by Rin Chupeco
Khalad kept a straight face as he gently drew out my memory. “It is a hard reality to accept, Kance, but she is the most logical choice, despite her youth. The possible sacrifice of one life outweighs the lives of your other soldiers—or of a city if the daeva continues its rampage.”
“I’m already worried about Kalen. I don’t like the idea of putting Lady Tea in any more danger. I have half a mind to report your intentions to my father or to the elders.”
I froze. “Will you?”
“As much as I want to, I won’t. I promised to tell no one, Lady Tea.” He reached over and squeezed my hand. “But it’s your turn to promise me something else. I want you to come back safe and unharmed. If it’s a choice between saving your life and letting the azi get away, I want you to choose the first. Swear on it, Lady Tea.”
“I promise, Prince Kance.” And if my heartsglass flickered pink for the briefest of instants, it was only Khalad who saw.
She was paler, more wan than before—the price of carrying four daeva on her shoulders, with three more to come. But her hands did not shake as she stoppered two more of the vials, and she showed no hesitation as she drank them down. She tossed the bottles onto the sand behind her and stepped out into the waters, toward the bones.
She summoned the indar first. The blue bezoar broke in her hands, and the skeleton above us moved. It gained shape quickly enough—a hawklike beast with a gnarled beak and a loud cry that ripped through the air, the sound shrill. It had paws instead of talons and a bear’s body made of neither fur nor feathers but of something in between. It shook itself dry and then took to the skies, exploring for several minutes before it remembered its mistress. It landed on the sand before her and bowed its head in acquiescence, as had the other daeva before it.
The akvan came next, and it was every bit as grotesque as I remembered, with its protrusion of elephant tusks and its massive trunk. It trumpeted at the sun, no longer gutted and eviscerated. Its tail thumped at the ground behind it, kicking up sand and soil.
Their black hearts glittered in the air. The girl took them both and pressed them against her own heartsglass.
And screamed. She toppled to the ground, writhing. I ran toward her, but just as suddenly, the spasms ended as they had begun, and she pushed herself up with one hand, breathing hard. Even the daeva showed their concern, turning toward her with high, piping sounds of worry.
She raised her arm when I took a step toward her, concerned. “I’m all right,” she insisted. “All I need is a little rest, a chance to…catch my breath.”
“What is happening?”
“As…Dancing Wind once gave part of her heartsglass to bring back Blade that Soars…so do I give part of my heartsglass to bring back these daeva. It is like…knives…going through my soul.”
“You don’t need to do this,” I implored her. “There must be some other way.”
She laughed. “Did you think I would do this if there was?” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I will rest for a while and tell you more about the azi,” she said. “And then I will succeed. Or I will die trying. There is no middle ground.”
28
“What the hell are you doing here?” was how Kalen greeted us. We found the band of Deathseekers gathered near the lake’s edge, setting up camp. The sun glided across the water, sinking past the horizon and turning the sky into a menagerie of pinks and oranges. The creature was close; I could sense the alien presence in my mind grow stronger, though the sensation coming through from the other side of the bond was sluggish.
“We thought we could all use a vacation,” Polaire informed him glibly, sliding off her horse. I did the same, patting Chief lightly on the nose and digging into my pockets for a small piece of sugar. Being dead didn’t stop Chief from enjoying his share of sweets, and he munched on my offering with gusto.
“Do the elders know that you’re here?”
“Would that make any difference now?”
Kalen glared at us and then relaxed. “I suppose not.”
“Who’s in charge?” Zoya demanded.
“Ostry is. Gerrold died, and Nargal is in no shape to lead us anywhere.”
“Take us to him, then. We need to talk.”
“Well, hi there,” Ostry said as we approached the center of the camp. He had a bandage around one eye; five other Deathseekers displayed similar injuries. He grinned at me. “You’ve traveled a little farther out than the tearooms of the Willows, Lady Tea. I don’t mind the company, although this is not the best of circumstances. On the bright side, I see double of everything, and two of you look just as lovely as the one.”
“This doesn’t look good,” Fox said, surveying the rest of the wounded. “How many are indisposed?”
“A dozen brothers, and they’re the lucky ones. We’ve taken our most seriously injured to the town of Lizzet to recuperate. It’s a day’s ride away, so they should be safe.”
I caught a glimpse of his silver heartsglass, reading its pattern of erratic greens and yellows. “You need to lie down,” I told him.
“I’m fine. Alsron changed my bandages only an hour ago.”
“Bandages don’t do much for concussions. We’ll need to get you some ice and a clean cloth.”
“There are some fresh strips in my pack.” The Deathseeker’s fingers moved, and a small block of ice materialized on the ground beside him. “Will this help?”
“And I forbid you to draw runes for the next several days. Let someone else do it.”
“That might be harder to do, little lady.” He winced when I pressed the ice against his head at a spot that still looked swollen. “As long as that damned azi is out there, I make no guarantees. It’s taken out too many of my pals for me to relax.”
“We heard,” Fox said. “Do you know where it is now?”
Ostry gestured out at the lake. “As far as we could tell, it hibernates during the day and comes out at night. We don’t know if it’s still there or if it’s hunting somewhere else. But the sun’s setting, so I’d say you’re just in time to find out, which is unfortunate. How did you know we were here at Lake Strypnyk? We’d only figured out its location the night before, and we just dispatched a messenger a few hours ago.”
“We have our sources,” Polaire said mysteriously.
“Tea here seems confident she can take it on.” Zoya nodded at me. “I say she’s an idiot, but that’s an argument for another time, seeing that we have little choice.”
“What the hell are you girls doing here?” Alsron demanded, approaching the campfire with several other Deathseekers.
“Saving your derrière,” Polaire said sweetly. “Tea, will it sense you if you try to search for it?”
“I don’t think so.” The dragon was as used to my mind as I was to it by now, and my nearness caused no alarm, as far as I could tell.
“Do you know where it is?”
“It’s inside the lake.”
“That was quick,” Zoya remarked. “Did you know where it was all this time?”
“I’ve been looking for it before arriving at the Deathseekers’ camp.” I strove to keep my heartsglass serene, slowing down my breathing so I would not arouse further suspicions. Sometimes I forgot how perceptive Zoya was.
“Any ideas when it’s going to surface?” Zoya asked.
“I don’t know. I think I can goad it out if I have to.”
“It’s more likely to remain in the lake than venture out.” The man shrugged. “It’s only surfaced once, to our knowledge. You know what happened next.” He gestured at the line of wounded. “It attacked us somewhere between here and the village of Indt.”
“How did this happen?” Polaire demanded. “You’ve all faced down daeva before. I’m not saying we’ve never come away unscathed, but to hear of twenty other Deathseekers dead? This is the worst number of casualties that I’ve heard of!
”
“Seems like it’s evolving, studying us. We were not as effective at the darashi oyun as you might think. We were barely able to protect ourselves, much less injure it.” From his position on the ground, Ostry grimaced. “Fire, hurricanes, quakes, as many arrows as we could put into its scaly hide. Heathal even tried to freeze it. All he got for his troubles was a spike through his heart. We couldn’t do much after that but grab the bodies of those who’d fallen and retreat while we still could. It fled, and we tracked it here—I suspect it doesn’t want to stray too far from the lake. It would be best if you girls returned to Ankyo. There isn’t much you can do here.”
Polaire shook her head. “We have to try. Tea, you’ll be the one facing it head-on. What do you want us to do?”
I rose to my feet. “I would need a handful of Deathseekers nearby just in case, the ones who aren’t injured. I want the others as far away as they possibly can be. I can feel it somewhere underneath those waters, and it feels like it’s hibernating. If I’m to seek it out, I want to wrest control before it’s fully awake.”
“There are six or seven of us with but a few minor scratches to our name,” Kalen said. “There’s a good chance you’ll have about as much success as we had even if you draw in the Dark. And if I were a betting man, I’d stake money that there’s a powerful Faceless out there, meddling.”
“Choices require risks,” Zoya said. “Start evacuating your wounded. They won’t want to be here when the fighting starts.”
“You’re going with them,” Polaire informed Ostry, who was trying to stand.
“I can fight,” the man protested.
“Spare me the heroics, Ostry. We’ve been in this long enough for me to see through your conneries when you start spouting them! Who’s next in command after you?”
“I was the fifth in line, you know. We haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“Kalen, which of your brothers can remain behind to help us?”
“Terrence, Andres, Kingston, Levi, Farrgut, and I.”
“That gives me the seniority, then.”
“Lady Polaire, I don’t think—”
“I’m placing you in charge of the remaining Deathseekers, Kalen, but you’re not in charge of me. In the absence of any other senior brothers, I can assume command.”
“But you’re not on official business from the council, and regulations state…” Kalen trailed off at the look on her face. “Gibbons has a broken arm but no head injuries. I can put him in charge of the wounded.”
“Smart decision. Fox, help the rest of the brothers get to Lizzet.”
“No,” my brother said. “Where Tea goes, I go.”
“There’s not much you can do against a daeva, Fox.”
“That’s not important. I’m not going to go off to safety while Tea remains behind. And if there’s one less thing you need to worry about when I’m involved, it’s putting an extra life in danger.”
Polaire paused. “True enough. I keep forgetting that. Keep Tea out of trouble.”
“Tea is already in trouble,” Zoya murmured. “So are we for disobeying the council, for that matter.”
“Keep Tea out of more trouble, then. Are you sure about this?” she asked me in a softer whisper as the other Deathseekers began making their preparations. “We’re treading in unknown territory, and I’d hate to die on a ‘maybe.’”
“The runes may not work, but I can still sense it. And I was able to control it to some extent back in Ankyo.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Zoya said from behind us.
“As I recall, you insisted on coming,” Polaire pointed out.
“It’s never too late to regret things.”
“Can you still feel the azi?” Fox asked. “How long do we have?”
“Not very long, I think.” I could feel it slither along the edges of consciousness. “I think it could wake in another hour’s time.”
“No sense in delaying, then. Move faster, people!” Polaire ordered. “Injuries don’t give you an excuse to be here once the sun goes down!”
There were more wounded than I had thought. As I watched a few of the Deathseekers borne away on improvised litters, I couldn’t help but shudder.
Fox laid a protective hand on my shoulder. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Tea.”
“I love you, Fox, but Polaire is right—there’s not a lot you can do for this fight.”
“Enough to drag you out of here if things take a turn for the worse—kicking and screaming if I have to.”
Despite their previous assertions, even the other asha showed signs of nervousness. Zoya kept scanning the waters like she expected the azi to rise at any instant, and Polaire chewed on her fingernails at intervals, realized what she was doing, and firmly brought her hands down, only to bring them back up to her mouth again after a few minutes.
“Are they going to be all right?” I asked Kalen as we watched the long line of injured Deathseekers begin their journey to Lizzet.
“Let me be blunt, Lady Tea. I’m doing this under protest because Polaire commanded me to and because she’s my superior. This does not make us friends.”
“What did I ever do to you?” I demanded. “We barely see each other enough for you to hate me. You tell me not to see Prince Kance and expect me to kowtow to what you want without telling me why. Whatever you think about me, you at least owe me an explanation.”
He glared back at me, but something in his expression wavered, like he wasn’t sure how to phrase it. “I know how you feel about Kance,” he finally said.
I felt like a hole in my stomach had opened, and my heart had plummeted right through it. “What?”
“That first night at the party. When you raised those dead rats.” He looked down at my heartsglass. “You’ve been pretty good at hiding your emotions since then but not that first time. Asha aren’t the only people who can read heartsglass. It’s not mandatory for Deathseekers to learn, but it’s a good skill to have.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“Because I thought you were just another inexperienced asha with a schoolgirl’s crush. I’ve seen enough girls throw themselves at him, and I can see the early signs of infatuation. But then you raised those rats, and I realized you were a lot more than that. I’ve spent almost all my life protecting Kance from danger, and I knew you would put him there from your presence alone.”
“Conneries,” I said.
“What?”
“That’s what Polaire says when she thinks someone’s talking out of their ass. You’re right. I do like Prince Kance, but I’ve tried my best not to let that get in the way of my duties as an asha, and I never intended to let him know, much less do anything about it. You talk about being able to read my heartsglass, but you forget that I can read them as well as you, even better. You lied just now.”
He paused. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“When you said that you thought I was just another inexperienced asha, your heartsglass flickered. You knew I was a Dark asha even before Zoya and her friends told you.” And then realization dawned. “You knew who I was as soon as you saw me that first night at the Falling Leaf, didn’t you? But when?”
He stared at me, and I watched as his heartsglass shifted color from a dark silver to a deep blue and then back again before settling for a brighter gray tint. “That wasn’t the first time we met,” he finally said. “When I was fifteen years old and you and Lady Mykaela had come to Kneave to perform the Heartsrune ceremony for my uncle.”
I stared at him. “There was a boy in a hooded cloak and a silver heartsglass…”
He frowned. “I wore the cloak, yes. But my heartsglass had not yet turned silver then. I was with Councilor Abadiah when he requested for the king to begin the Heartsrune ceremony.”
The boy in the brown cloak accomp
anying the nervous councilor. The one with the beet-red heartsglass, heavy with anger.
He nodded. “You remember now. Ten years ago, a daeva rampaged through Holsrath, where my family lived. The Dark asha tasked to face it lost her nerve and fled. Other asha managed to put it down, but not before the town suffered many casualties, my mother and Kalen’s among them.” He paused, then added stiffly, “I don’t like my father, but I share his anger at Dark asha. I question how King Telemaine could welcome them with open arms when they caused his wife’s death, though I would never turn against him like my father had. But I was angry, and you were the easiest person to lash out at. I owe you an apology for what I said then, but I stand by what I say now. You must stay away from Kance.”
“Any minute now, Tea,” Polaire said grimly, her head tilted back to watch the sky. She nibbled at a thumb. “I don’t want to have to do this in near darkness.”
“We can talk later,” Kalen said grimly, looking back out at the waters, “if either of us gets through this in one piece.”
“For someone who believes I’m powerful enough to have to protect a prince against, you don’t seem to believe I can do it.”
He glanced back at me and finally allowed himself a small, brief smile. “Good luck, Lady Tea.”
“Thanks.” I moved toward the edge of the lake, coordinating my breathing with every step that I took. Left foot, right foot. In and out. Left foot, right foot. In and out.
Fox moved beside me, but Polaire put a hand on his arm, forcing him to stay still while I forged on ahead. In and out. Left foot, right foot. My shoes sank into the wet soil, small bundles of vegetation caressing my feet as I moved, waving against the current. I cast my mind around for the presence, embracing it this time instead of shunting it into the furthest corners of my head, and I thought I felt it respond, sensing the change. I waded farther out, ignoring Polaire’s alarmed calls for me to stop, and reached out with my thoughts, feeling the spindles of thought gathering around me, giving me all the momentum I need.