim thought of drawing upon the vanahezhan as well, but Rabiah was weak, and only one of them needed sight, so he followed her closely and obeyed her instructions when she gave them. If he was blinded in the meantime, he didn’t mind. He had taken too many liberties with Rabiah already, no matter that it had been to protect them; allowing her to have sight and lead them both somehow felt proper.
Her earth sight was fouled when they came across water, even a trace amount of it. The first time it happened they heard only a trickle. The second time they heard nothing. The walls of the tunnel were damp-that was all. Nasim assumed there was a hidden stream within the earth, yet still it was enough to rob her of her newfound sight. They scrabbled, low to the ground, warding their hands in front of them to make their way beyond the deadening effects of the water.
They might have drawn upon a jalahezhan, but they were loath to do so. There were plenty around, but they might be drawn through the veil with even the smallest of contacts. The vanahezhan, however, seemed to be drawn to the collapse of the cavern, which now laid far behind them, leaving Nasim and Rabiah to choose from the lesser of them, the ones less likely to cross in this strange place where the worlds practically touched.
Nasim was somehow uncomfortable with the growing realization that he remembered this place. He could not recall Khamal walking these tunnels and warrens, and yet he knew with uncanny accuracy the path they needed to follow in order to reach the upper levels of the village, where th
e girl and the akhoz had surely been headed.
“Who do you think she was?” Nasim asked, growing tired of the silence. His voice echoed off into the distance.
“Someone Ashan brought to the island? A disciple?”
“Perhaps, but she was with the akhoz, going willingly.”
Rabiah was silent for a time. “Do you think we’ll find him?”
She meant Ashan. Nasim, shrouded in darkness, could only shrug. “Who can say? I had to try.”
In the distance they heard a small splash. They stopped for a moment, but the sound wasn’t repeated, so they continued on.
“There’s something I don’t understand,” Rabiah said. “You said you thought Ashan knew you’d come here. That he had come in order to protect you.”
“What of it?”
“Well, why would he do so alone? You said yourself that we needed to work together. That only in realizing our potential as arqesh could we close the rift here on Ghayavand. Neither of us believes the girl we saw has anything to do with Ashan. So what did he hope to accomplish?”
“I don’t know. He may have come simply to prepare the way. Perhaps he hoped to discover more before coming to find me. Perhaps he planned to find a piece of the Atalayina, or even all three. Who can say?”
“ You can. You knew him well, did you not?”
Nasim wanted to laugh, but somehow that didn’t feel right in this place. “In truth I hardly knew him at all. I will love him always, but to know someone is to speak with them, to live with them, to cry and laugh with them. I did none of those things with Ashan. I was lost. He was a beacon-that much is true-but it’s also true that from where I stood he was little more than a light in the distance. I know perhaps his heart, but little more than that.”
“Then what is in his heart?”
“Care for the world that has come before. Care for the world that is yet to be. Care for that which has been lost and what might yet be gained.” Nasim searched his mind for more, but as hard as he tried, he could only think of one more trait that had any bearing. “And kindness,” he said. “These are the things that drive Ashan. These and little else. He is a selfless man, caring for others before himself.”
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