by Joshua Khan
He put his hand against the wall. “Feel this. It’s warm.”
“So?”
“Sunlight’s been on it. Came in from up there, somewhere.” He pointed.
All she could see were broken rocks and deep shadows. “You sure?”
“We need to climb. There’ll be a way out of here yet.”
This wasn’t ideal. “What about Pan? He can’t climb with that leg.”
“He’d better. I ain’t giving him a piggyback.”
They talked it through with Pan. Thorn would be in the lead, and he’d try to pick the easiest way up. “Hold on tight,” he advised Pan, “and don’t look down.” Then he brushed his hands. “Ready?”
“If we’re so close to the outside, why don’t you just use your magic, Lily?” asked Pan. “I’ve seen you shadow-step, remember?”
“I do. You were trying to kill me,” said Lily.
“Then it’ll be easy. Take young Thorn, then take me. I’ll wait right here.”
“My magic is not for your convenience, Uncle. We climb.”
Thorn scrambled up the wall and onto the broken roof like a squirrel. He was forty feet up before he turned around and called down to her. “You next, Lily.”
“What about my uncle?”
“He goes last. That way, if he falls, he doesn’t take anyone down with him.”
Pan laughed. “You’re full of heart, Thorn.”
Lily climbed. Thorn called out instructions, telling her to feel for a handhold on her left, to wedge her foot into this crack or balance on that ledge. It wasn’t long before she was sweating. She shook out her hands one at a time to get rid of the ache.
“Now you know how I feel after holding a quill all morning,” said Thorn. “It’s just the same.”
“Hardly. If you make a spelling mistake, you don’t plummet a hundred feet to your death.”
“It levels out in another few yards. We’re almost there. Can you feel the breeze?”
Yes, she could. It was fresh and cool.
The slope flattened, and they crawled. Thorn whooped from ahead.
A few moments later, he helped Lily to her feet. He spread out his arms. “Now how good am I?”
They were out. Stars and moonlight shone upon a vast ruined city and the sprawling nomad camp beside it. They smelled cooking fires and heard the sounds of drums and singing.
“Pretty good,” said Lily, refreshing herself with deep breaths of night air. “Now be even better and go help my uncle.”
THIRTY-TWO
Thorn led them down the cliff, taking a steep, zigzagging path just wide enough for a mountain goat. Lily looked pale—paler than usual—as she gazed down, but she firmed up her lips and descended without complaint—though she did sigh loudly when she reached the bottom.
Sadly, Pan made it, too.
“The camp’s right there,” said Thorn. “They call themselves the Accursed.”
“I’ve heard tales about them,” said Lily. “Didn’t know they were real.”
Screams could be heard coming from Kismet’s tent. There was only one reason for her to be making noises like that. “Looks like her baby’s gonna make an early appearance.”
Armed nomads approached, and the old crone, Kismet’s mom. She waved the warriors back and gave Lily a once-over. “You must be the witch queen.”
“Kismet will want to speak with her,” Thorn said. “But seeing as she’s busy right now, how about something to eat?”
The old woman replied with a curt laugh. “Kismet’s done this before. Give her an hour or two, and then we’ll talk.” She gestured to a nearby campfire. “That’s yours.”
“And him?” Thorn motioned to Pan.
The old woman glanced at him. “Chain him up.”
Lily was about to argue, but Thorn stopped her. “This ain’t the time nor place, Lily.”
Glowering but saying nothing, Lily backed off.
They led Pan away, and Thorn headed straight to the campfire. K’leef was there, tending the flames. He got up and hugged Lily—a bit too tightly for Thorn’s liking. Gabriel was asleep on the ground nearby, under thick blankets.
Thorn picked up a stick of the usual desert meal and handed it to Lily. She accepted it unenthusiastically. “It looks like a rat.”
“Nothing wrong with your eyes.” He took one for himself, and they all sat down. “How’s Gabbs?”
“Alive. Spends most of his waking hours moaning about his mattress not being soft enough.” K’leef opened a bag of dates and shared them. “Just gone to sleep now.”
“And Hades?”
“See for yourself.”
Hades was perched up on a ridge, his chest turned toward the moon. Clouds of bats swirled around him, but he ignored them. His eyes shone, two gleaming red beads. Thorn sighed. “He’s homesick.”
K’leef scooted closer to the two of them. “So what took you so long?”
Lily put down her half-eaten rodent. “My magic’s not working.”
“That’s not possible,” said K’leef. Then he looked uncertain. “Is it?”
“That’s what I thought. That’s what everyone thinks, but we’re all wrong, K’leef. What happened to me also happened to Sa’if. His magic was stolen, and he didn’t even realize it.” She took his hand. “He didn’t die by accident. He was murdered.”
K’leef stared at her in shock and disbelief. “Who…? How?”
Lily bit her lip. “I’m not sure how to tell you this.…I think it was Ameera.”
Thorn watched his friend go pale. This battle for the lava crown was turning into a bloodbath for his family.
K’leef shook his head. “It can’t be. You’re wrong. Why would she—”
“She’s a sorceress,” Lily blurted. “So is Sami and, I suspect, many of your other sisters. Ameera’s leading a coup. She wants the lava crown for herself.”
“That’s ridiculous!” said K’leef, his eyes blazing. “How could Ameera and the rest learn magic without anyone finding out?”
Lily looked at him. “I did.”
Thorn threw aside his meat-stripped rat bones, keeping a rib to pick at his teeth. “She’s your twin; her blood’s the same as yours. Why shouldn’t she be just as good at magic as you? What’s the difference? Aside from being a girl?”
K’leef stood up and started pacing. “If it’s true, then what am I supposed to do when I get back? Fight my own sister? I grew up with her!”
Thorn looked over to where Pan sat, chained to a thick post hammered deep into the ground. “Siblings fight more than most.”
K’leef sank back down next to Lily. “When did you last use magic?”
“Shadow-stepping away from Ameera.” She frowned. “It was a trap, K’leef. She invited me over. There was a foggy mirror. She wanted me to look into it.”
K’leef frowned. “The mirror in Sa’if’s room was foggy, too.”
“Sounds like Capture Glass,” said Gabriel, rolling onto his side to face them.
Lily threw her rat at him. “You’ve been listening this whole time?”
Gabriel smirked. “I was trying to sleep, but you have a particularly grating voice. No wonder the dead can’t rest when you’re around.”
“Hold up, Lily. Don’t hit him just yet.” Thorn met Gabriel’s cool gaze. “Capture Glass?”
Gabriel propped up his head with his hand. “It’s old sorcery—no one knows how to make it now—but it used to be a punishment for sorcerers who broke the law. They faced the mirror, and the reflection took their magic. Made them…powerless.”
Lily stifled a gasp. “Did they ever get their magic back?”
“They could get in front of the mirror again,” said Gabriel. “Unless, of course, the mirror was broken. That was the worst punishment you could inflict on a sorcerer.”
Lily’s next question was barely above a whisper. “Then what happened?”
“They lost their magic.” Gabriel yawned. “Forever.”
THIRTY-THREE
No, no, no
, no…
“You have to be wrong,” said Lily. She grabbed Gabriel and shook him. “You have to be wrong!”
“Lily!” K’leef pulled her away. “Gabriel’s wounds—they’ll reopen.”
Lily held her hands out in front of her. She stared at the shadows that swayed all around her. She stretched out her fingers….
Just one. If I can just hold one, then I won’t care about anything else.
Holding her breath, she slowly closed her hand.
Just one. Please. Just one…
The shadows danced, free of her.
Gabriel sat up on his elbows. “How does it feel, Lily? To be so…ordinary?”
“Shut up,” snarled Thorn.
Lily felt like she was suffocating. Her heart pounded against her ribs; the blood rushing to her head made her dizzy. It was as if the ground were falling apart beneath her feet. “It can’t be true.”
Someone grabbed hold of her. Bewildered, it took her a moment to realize it was Thorn. “There’s a way of solving this,” he said.
She pulled away. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were an expert in sorcery all of a sudden. Did you find the crown of the high king while you were wandering? That must be it!”
He grimaced under her sarcasm. “There has to be a way.”
“Does there? You know that for certain?” She couldn’t control the despair rising in her. “Tell me how you know, Thorn.”
K’leef stood with them. “You can’t give up hope, Lily. That’s what Thorn means.”
She closed her eyes. She wanted the world to stop swaying. “Yes, you’re right. Hope. There has to be hope.”
But what if there wasn’t? What hope had there been for Sa’if?
Stop thinking like that.
She steadied herself before opening her eyes.
They were her best friends in the world. The boy from the Sultanate, so fine and handsome and clever, and Thorn. Rough, smelly, crude, and honest Thorn.
She smiled at them. “I’m sorry.”
Thorn smiled back. “Yeah, I know.”
K’leef dropped his voice. “Until we sort this out, it has to be our secret. No one must know what’s befallen Lily. It could make our position…awkward. People fear and respect the witch queen, and we need that.”
Thorn glanced down at Gabriel. “You hear that, Gabbs? Our secret.”
The Solar boy made a sour face, but Lily knew he’d stay silent. His life depended on them.
Kismet’s screams and moans gave way to an abrupt silence, and then the sudden wail of a newborn. The sound raised cheers and singing from the nomads. The old woman came out a few minutes later. She was tired but happy. “It’s a boy.”
Thorn winked. “I told you.”
The old woman gave him a queer look. “Got some sorcery in your blood, eh?”
“What’s his name?” Lily asked.
The old woman looked back at the tent. “Name? Let’s see him survive a week or two first; then we’ll think about a name. Kismet wants to see you.”
“Shouldn’t she be resting?”
The old woman laughed. “Girl, one day you’ll learn there’s no rest for mothers. Not with the first baby, not with the tenth. Go see her now while the baby’s quiet. He’s had a busy day.”
Thorn hesitated. “I’ll wait here.”
“Kismet wants to see all of you, and that goes for your uncle, too.”
They followed the old woman back to the tent.
They were changing the sheets on the bed. Kismet sat on one side, sweaty and flushed, but relieved, a small bluish baby feeding at her breast.
Lily gave one of her rings to Kismet. “May the Six bless your son with long life and good fortune.”
The tent flap opened and in came Pan, shackled. A nomad pushed him forward. Pan smiled, wriggled off a ring of his own, and stepped forward. “May the Six—”
The nomad snarled and touched him with his spear.
Pan held out the small trinket. “A gift, for the newborn.”
It was as if he was still a noble, delivering largesse to his people. It wasn’t his right. But then, was it Lily’s? She wasn’t a sorcerer anymore. She was…just like Pan.
Sheets refreshed, Kismet settled back down in her bed, and one of her daughters rearranged the pillows while cooing over her new brother. Beneath Kismet’s disheveled hair, Lily spotted the third eye twitching, looking this way and that.
What did it see? The Accursed were prophets, able to foretell the future. How far did Kismet’s vision extend? Did she glimpse the mere shapes and hues of destiny, or something clearer? Could she envision a time when Lily would recover her magic?
Kismet spoke. “The camp is moving at dawn. Our location has been compromised.”
“Where will you go?” asked Lily.
If Kismet knew—and Lily assumed she did—she wasn’t saying.
“You could come with us,” said K’leef. “I’m on a trial by fire, a quest to find a phoenix. If you help me, I’ll make sure you’re well rewarded.”
Kismet smiled. “A phoenix? I’d like to see one of those. But you’re talking about the deep Shardlands. The nomads don’t venture there.”
“Is it any worse than here?” Thorn asked. “I mean, we’ve met manticores already.”
“Much worse.”
“Do you know where the phoenixes nest?” asked K’leef.
Kismet shook her head. “It has been a long time since they appeared in any of our—”
“I know where they are,” said Pan.
No, no, no.
But he had their attention now. That was why Pan came in here, acting so in charge: he was.
Pan stood in front of K’leef. “If I help you find them, what’s my reward?”
“Don’t trust him, K’leef!” Thorn pushed his way between them. “He’s sworn to your brother. He’ll run away the moment our backs are turned. If he doesn’t murder us in our sleep first.”
Pan sneered. “I wouldn’t need to wait till you were asleep, boy.”
“I’d like to see you—”
Pan pushed his nomad guard with one hand and stole a knife from him with the other. The point was at Thorn’s throat before he could move.
Pan’s sneer twisted to a wolfish smile. “See?”
“Let Thorn go, Uncle.”
There was a tense moment when Lily thought Pan would open Thorn’s neck, but then Pan flipped the knife over and handed it back to the embarrassed nomad. “As you command, Lady Shadow.”
K’leef sighed with relief. “That little demonstration doesn’t make me want to trust you, Earl Shadow.”
“Trust? Why should I expect you to trust me? But you need me, and I need you. As much as I enjoy all this camping under the stars, I’m a man of stone and mortar, preferably castle-sized. You give me lands and a title, and I’ll get you your phoenix.”
Thorn rubbed his neck. “This the same deal you struck with Jambiya?”
“So what if it is?” Pan stuck his thumb out. “As far as I know, Jambiya’s dead, a meal for those ghuls. I have no loyalty to dead men.” He stepped into the center of the tent. “None of you know how to fight. I do. Without your maps, K’leef, you’ll spend years wandering aimlessly. You need me.”
Thorn still looked like he’d eaten something rotten. “And you need to get rich, be a noble once more. You’ll have everything you lost.”
“He’ll never have a home,” said Lily. “You can put him in a palace, but it’ll never be home. He’s lost that forever.”
Was this all Kismet’s doing? Lily knew the tales, of how the womenfolk of the Accursed would weave the destiny of others. They weren’t about gazing into crystal balls and flipping over tarot cards; they were subtler than that.
Who was in charge? K’leef, Pan, or this woman with a newborn suckling at her breast? The fate of kingdoms was being manipulated, and not in a way Lily liked. They should refuse her uncle, but where would that leave them?
Without a phoenix, that’s where.
&n
bsp; K’leef looked into Lily’s eyes. If she shook her head, he wouldn’t make the bargain.
Feeling sick to her stomach, she nodded.
Pan smiled at her. “Together again, eh?”
Kismet laughed. “It seems you have a pact. Now get some sleep. Best you leave at dawn and try to get some miles done before noon.”
The old woman cackled. “Ah, the Six bless this endeavor.”
“Yeah. Great,” said Thorn miserably.
Did Pan feel any pain or remorse? Did he suffer for what he did to her and her family? Had she made a mistake by merely exiling him? Out here there was danger in every direction, and yet they were relying on the very man who’d murdered her family, and tried to kill her.
“What’s the route?” asked K’leef.
Pan gestured behind him. “We go south. There’s a valley I know from a few years back. Once we’re through that, we’ll find your phoenixes, m’lord.”
K’leef’s eyes brightened. “What’s beyond this valley?”
“Ruins. One of the capitals of the Old Kingdom.”
Lily’s heart skipped a beat. “Which capital?”
“You’ll be pleased, Lily. We’re going home. It’s the city built by Prince Shadow himself.” He smiled, but there was no amusement in it. “Necropolis.”
THIRTY-FOUR
“Kill the witch!”
The cries echoed from all around her, as if the castle itself demanded her death.
“Kill the witch!”
“I see her! Hurry, brothers!”
Lily ran through the empty corridors of Castle Gloom. “Someone help me!”
Where were they? There should have been servants and soldiers and maids all around, but the castle was empty.
“Help me!”
Howls rose up behind her. Howls and mocking, vicious laughter.
They’re coming!
Lily turned the corner to the Great Hall, and there stood Mary. Thank the Six! She ran into her arms. “Mary…”
Her old nanny stroked her long hair. “Hush, child. Hush. I will take care of everything.”
She was safe now. Mary always looked after her.
“Ow!” Lily cried. Mary had grabbed her hair and wound it into a rope. “Let go!”