Beren Thrane looked at me with something approaching compassion in his eyes even as he put a protective arm around Seneira’s shoulders. ‘Well, I know something about young people being hunted for no good reason.’
‘Now that we’re all friends –’ Ferius began, reaching into her waistcoat and this time not stopping before she pulled out a smoking reed. I noticed she didn’t light it though – ‘would someone mind telling me what’s going on?’
Beren nodded, and an almost rapturous smile came to his face as he gestured towards Dexan. ‘It took a great deal of effort and no small expense to find him, but I believe this is the man who can save my children from this blight called the shadowblack.’
‘What?’ I asked. ‘How could …?’ I saw now that Dexan was staring right at me. He took a step closer and bent down. There, barely visible at all, was a kind of soft scar around his right eye. The skin had healed, but faint traces of the winding circular markings remained. ‘Yeah,’ he said, no doubt noticing the desperate look of hope on my face, ‘I found a cure for the shadowblack.’
21
The Cure
We all stood around Tyne’s bed, watching the spellslinger who called himself Dexan Videris as he examined the markings around the sleeping boy’s eye.
‘I apologise for sending those men to bring you,’ Beren said, visibly uncomfortable that his son’s life was in another’s hands. ‘I was desperate to find help for my boy, and when I heard the stories about you I couldn’t take the chance that you might refuse to help us.’
‘Well, can’t say I appreciated those ex-marshals using man-catchers on me.’ He reached up and rubbed at his neck. ‘I can still feel those damned metal prongs.’
‘Again, I can’t tell you how sorry I—’
Dexan reached out a hand and patted him on the shoulder. ‘You did what any father would do, I reckon, so no hard feelings. This time.’ He went back to peering down at Tyne. ‘I’m going to touch the markings now,’ he said. ‘It’ll probably hurt, so I need someone to hold the boy down.’
Beren went to his son, but Dexan shook his head. ‘Not you. I ain’t asking a father to make his son suffer.’ He looked at me. ‘Want to help me out, Kellen? I reckon you should watch.’
I glanced at Ferius, then felt ashamed of myself for doing so, and went to hold the boy down. He was so small and weak I didn’t think it’d be much work, but once Dexan got started, it took all my strength.
Dexan reached into a pocket of his waistcoat and pulled out a small sliver of glistening black stone. ‘Onyx,’ he explained. ‘Well, a special kind of onyx. Comes from around here actually.’
‘Can it help him?’ Seneira asked.
‘Afraid not. Removing the shadowblack ain’t an easy process. It’ll take days, and that’s only if the most important requirement is met.’
‘If it’s money …’ Beren began.
‘Oh, don’t worry, you’ll have to pay plenty for me to put myself through this again, but no, I’m talking about something else. Now, everybody shut up so I don’t hurt the child more than necessary.’
Dexan gently reached down and pressed one edge of the sliver of onyx against the puffy black flesh around the boy’s right eye. Suddenly Tyne bucked so hard I could barely hang onto him.
‘Hold him,’ Dexan ordered. I did, but part of me couldn’t help but watch what was happening.
The black winding lines around Tyne’s eye were … moving … slithering. The boy started screaming, so loudly and so horribly Seneira tried to pull Dexan away. ‘Stop it! You’re killing him!’
Dexan shrugged her off, continuing to press the onyx sliver even as he spoke a spell under his breath and formed a somatic shape I didn’t recognise with his other hand. A kind of smoke – no, more like a thin black mist – rose up from the boy’s eye.
‘Damn it,’ Dexan said, pulling away. He put the sliver of onyx back in his pocket. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t help him.’
Seneira went to her brother’s side, grabbing a cloth and wiping some of the sweat from his forehead. ‘What is it? Why can’t you—’
Dexan turned to me. ‘How much do you know about the shadowblack?’
I chose my words carefully. I wasn’t sure how much of the dark part of our shared history had come out since the death of the dowager magus. I’d told the council, and Shalla knew, which meant my parents did too, but had they revealed the truth? Or did my people still glibly pretend we were a noble culture, seeking only to master the ways of magic to protect ourselves? ‘I know it’s connected to demon magic.’
‘Close, but not quite. The shadowblack isn’t a connection between the victim and some vague demonic energies. It’s a direct link between the victim and an actual demon. That’s why those afflicted suffer horrible visions and have urges to commit terrible acts of violence. It’s the demon pulling at you, demanding subservience, trying to take control once and for all. They prefer mages because, well, mages can do the most harm.’
I shuddered involuntarily.
‘Yeah,’ Dexan said. ‘Puts that particular curse in a whole other light, don’t it?’
‘Please,’ Beren begged. ‘Why can’t you help my son?’
Dexan sighed. ‘Because there’s two parts to the curse.’ He went back to Tyne’s bedside and reached down a finger, almost but not quite touching the markings. ‘This is one aspect, but the other is inside the person who cast it in the first place. Whoever did this to your son is a whole lot more powerful than I am. So long as the dirty rotten son of a bitch is alive, I can’t break the hex. If I try, I’ll just end up killing your boy.’
‘What about Seneira?’ I asked. ‘Can you—’
Dexan shook his head. ‘I don’t need to torture the girl to tell you it’s gonna be the same mage as the one that did her brother. I’m sorry, folks. I really am.’ He walked away from the bed and towards the door.
‘Wait!’ I called out. ‘What are you doing?’
Dexan stopped. ‘I told you, the only way to help that child is to find the person who cast the curse on him and kill them.’
‘Is that what you’re going to do then? Find the mage who—’
‘First rule of spellslinging, kid: don’t mess with another mage’s business.’ He turned to look back at me and I saw something vaguely approaching humility on his face. ‘I’m not like those Jan’Tep masters you knew back home, Kellen. I’m just a spellslinger, like you. All I got’s a couple of spells and a few tricks up my sleeve.’ He held up his forearms to show the faded tattooed bands. ‘I’ve been away from my city’s oasis for a long time now, my spells get weaker every year and I got people chasing me just like you do.’ He looked back at Beren and Seneira. ‘Sorry about the boy, and if you can find whoever did this to him and end them, well, I’ll come back then and do what I can to fix him and his sister.’
He left the room, and Beren came to Ferius and me. It says something about how desperate he was that he looked to us – two strangers he’d only just met hours before – and dropped to his knees. ‘Please,’ he said, grabbing hold of our hands, ‘help me find who did this to my son. Help me kill them.’
It says something about me too that, as I felt the itch on my own markings, I pulled my hand away and ran out the door to chase after Dexan Videris and the chance to cure myself.
22
The Deal
‘Wait,’ I shouted, pursuing him down the hallway.
He stopped. ‘I wondered how long it would take you to come after me.’
‘I … It’s not like …’
‘Relax, Kellen,’ he said, and reached a finger up to tap at the scars around his eye. ‘I’ve been through it, remember? I know what it’s like. I know how bad it pulls at you, in the dark, in your dreams.’
‘Can you get rid of it? Mine, I mean.’
He held my gaze a while before saying, ‘No, I’m sorry.’
‘What? What do you mean? The person who put it on me isn’t alive! So why can’t you—’
‘It’s all in
the marks, kid. Yours are too perfect, too smooth. Somebody banded you in shadow, didn’t they?’
I nodded. ‘My grandmother.’
‘Well, I don’t know what she was thinking, but the procedure I discovered won’t work on you. Not unless …’ He trailed off.
‘What? Unless what?’
‘I don’t know. Let me think.’
I waited, my heart pounding in my chest, praying to my ancestors that he might be able to help me, to take away this damned curse and free me of it. I could go back – back to my home, back to Nephenia, back to my family. I might even be able to study magic again.
Dexan looked at me. ‘Man, I know that look. You and me are a lot alike, I think.’ Again he hesitated. ‘I’ve got an idea, Kellen, but I need to do some research and try a few experiments.’ He reached down and grabbed me by the collar. ‘But listen up, kid: if I can do this, it’s going to be hard, and it’s going to be expensive, maybe more than you want to pay.’
He sounded like the price might include more than just money. It’s not uncommon among my people to demand payment in the form of months of service or assistance with spells that put the participant at great risk. But the thought of getting rid of the shadowblack, of being able to return home … ‘Just tell me what it takes,’ I said. ‘What do you want?’
‘I’ll need to think on that too. Give me a couple of days.’ He let go of me and proceeded down the hallway.
‘Wait!’ I called out. ‘How will I find you?’
He didn’t bother to stop. ‘I’ll find you, when I’m good and ready. Trust me, kid, the messes you leave behind? You’re not hard to find.’
I was going to go back into the room and see how I could help – really – but before I could, Ferius came out. She strode up to me like she was going to walk right through me. She stopped a foot away and she looked more disgusted than I’d ever seen her. She looked me up and down as if I was some kind of dirty stain she’d found on a new shirt. ‘Is this who you are?’
‘I was going to—’
‘No, I really want to know, Kellen of the House of Ke – is this who you are?’
She almost never addressed me in the formal way of my people. ‘Look, I wasn’t—’
‘Answer me!’
‘Yes! All right? Yes, this is who I am. I’m a sixteen-year-old kid with nothing to my name but a bounty on my head and a curse that’s going to turn me into a monster one day. So, yes, Ferius, who I am is somebody who needs to find a way to survive in the world before I can go around helping other people.’
‘What about Seneira? A few nights ago you were all up in arms about how we needed to help her. Now you’re ready to abandon these people just so you can chase after the snake-oil salesman who feeds you a line about having a cure for the shadowblack?’
‘I …’ There was a bad taste in my mouth. I guess it was guilt. ‘Seneira’s got family,’ I said. ‘Look at this place! She’s got a father with money and influence to protect her. What do I have? People are trying to kill me, Ferius! And you won’t even teach me the Argosi fighting ways so I can—’
She threw her hands up. ‘I keep telling you, kid, there ain’t no Argosi ways, not the kind you’re looking for. It’s a path – a path you find for yourself, not some set of tricks or spells you learn so you can feel strong by beating other people up.’
‘Well, maybe I should find somebody who can teach me how to beat other people up,’ I said, realising I was close to tears. ‘Because I don’t know what good it does me to have you spitting pointless nonsense at me all the time and then expecting me to help total strangers!’
‘You mean like I helped you?’
My anger got the better of me then. ‘Don’t pretend you gave a damn about me, Ferius. You came to my city because the clan prince had died, and you wanted to … what’s it called again? Follow “the way of the wind”? Hoping to find some “discordance” so you could paint another stupid card and show it to your Argosi friends?’
She stared at me for a long time, all kinds of expressions passing over her features so fast I couldn’t make sense of them, but they seemed to come back to anger, the worst anger I’d ever seen on her. I could see her fists clenching.
‘Are you going to hit me, Ferius?’
She closed her eyes for a moment. ‘No, Kellen,’ she replied, and then walked past me down the hall. ‘I don’t hit children.’
Beren found me waiting outside Tyne’s room. I didn’t really have any business being there, given what I’d done, but the truth was, I also had no other place to go. Reichis came with him, sauntering along behind. ‘Seneira’s staying with her brother for a while longer. Tyne woke for a few minutes.’ Beren was almost beaming, despite the tears in his eyes. He pointed down to Reichis. ‘Your squirrel cat leaped up in the air and glided down, doing all kinds of acrobatics and playing with him.’ He hesitated for a moment, then asked, ‘Does he …? Is he intelligent? I’ve heard that the Jan’Tep familiars sometimes—’
‘He’s not my familiar, but like I told you before, he understands what you’re saying.’
Beren knelt down to face Reichis. ‘Bless you, master squirrel cat, bless your kindness.’
‘Sweet mouse meat!’ Reichis groaned to me. ‘Tell the skinbag to cut it out. Nothing’s worse than watching grown creatures blubber.’
‘What did he say?’ Beren asked.
‘He says it was his pleasure, and he’ll be happy to come back and play with Tyne again if you’d like.’
‘Oh, you arsehole,’ Reichis growled. He leaped up and spread his glider flaps, covering my face like a furry bag, smothering me. ‘Apologise before I choke you to death.’
‘That’s so sweet,’ Beren said. ‘He’s hugging you.’
I prised Reichis off of me. ‘Yeah, he’s a delight.’
Beren looked uncomfortable about what he had to say next. ‘After you left Tyne’s room, your … mentor –’
‘She’s not my mentor.’
‘Forgive me. Your friend Ferius offered to help me find the person responsible for my children’s illness. She said you might be willing to help as well, though there might be a price.’
Great. Ferius had really hung me out to dry. Although I suppose since Dexan had made it clear he was going to want to be paid for helping me, she’d probably saved me from looking like an even bigger jerk when I asked for money later. Feeling about as rotten about myself as I’d ever thought possible, I said, ‘I’ll help. I’ll do whatever I can. I promise.’
The relief on Beren’s face made me feel even worse. ‘Thank you. Thank you so much.’ He led me down the hall towards the exit. ‘Come stay at our home. We can put all of you up for as long as you want.’
‘Thank you,’ I said.
He patted me on the shoulder and sighed. ‘Only one thing has kept me going during this terrible ordeal: the kindness of strangers like you.’
That made me feel worst of all.
23
The Bath
That night we stayed in some of the guest bedrooms in the Thrane residence. Beren cleaned up the mess he’d had to leave when he’d taken Tyne to the hospital, then insisted on feeding us until we were ready to explode. Once the meal was over, he went upstairs to light the small stove inside the bathroom that heated water going into the tub. He generously offered me the use of it, and by offered I mean practically shoved me into the bathing room, leaving behind a small plate of butter biscuits as inducement for me to take my time.
‘You do stink a little,’ Reichis said, after Beren had left. The squirrel cat gave me a sniff. ‘Kind of like dead rat that’s been eaten and then pooped out again.’
‘Thanks.’
He sniffed again. ‘Then it’s like a blind buzzard with no sense of smell ate that and then he went and pooped—’
‘I get it, all right?’
I removed my travel-stained clothes and hunted around the bathroom for a spot to put them where they wouldn’t serve to dirty up the place. Eventually I settled for ha
nging them outside the window.
I dipped my toe in the water and found it hotter than I expected, but something about standing around naked in someone else’s house felt unnatural to me, so I eased myself into the prodigiously large brass tub. First I made sure to balance the small plate of butter biscuits on the flat rim. It had been a long time since I’d eaten anything that hadn’t either been picked off a tree or spent its final moments in a squirrel cat’s jaws.
Once I got used to the heat, the experience became incredibly soothing. I hadn’t realised how many aches and pains I’d accumulated in four months of hard living. Sixteen years old and already I feel like an old man.
‘Hey, Kellen,’ Reichis said.
I opened up an eye to see him balanced precariously on the edge of the tub. ‘Yeah?’
‘What’s it like?’
‘What’s what like?’
He very carefully poked a furry foot into the water. ‘This. Sitting there in a tub of hot water.’
‘It’s … nice, I guess.’ Sometimes Reichis can tell what I’m feeling. I guess the squirrel cat was curious about my sudden sense of comfort.
He pointed a paw towards a short stool next to the tub. ‘Put that in. The water’s too deep for me.’
‘Are you serious? You want to take a bath? I thought cats hated water.’
‘I’m not a cat, moron. I’m a squirrel cat.’
I’ve learned it’s best not to test Reichis’s patience when it comes to issues of species, so I relented and reached over to grab the stool and set it down at the other end of the tub. The seat sat about five inches below the surface of the water. ‘Okay,’ Reichis said. ‘I’m going in.’ I think he was talking to himself more than me. He put one front paw then the other on the top of the stool, tipping his chin up to keep his nose above the water. He stayed like that for a moment, then hopped the rest of himself in. After a few minutes I was staring at a slightly wet and very confused squirrel-cat face.
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