‘Stinks of magic,’ Reichis said, coming over to sniff at it.
I picked up the bucket, and even in the dim light noticed the glyphs along the copper bands that held the wooden slats in place. ‘It’s got a cooling charm on it,’ I said, looking back at the contents of the tub.
A cry from Seneira sent me running to the smallest of the three bedrooms. Though it was sparsely furnished, the cloth animals on the bed and the pair of wooden play swords mounted on the wall like trophies made it obvious that this was the room of a young boy. The bedsheets were in disarray and the blankets were strewn on the floor.
‘They took them!’ Seneira said, her hands squeezed tightly into fists.
‘Who?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know! My father has enemies, people who resent the idea of the Academy. It must be one of—’
‘Your family was not taken,’ Rosie said, coming into the room with Ferius close behind.
‘You don’t know that! You’re just—’
‘Look, child. Look all around you.’
Seneira did, and it amazed me that, despite being so clearly terrified for her father and brother, she was able to get herself under control. I’d have been climbing the walls. I followed her gaze, and noticed the signs all around us. There was a pile of extra sheets stacked on the floor next to the night table. The sheets on the bed weren’t just in a messy tangle, they were soiled, which Reichis noticed immediately when he sauntered into the room. ‘Piss and sweat,’ he said, backing away.
I forced myself to examine the bedding more closely, and that’s when I saw the ripped fabric on either side about halfway down – the kind you might get if the bed’s occupant were clawing at the sheets repeatedly. It reminded me of the desperate, feverish reflex Seneira herself had shown when she’d practically broken my hand squeezing it during her last attack. The pieces that Rosie and Ferius had already put together finally made sense.
The sweat-soaked sheets, the discarded blankets – both of these pointed to someone with a fever. The extra sheets folded and piled up next to the bed meant the fever had been going on for some time. The half-eaten meal on the dining-room table suggested things had suddenly gotten worse. I imagined Seneira’s father, hearing his son screaming for him and running up the stairs. So what does he find? The fever’s worse than before, so he uses the bucket with the cooling charm to fill the tub with cold water and puts his son in there to bring the fever down, but the fever doesn’t go down, so he carries the boy in his arms and flees the house to find help. Judging from the rotting food in the dining room, that would have been at least three days ago.
I caught Seneira’s horrified stare and knew that she’d worked it out too – had, in fact, gone one step further. ‘Shadowblack,’ she whispered. ‘Tyne has the shadowblack.’
It was all any of us could do to keep Seneira from running out the front door in search of her brother. ‘Father will have taken him to one of the hospitals,’ she said, rushing down the stairs.
‘Kid, wait a second,’ Ferius called out, but Seneira ignored her.
Rosie was more direct. She leaped over the banister to the floor below, landing lightly on the balls of her feet with her knees bent before standing up to block Seneira’s path. ‘Your reckless urges serve no purpose, child. Listen to all the winds before—’
‘Don’t start with that Argosi nonsense! This is my brother we’re talking about! If he’s got the shadowblack then it means—’
Rosie put her hand on Seneira’s cheek with a gentleness at such odds with her previous action that it reminded me of the name by which she called herself: the Path of Thorns and Roses. ‘You assume it must be your fault, and yours is a kind and noble heart, one that cannot stand to be the cause of suffering for those you love. It is a good thing, this heart of yours, but you must temper it with wisdom and strength if you wish to help your brother.’
Seneira stared back at her, and I could see in her expression twin impulses fighting each other: an intense dislike of being lectured warring against the desperate need to protect her family. ‘Tell me what I need to do,’ she said at last.
‘First we need to figure out where your pa will have taken your brother,’ Ferius said, coming down the stairs to join us. ‘A regular hospital is too public. Too many people would have to know that your brother was sick, and word of the shadowblack tends to spread like wildfire on dry brush.’ She gestured to the empty house. ‘Since nobody’s burned this place down yet, it’s a safe bet nobody knows about your brother.’
‘The Academy has a faculty of medicine,’ Seneira said, her face lighting up with hope. ‘My father could have snuck Tyne in through one of the maintenance passages in the bottom of the tower and stationed guards outside one of the private rooms.’
Rosie looked unconvinced. ‘Such an elaborate plan would be foolhardy and require putting trust in too many people.’
‘You never did understand people too well, sister,’ Ferius countered. ‘A man gets scared, he’s going to want to go somewhere safe, somewhere he feels in control.’
‘Very well, we will investigate this medical facility inside the Academy first.’ She looked to Seneira. ‘You must wait here, child, until we return.’
Seneira nodded, then walked right past Rosie and out the door, forcing the rest of us to follow.
Ferius chuckled as she walked by the stunned Argosi. ‘See what I mean?’
17
The Great Tower
Up close the Academy was even more daunting than it had been when I’d first seen it from beyond the city walls. The tower itself was surrounded by a cobbled courtyard, lit by brass oil lanterns mounted on poles around the perimeter that allowed groups of students to sit on benches and read or talk or perhaps just stare up at the majesty of their school.
‘Is it always this busy at night?’ I asked. It was dark enough outside that we could probably reach the Academy without being noticed, but even from the shadows where we huddled I could see, through the massive open double doors, light and activity inside.
‘The Academy never closes,’ Seneira replied, the anxiety on her face increasing with each step, as though her desire to find her brother had to push against the fear that someone might discover that she had the shadowblack. Even with her blindfold on, there would be questions if one of her fellow students recognised her.
‘You shouldn’t have come,’ Rosie told her, pointedly ignoring the warning glance Ferius shot her. ‘Your presence only makes it more difficult for us to enter the medical facility unseen.’
‘Really?’ Seneira asked. ‘And how long do you think you’ll be wandering around the tower trying to find it without me? Even if you can, why would my father or his guards trust a group of strangers just because they claim to know his daughter?’
A look passed across Rosie’s features, just for a second, but it was enough for me to be pretty sure I’d just found one of the secrets that the Argosi had been keeping from us. I was about to say something when I caught the slightest flutter of Ferius’s hand and saw that she was looking at me, signalling me to keep quiet for now. ‘We need a distraction is all,’ she said.
I knelt down to face Reichis, who’d made his fur go entirely black and was now almost invisible in the shadows except for his eyes. ‘Well, partner?’
He looked back at me, twitching his whiskers. I could tell he was debating with himself whether to extort something from me in exchange, but I guess he remembered that I was currently broke on account of him having all my coins already. ‘How big a distraction do you want?’
‘Big enough that we can get inside that tower without anyone noticing us, but not so big you get the whole town chasing after us with torches.’
He gave me one of his creepy grins. ‘Effective but discreet. Got it.’
‘What’s he sayin’?’ Ferius asked.
I stood back up. ‘That we should probably all make peace with our respective gods right about now.’
Reichis gave himself a shake, and his fu
r changed colour, going from pitch black to a kind of blazing red with silvery stripes. He took off at a run, growling his head off as he did and racing up one of the lamp posts before leaping off and gliding into the courtyard towards the head of one of the students innocently walking by. ‘Beware the blood-red squirrel cat!’ he declared, grabbing onto the young man’s neck, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that no one but me could understand him. ‘I crave human flesh tonight, and I will drain the blood of every skinbag I catch!’
The poor guy began screaming his head off, trying to grab at Reichis but having no luck as the squirrel cat kept shifting position. One particularly daring group of students came over to help, even as almost everyone else fled from the screeching animal. Reichis hopped from one would-be saviour to another, delivering a quick bite to an ear or nose before leaving them shouting in panic as he dropped to the cobblestones and raced into the tower.
So much for discreet, I thought, as the rest of us followed him inside.
We entered a massive open level with a thirty-foot ceiling and tiny shops arranged all around the inner wall. A pair of wide stone staircases spiralled up on either side of the tower, intersecting at mezzanines on each level. Rising through the centre was what appeared to be some kind of floating chamber attached to a complex system of weights and pulleys. Two attendants stood by, wearing gloves designed to help them work the cranks that would make the chamber go up and down the tower. They, like everyone else, were fixated on Reichis, who was now racing up the ropes, still screaming various threats that would have sounded ominous were anyone but me able to understand them.
‘The medical wing is underground,’ Seneira said, leading us down one side of the stairs.
I hesitated, looking back to make sure Reichis was okay. For the most part, people had stopped panicking and were now letting out appreciative oohs and aahs as the squirrel cat performed various acrobatic tricks, using the furry flaps that ran from his front paws to his back legs to glide down from the ceiling before skittering back up the ropes to repeat his performance. The little monster was loving all the attention.
‘The squirrel cat’s got it handled,’ Ferius said, pushing me into motion.
Two floors below ground we came to a set of doors adorned with a stylised tree painted in red.
‘That’s the sign for healing in these parts,’ Ferius explained.
It wasn’t all that dissimilar to the first form of the Jan’Tep glyph for blood magic, except that our spells are used for torment as often as for healing.
Inside we found a network of hallways and rooms populated by men and women in white clothing. They each had the red tree symbol on the breast, but with varying quantities of branches. ‘The number of branches indicates their rank within the profession,’ Seneira explained, staying behind Ferius and Rosie to keep from being noticed. She quickly and confidently guided us down a series of corridors that became progressively less crowded. ‘This wing is where the private rooms are,’ she explained. ‘They’re usually only used for visiting dignitaries who don’t want their illnesses to become public knowledge in their own countries.’
At the far end of a narrow hall, a man sat on a chair outside one of the rooms, a heavy mace resting across his lap. ‘Looks like we need another distraction,’ I said, reaching for a pinch of the powders at my side. I figured if I fired a blast the guard would have to leave his post to see what had happened. If we were lucky we could sneak by him and get down the hall and into the room before he returned.
Seneira stayed my hand. ‘No more hiding. No more games.’ Before any of us could stop her, she stepped out from behind Ferius and walked right up to the guard. ‘Hello, Haight,’ she said. ‘I’d like to see my brother now.’
18
The Fever
The guard looked as if he’d just seen a spirit come to haunt him. ‘Seneira?’ He rose to his feet. ‘We thought you were—’
She gave him a quick hug. ‘I’m fine, Haight.’
He stared down at her, then at the rest of us, before his hand gripped his mace tighter. ‘Why are you wearing a blindfold, Seneira?’
‘Just a little eye trouble,’ she replied. ‘I need to see Tyne now. He’s inside, isn’t he?’
Haight hesitated, but I suppose he must have known Seneira wasn’t going to be dissuaded. Reluctantly he stepped aside, watching Rosie, Ferius and myself as we passed by, no doubt evaluating how much of a threat each of us might be if he later needed to beat us into submission with that big mace of his.
Through the doors we were met by an expansive room in near pitch black except for a small lantern hanging over a narrow cot. In one corner, shrouded in shadow, a man sat slumped in a chair.
‘Father?’ Seneira said, a catch in her voice as if she wasn’t sure whether to wake him.
The figure rose from the chair and turned to face us looking unsteady on his feet. He was between us and the light so I couldn’t make out his features. For a few seconds he stood there, almost like a man drunk, then shuddered as if he had only then woken up. A wracking sob came from his throat. ‘Seneira?’
He ran to her, and she had to hold him up as he nearly fell over trying to hug her. ‘Father, I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean—’
‘You’re back,’ he said, the words barely more than a hoarse whisper, the sound of a man who’d already cried himself voiceless with grief. ‘You’re back.’ He repeated the words over and over, his arms wrapped around his daughter and his head buried in her shoulder.
Rosie, Ferius and I remained at a polite distance, allowing father and daughter to share in their mixture of desperate relief and sorrow with as much dignity as possible. Unfortunately a scraping sound from a square iron grating overhead caught everyone’s attention. ‘Hey, somebody want to open this gods-damned thing up before I die of claustrophobia in here?’ Reichis chittered angrily.
‘What is that?’ Seneira’s father asked, looking up at the beady eyes peering through the grate.
‘That’s Reichis,’ she replied. ‘He’s Kellen’s …’
Don’t say ‘pet’. Don’t say ‘pet’. Oh, please, ancestors, don’t let her say ‘pet’.
‘Friend,’ she finished awkwardly.
Reichis gave a snort. ‘Like I’d ever be friends with a skinbag.’ Having evidently tired of waiting for us to free him, he managed to reach a paw through a gap in the iron grating and began fiddling with the latch until it popped open. He then leaped out, spreading his limbs and catching the air to drift gracefully to the ground. He went over and briefly sniffed at Seneira’s father before looking up at him and pronouncing, ‘Cry baby.’
Reichis isn’t big on expressions of grief.
‘This is my father, Beren Thrane, headmaster of the Academy,’ Seneira explained, and then began to introduce the rest of us. She’d barely opened her mouth before Beren ran over to Rosie and took her in a bear hug, practically lifting her off the ground. ‘You did it! I … I’d given up hope, but I should’ve known that if anyone could find my daughter it would be an Argosi!’
Rosie appeared particularly uncomfortable at this sudden outpouring of gratitude, not least because she caught the enraged look on Seneira’s face. ‘Found me? Father, you hired Rosie to search for me?’
Beren seemed confused as he turned to the Argosi. ‘Rosie? I thought you were called the Path of Thorns and Roses.’
‘Not the point,’ Seneira said, glaring at the woman who she’d thought had come upon her by accident in the borderlands. ‘You lied to me, Rosie. You said—’
‘I did not lie, child. You simply made assumptions and I allowed you to reach your own—’
‘Don’t try to wriggle out of this! Whatever happened to “The Way of Water” and not taking advantage of other people?’
‘I would hardly call saving your life “taking advantage”,’ Rosie replied.
Ferius jostled me with her elbow and said, ‘Now you know why an Argosi usually travels alone.’
A quiet voice from the be
d caught everyone’s attention. ‘Senny?’
Seneira ran to the bed. The light from the lantern illuminated all the pain and fear in her expression as she looked at her younger brother. She leaned forward and hugged him to her, practically lifting him out of the bed. When she set him down again, the front of her shirt was damp with sweat.
The rest of us approached. Tyne looked very different from the joyful, almost mischievous little boy in the painting inside Seneira’s locket; his face was pale, almost grey, except for the winding black marks around his right eye. He shook relentlessly as he lay on top of his sheets, uncovered except for linen underpants. For a second I thought he must be cold, but then I saw the redness of his skin, the sweat pouring off him. Reichis jumped up to perch at the head of the bed. ‘This kid’s burning up, Kellen.’
The boy reached out a hand, trying to pet Reichis, but his fingers hadn’t even brushed the squirrel cat’s fur before his eyelids flickered shut and his arm fell back to lie awkwardly across his chest.
‘How did this happen?’ Seneira asked her father.
‘It was like with you, sweetheart,’ he said, reaching out to gently lift his son’s hand and set it at a more comfortable angle on the sheets. ‘He woke up with a terrible fever one morning. When I went to his room, I found the markings around his eye. I tried to keep his fever down, but it just kept getting worse, day after day, until a few nights ago when he started screaming. I tried to cool him down, but nothing worked.’ He looked at his son, his expression full of exhausted fearfulness. ‘The attacks are so bad … They just keep coming and coming.’
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