by Morgan Rice
There was one that came to Kate immediately. “Where are my parents?”
Official Ko shook his head. “I am just a faded old memory. I do not know what passes in the world. Try again.”
Kate frowned trying to think. “Who is Lucas?”
Official Ko stood, gesturing to the door. “That, we can answer. Come.”
Kate followed the man, or the memory of a man, or whatever he was, heading through the door into a corridor that seemed to stretch forever.
“How does this place exist?” she asked. “How are you here?”
“It is hard to say,” Official Ko said. “Your family is special, and I taught Lucas many things. This place was originally a place in which to store memories so that they would not be forgotten. A way to learn. Your presence probably makes this place more than it was.”
Kate looked into one of the rooms. She could see a young boy there, working to write on a clay tablet, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrated.
“You understand who he is, don’t you?” the fat man asked.
“He’s my brother,” Kate said, and just saying the words felt like a realization. “I have… I have a brother.”
It felt right somehow. It felt true. Kate didn’t know how she knew it, but she could feel the reality of it. She had a brother. She wanted to shout it to the world. She stared at him then, not wanting to take her eyes off this boy, wanting to know all about the brother she’d never known she had.
“There are more doorways,” Official Ko said.
Kate followed him to the cusp of each one, and behind each, it seemed that there was another scene from her brother’s life. There he was, playing a hiding game with a collection of servants. There he was, reciting passages from a book that Kate had never heard of. She saw him practicing with weapons, plotting out tactics with wooden soldiers, learning to play instruments that looked like nothing Kate had seen before. Each moment that she saw felt precious, both because it let her see something of her brother’s life, and because it was a moment in which she wasn’t suffering at the hands of whatever lay beyond this place’s walls.
Then those walls started to crack, and claws began to reach through.
“Ah, I feared this might happen,” the image of Official Ko said. “This is a haven, but it is not a fortress, and in this place, creatures seek life, and light, and pain.”
“What can I do?” Kate asked.
There were two swords in the fat man’s hands now, both curved and long. He passed one to Kate.
“You can go,” he said, gesturing to the doorways. “Do what you know you must. I… well, I am just an old image, but I will hold them as long as I can.”
“Thank you,” Kate said.
Official Ko smiled. “Thank your brother. I think he remembers this version of me better than I am.” He pointed. “That door, I think.”
The first of the creatures broke through, and Official Ko raised his sword. Kate wished that she could stay and fight, but instead, she ran through the door the image had pointed to. She found herself in a walled courtyard, where a young man with flame red hair was practicing with a blade of his own. He turned to Kate as she approached, and even though she knew this wasn’t the real Lucas, it felt as though she was meeting her brother for the first time in that moment. She could feel the pulse of connection to him, and she just hoped that it would be enough.
“Who are you?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”
“There’s no time,” she said, then sent the words as forcefully as she could.
If you can hear me, I’m trapped. Our sister is in danger. A witch has taken my form. You must save her. You must save us both.
It was all that there was time for. The creatures were already pouring into the courtyard, and this time, Kate suspected that they weren’t going to give her another chance to run to safety.
She lifted her blade, and charged.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sophia watched her people preparing for war, and she was proud of them even as she feared what might happen to them in what was to come. She put one hand over her belly protectively as she watched them loading ships and sharpening weapons. The other went to ruffle Sienne’s fur. Was she really going to bring her child into a world at war, or risk its well-being in the violence that would follow? Was she really going to risk all the people who were gathering and training together, readying themselves for the war to come?
With Sebastian in danger, she would. To give her child back its father, to rescue the man she loved, she would burn the world if she had to.
“You’re worried about what’s coming,” Lucas said, standing beside her at the docks. He looked ready for war in a way that Sophia didn’t feel. He’d probably been preparing for it over the years where all Sophia had learned was to fear the masked nuns who tormented her.
“I’m terrified by it,” she admitted. “Am I doing the right thing, Lucas? You know more about war than I do, I think. Is this attack the right thing to do?”
You shouldn’t second-guess yourself aloud, Lucas sent over to her. People need to see that you’re confident. They draw their strength from you. They trust you.
Sophia had been surprised to find that it was true, but it seemed to be. The men there watched her as she passed, bowing low or calling out their support. The captains of their forces came up to her as she and Lucas started to tour the preparations, and it seemed that every one of them had a report or a question.
“Will we assault Ashton along its river?” one man asked. “My men are skilled in beaching boats in shallow water.”
Sophia looked over to Lucas.
It is a valid tactic, he sent. It might let us get men inside the city. It depends how quickly they could move up the river.
That was one thing where Sophia felt that she knew enough to comment. She’d seen the river that ran through Ashton. She knew how many barges were there. Her friend Emeline had told her the stories of piloting one. Just imagining it, she knew the answer.
“We couldn’t do it openly,” she said. “If they saw us coming, there are enough boats on the river that they could blockade it. They can close off the bridges or raise chains. If they judge it right, they could trap us.”
The captain looked disappointed at his idea being rejected like that, but Sophia wasn’t done.
“But that’s if we do it openly,” she said. “So what I want you to do is find trading vessels, and get your men aboard wearing none of Ishjemme’s colors. Get them to Ashton, and when the time comes, I want you to be in a position to take the river for us to give us access. Can you do that?”
The man nodded. “Yes, my queen.”
My queen. It was still strange being called that. Strange having men who probably knew more about war than Sophia did looking to her for answers.
You’re doing better than I could, Lucas sent to her. I can tell a man the tactics Official Ko had me learn, but I do not know the Dowager’s kingdom, and I cannot make the men here love me as they love you.
Sophia wasn’t so sure about that. The men nodded to Lucas as he passed. She could sense the respect there for a warrior more skilled than almost any of them. Sophia had seen what he could do when he fought the Master of Crows. She had no doubt that the men would follow him when it came to battle.
“Things seem to be going well,” she said, although even to her it sounded more like a question than a statement. It was hard to tell, when there was so much happening on the docks. Was this what things looked like when they were going well, or was this the kind of chaos that could lead to disaster?
“They’re going well,” Lucas assured her. He nodded to where their cousins were working hard to coordinate things. “Hans has the men drilling ready for battle, while Oli is keeping notes of the supplies as they go aboard. Freya and Ulf are helping with the merchants, Jan is captaining a ship, and Endi is gathering messages as they come in.”
Sophia smiled at how quickly her brother was managing to keep tr
ack of things.
I was serious about helping and advising you, he sent. A queen doesn’t have to do everything herself. You get help, and you have all the family to help anyone could wish for.
Not all the family, Sophia sent back. We still have to find our parents.
“We will,” Lucas assured her aloud. “But first, we will do this.”
Sophia nodded, then turned to the castle. “We should head back for now. It will still be a little while before we’re ready to go, and our uncle will want to be updated about what’s happening.”
“And you should rest a little,” Lucas said. “I know you’re strong, but this is a lot when you are pregnant.”
Sophia nodded. She was tired. Just walking to tour the preparations for the invasion was hard work, but she wasn’t going to complain about it when everyone else was doing so much.
They walked back in the direction of the castle, passing people in the streets as they went. Some bowed or curtseyed, and that felt a little stranger than with the soldiers, especially when so many of them were going on with their normal lives while around them, preparations for war were still taking place. Sophia could see a washer woman hanging out clothes while almost next to her a man sorted through musket balls for any that were too flat, or too rough. She walked past a bakery where people were laughing with one another, but a glance at their thoughts showed that they were thinking about the sons who were going off to Ashton, possibly never to come back.
The closer they got to the castle, though, the more people were focused on war. There were more soldiers there, and fewer ordinary people. As Sophia, Sienne, and Lucas approached, two of the soldiers came up to them, and Sophia could see in their thoughts what had them moving with that much urgency.
“Kate’s back?” she asked.
One nodded. “Yes, your majesty. Your sister arrived just a little while ago. She said she needed to see you as soon as you came back.”
“Where is she?” Sophia asked.
“She is waiting for you in your chambers.”
Sophia nodded. “Thank you. Will you take Sienne? She needs to be fed, and I doubt I’ll have a chance now.”
“Yes, my queen.” The guard sounded hesitant. Was it that they were still nervous around the forest cat, or were they worried about her being without protection? Either way, there was no reason to worry. Sienne did as Sophia asked, while Sophia doubted that she would need the forest cat’s extra protection for a family reunion.
Go with them, Sophia sent to Sienne, they’ll find you food.
The forest cat briefly pushed against Sophia’s leg, but then went, following one of the guards. Sophia and Lucas went in together, making their way through the castle. Around them, things were as busy as everywhere else in Ishjemme, with people running about in their preparations. The whole place felt almost like a crossbow being wound back, ready to launch the bolt of its invasion fleet.
But before that, Sophia needed to let her sister know that they had a brother.
She and Lucas went up through the castle toward the rooms that were Sophia’s now. There were no guards by the doors, but only because Sophia would have felt uncomfortable sleeping in any room that needed guards. She opened the doors, stepping inside with Lucas.
“There you are,” she said as she saw her sister standing by one of the windows. She ran up to Kate to hug her. “I’ve been so worried about you!”
“I’m fine,” Kate assured her. She seemed a little uncomfortable being hugged like that and quickly turned her attention to Lucas. “Who is this? Can we send him away? We need to talk.”
That seemed blunt, even by Kate’s standards.
Is something wrong? Sophia sent across to her, but Kate had walls up across her mind in a way that she never normally did around her. Something must be really wrong if Kate didn’t even want Sophia to see it like that, but the sheer magnitude of the good news that she had outweighed the rest of it.
“Kate, this is Lucas. He… he’s our brother.”
“Our brother?” Kate stared at him, and Sophia could see the surprise there now. “We have a brother?”
“We do,” Sophia said. “Our parents hid him and…” A thought occurred to her. “Our parents. Now that Kate is here, we can find them with your device, Lucas.”
“What device?” Kate asked.
Sophia did her best to explain. “Lucas came because of our messages to the Silk Lands. Our parents aren’t there, but they left him with a device that would find them if the three of us were brought together. We can find them, Kate.”
Her sister cocked her head to the side. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
That caught Sophia a little by surprise. “Kate, you’ve wanted to find our parents even more than I have,” she said. “This is our chance. What’s happened to you?”
Kate seemed to think for a few moments, looking from Sophia to Lucas and back. “I went to try to break my link to Siobhan,” she explained, and Sophia gaped at her.
“How could you do something that dangerous without telling me?” she asked. “Kate, that must have been so dangerous!”
“It was,” Kate said. “The witch who helped me, Haxa, is dead. It was… a difficult experience for me, too. I think it might have changed some things about me. I’m not the person I was. It’s why I don’t know if this device is a good idea. I don’t even know if it will work for me.”
“It should work for us,” Lucas said. “It is in our blood.”
Kate paused. “Well,” she allowed, “I guess I still have the same blood.”
Lucas took out the flat disc of metal that he had shown to Sophia before. As it had then, it glowed faintly where he touched it, letters and lines gleaming in response to his power.
Sophia reached out, touching it too, and the interlocking pieces of the device started to shift, moving around to form the map of the world that they had before. Its lines glowed, and Sophia wanted to believe that when Kate touched it, the spot where her parents stood would be revealed.
“Now you,” Sophia said to Kate.
Lucas frowned as she spoke, looking almost as if he were listening to something Sophia couldn’t hear. Sophia focused on Kate, though, because this was a moment that they had all hoped for. This was the moment when they would finally find their parents. Kate reached out for the disc of metal, touching it delicately…
Lucas’s eyes widened. “It isn’t Kate! It’s Siobhan! Get back, Sophia!”
Sophia looked down at the disc, which sat flat and unchanged, no fresh transformation wrought by Kate’s touch. She stepped back, staring at her sister. At least, at the person she thought was her sister.
She was still staring when Kate hit Lucas with the kind of force that even she shouldn’t have had, striking him hard enough to send him flying into the far wall.
Kate let the walls around her mind drop then, and Sophia saw that what Lucas had said was true. This wasn’t Kate.
“Help!” Sophia called out. “Somebody help!”
“Shout if you want,” Siobhan said, with Kate’s voice. “I sent people away. I had hoped that this body’s blood would be enough to fool that device, I had thought that I might be able to wait to get you alone, but it seems that my former apprentice found a way to call for help.”
“Give me back my sister!” Sophia demanded.
Kate’s face smiled in a way that had nothing to do with her. “She would have attacked me by now. You… the best that can be said for you is that you are a vessel for a very special child.”
She raised a hand with her palm out, and Sophia didn’t understand until Siobhan blew using Kate’s lips, sending powder toward her in a cloud. Sophia gasped involuntarily, and felt it in her nose, her mouth, blocking the airway. She felt herself fall to her knees as weakness threatened to overwhelm her, and Kate stood there before her, looking menacing in a way that she should never have been able to manage.
“Now,” Siobhan said, drawing a knife. “Hold still. We have a ritual to perform before
I kill you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Cora stared out from the prow of a fast fishing boat, willing it to hurry along the fjords. She had never been beyond the Dowager’s kingdom before, and if there had been more time she might have taken her time, savoring the experience. For now, though, all she wanted was for the boat to arrive in Ishjemme.
“It won’t go any faster just because we want it to,” Aidan said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Cora was surprised by how much that touch calmed her. There was something reassuring about having him there with her. Just not reassuring enough to completely push out the thoughts of how much danger Sophia was in.
“Sophia could be dying as we speak,” Cora said. “Siobhan… you don’t know how dangerous she is, Aidan.”
“I’ve heard stories,” he assured her, as Emeline came up to join them. She looked every bit as worried as Cora felt. “It’s hard to guess how many of them are true.”
“Probably more than we think,” Emeline said. “If she’s powerful enough to lock away everything Kate is like this, then she’s going to be hard to deal with.”
“Can we deal with her?” Cora asked. That worry snaked through her alongside the fear that they might be too late. What if they got there, and the thing that had imprisoned Kate was too powerful for them?
“We have to try,” Emeline said. Cora would have preferred it if she’d said that yes, of course they would be able to do it. As it was, it sounded as though she was every bit as nervous as Cora felt. Cora wasn’t used to Emeline being nervous about anything.
“How much further do you think it is?” Cora asked. They were sailing along fjords lined with trees, and with statues that seemed to jut out from the banks as markers. The whole place was more beautiful than she could have imagined.
“It can’t be too much further,” Emeline said. “I talked to the captain, and he said that on summer days, young men race up these fjords in small boats.”