by Rin Chupeco
“Tea!” Lord Fox broke through the ranks and stopped beside Lady Mykaela, frustration and anguish etched across his face.
The Dark asha smiled at him. “I told you they wouldn’t listen.” She gestured back at the city. “All seven daeva at my command. But do you see the palace burning? Do you see chaos, anarchy? I spared the people as much as I could. I came here to kill a cruel man, no matter what falsehoods those old fools told you.”
“Wretched little girl!” one of the elders sputtered, her face red.
“And the corpses?” Lady Mykaela asked.
“Stragglers I collected from graves on my journey here. If my undead did not attack, you would have done worse to Santiang. Do not ask me to choose between the lives of an army you raise against me and the lives of citizens who did not ask to take up arms.”
“They are only Daanorians,” the elder snapped and almost immediately hunched over, choking and pawing at her throat.
“And you’re an ugly old woman hiding her mediocrity in expensive clothes. One Daanorian is worth more than a thousand of you.”
“Tea!” Lady Mykaela exclaimed.
The old woman took in a shuddering gasp of air. The bone witch turned to her former mentor, her voice matter-of-fact. “Where is Empress Alyx?”
“Returning to Kion,” It was Lord Fox who responded. “I’d convinced her that you mean no harm to Daanoris, and she seeks to boost Ankyo’s defenses.”
“Daanoris is intact, and I have reached an understanding with the Empress Yansheo.”
“Empress Yansheo?” Lady Mykaela asked. “What has become of Emperor Shifang?”
“Emperor Shifang died many months ago. We have since disposed of the impostor.” Lord Kalen stepped forward, a large sack in his hand. He tossed it to the ground before them. “You might recognize his head.”
Wary, Lord Fox stooped down to retrieve the sack, ripped it open. He sucked in a noisy breath. “Usij,” he said bleakly. My knees buckled.
“We have no intentions of fighting any of you. Do not stand in our way,” Lady Tea pronounced.
“We are wasting time,” another elder snapped, the same one who had accompanied the empress to the palace. “You will return these daeva to their graves, and you will return with us to Kion, where you will be summarily tried for your crimes.”
“My crimes, Mistress Hestia?” The bone witch mocked her. “My crimes? You were there the night they died, Elder. You have no intentions of returning me alive to Kion. Even now, your scheming mind plots ways to kill me.”
“You killed your own flesh and blood!” the elder hissed. “That alone merits the executioner’s axe!”
“And I will pay for that sin soon enough. But not today. I know you will not allow me to stand trial, Elder. Would you really allow me to provide a full accounting of what happened that final night?”
“You—you—” Mistress Hestia stopped, her eyes bulging. A peculiar change was coming over the woman along with some of her fellow elders. A queer gurgling sound began at the base of her throat, lower than her thin voice could manage.
Lady Mykaela stepped back in alarm, and so did the bone witch, looking as startled as the rest. Mistress Hestia clutched at her throat, stumbled, and fell to the ground. Her tongue lolled out as she jerked and spasmed, turning bloated and black.
“What did you do, Tea?” Lady Mykaela gasped.
“I haven’t done anything!”
The elder moaned one last time—and insect-like wings sprouted from her back.
29
“Getting into Kneave,” Zoya growled, spitting out a mouthful of hay, “sounds infinitely better on paper than it is from inside a wagon.”
Unlike the Odalian army that had showed up at Ankyo, there was no Kion army attacking the gates, but there were Kion asha and Deathseekers gathered around the city, led by Alsron and Shadi, staying out of view until they were called upon. Besides, the azi was an army all on its own.
Under my guidance, it attacked the outposts first. The watchtowers crumbled, and I forced myself not to think about the casualties, of how many unsuspecting soldiers had been there when the attack commenced. I could not think about it; the stakes were higher now.
The azi still waged bloody war above us, and the whole palace shuddered whenever it flew too close, striking the top of the battlements with its tail, destroying centuries-old architecture in one heavy swipe. I had no fear that any attacks Odalia might mount in retaliation would injure the azi, so for the moment, I was content to let it move independently, leaving a cautious note in its head to increase its distance to the city, to prevent any more citizens from being harmed. The daeva had the easier task; all it needed to do was distract the soldiers from us.
Our entrance into the city was a lot less conspicuous than my azi’s, and Zoya wouldn’t shut up about it. “Whose brilliant idea was it to use a hay wagon of all things?” she sputtered as she crawled out from underneath the bales. Kalen was the first out the wagon, helping me to my feet. We were dressed like Deathseekers: black breeches and long-sleeved shirts further camouflaged us in the approaching evening. “Why didn’t we use a fruit wagon or one of those covered wagons Yadoshans seem to be so fond of—”
“We could have a wagon made from goose pillows, Zoya, and you’d still be complaining.” Polaire had recovered rapidly almost as soon as we had entered Kneave, nearly returning to her old self again. The color had returned to Mykaela’s cheeks, and she no longer needed Polaire’s help to move about, climbing down from the wagon with her old agility after Altaecia.
“Wasn’t it your idea, Zoya?” Khalad asked pointedly, squirming out of the wagon after her. Fox, his face hidden underneath a dark cloak and hood, was the carriage driver, leading the horses. The Illusion rune I had woven around us had been most effective, and we had managed to enter the city unmolested.
“Perhaps I am slowly losing my mind like the rest of you. Among us, I’m practically the only one not on the duke’s wanted fugitives list.”
“We all have a part to play in this enterprise, Zoya,” Polaire said sweetly. “And as you said, you have the least important part to play. You can stay in the city until we return if you’d like.”
“And miss out on all the fun? Not on your life.” Zoya brushed what straw she could off herself, making a face.
“A little less talk,” Kalen said. “The entrance to the crypts shouldn’t be guarded. Few soldiers keep watch there.”
“Tea knows,” Fox said with a sidelong glance at me, and I snorted.
The royal catacombs were as I had remembered them—gloomy and stale smelling, with the same statues and marbled columns. Kings of ages past loomed over us as we walked down the narrow stairway. Kalen brought up the front and Fox guarded our rear.
I could see the familiar shape of King Vanor’s tomb looming before us and watched as Kalen took the initiative. Fire combined with Mud, and the stone and dried bricks crumbled from the vault where the king’s body lay, the sound muffled by the ongoing chaos above us. Zoya and Polaire added their strength to Kalen’s, and heavy currents of Wind drew the coffin out into the open.
“Your turn, Tea,” Polaire told me.
As before, it was easy enough to compel the dead king to rise—much more difficult to compel him to speak. King Vanor showed the same stubbornness from when we had left off at his last raising. No sound issued from his lips, though his eyes remained trained on Mykaela as if the rest of us did not exist. It was clear that his presence pained my sister-asha. Pain and grief were evident on her face, and the anger inside me burned again.
“I can’t do anything if he’s not willing,” Khalad reminded us.
“Where is Lady Mykaela’s heartsglass?” I demanded of the corpse. As before, he made no reply.
Polaire frowned. “Perhaps we are asking the wrong question, Tea.”
“What other question is there but t
hat?” Zoya wanted to know. “We must be quick about it. I don’t like exposing Mykaela to this royal degenerate any longer than is necessary.”
“No,” Mykaela said quietly. “I have been silent enough at previous raisings, despite my own doubts and fears. Many of my fellow asha tried to be kind. They thought my presence would motivate him to speak but also worried what toll his nearness might take on me. Not anymore. Do not treat me like glass—I am stronger than that. What must be asked are questions I was too afraid to have answered, questions that none of you dared ask out of respect for me.” She looked back at her former lover. “Vanor. Did you love me?”
The silence ticked by. Five seconds. Ten seconds. Twenty.
“Yes.”
I jumped, for I had not expected a reply. Death had made King Vanor’s voice harsh, but a strange contrite note laced it, modulating his anger but also imbuing his voice with unspoken emotion.
“Did you love me when you died?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a bald-faced lie and you know it, Vanor,” Polaire began heatedly. “You don’t hide the heartsglass of the person you love for more than a decade and then refuse to disclose its location long after your death.”
King Vanor said nothing, his eyes still on Mykaela. It was as if Polaire had never spoken.
“What do you think, Khalad?” Zoya whispered.
“I’m not sure. The lack of a heartsglass makes him harder to read.”
“Other than stating the obvious, I mean.”
“The dead can’t lie, which means he isn’t lying. But that doesn’t mean he can’t hide the truth,” I said.
“I’m a prime example of that, I guess,” Fox murmured.
“Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way. We say that he hid her heartsglass because he didn’t love her. But what if he hid her heartsglass because he loved her?” I suggested.
“That doesn’t make much sense either,” Zoya said.
“But it does,” Althy broke in, frowning. “What if he was hiding her heartsglass to protect her? What was he doing in the days leading up to his death?”
I struggled to remember my history lessons. “King Vanor was visiting the emperor of Daanoris when he was attacked. That was Emperor Undol—Emperor Shifang’s father. Daanoris was lifting the closed-border policies of its kingdom, and Odalia was trying to negotiate more lucrative trade agreements. It was at first suspected that Daanoris was responsible for King Valor’s murder, but the investigations King Telemaine ordered could find no proof. Daanoris had everything to lose and nothing to gain by assassinating King Telemaine’s brother. The last thing they would want at that point was to gain notoriety by killing the first king to offer a trade alliance with them.”
“There were some theories that circulated, of mercenaries from Tresea killing King Vanor to shift the blame on Daanoris,” Althy said, remembering. “But there was no proof to support that either.”
“Well, why not ask the guy directly while he’s here?” Zoya demanded.
“We did. He’s never responded to that either.”
“Don’t any of you understand? Why? Why answer Mykaela when she asks if he still loves her but not answer anything else? Fox, what are you doing?”
My brother ignored Zoya, stepping toward the dead king. “King Vanor, who first suggested the idea of a trade agreement with Daanoris?”
“It was I,” came the expressionless reply.
“Were you and Emperor Undol on cordial terms?”
“Yes.”
“What did you have for breakfast that morning?”
“Bread and cheese.”
“What is the point of all these questions, Fox?” Polaire asked him. “I don’t see what bearing they have on the questions we wish to ask him.”
“Exactly. Don’t you see? He seems quite capable of answering questions as long as they have nothing to do with his death or as long as you don’t ask him where Mykaela’s heartsglass is. Don’t you see anything wrong with that? The dead don’t lie. I speak from experience in that regard. But if he does love Mykaela, then why wouldn’t he help us?”
“Because he doesn’t trust us?” Zoya suggested. “But Mykaela’s here too.”
“Or,” I said with newfound understanding, “it’s because someone was controlling his heartsglass and compelling him against his will before he died.”
“Someone was compelling him?” Khalad asked, aghast.
“I have some experience in that area too. When Aenah compelled me in the past, I couldn’t tell any of you what she was doing, even though I wanted to, and I was made to believe that I was acting of my own volition. Couldn’t the same thing have happened to King Vanor?”
Khalad was already nodding his head. “It’s possible. In fact, it’s more than possible. If he loved Mykaela, his heartsglass would have remained with her. But if someone had cast a spell on him and compelled him otherwise…”
“Then that would explain why I couldn’t retain my hold on his heartsglass,” Mykaela finished, her eyes widening. “But how could someone keep control even after his death?”
“King Vanor,” Khalad began, “do you know where Mykaela’s heartsglass is?”
Silence.
“That was one of the questions he never answers,” Zoya reminded him.
“King Vanor, is there a reason why you cannot tell us more about Mykaela’s heartsglass?”
“Yes.”
That he even answered startled us all, and the forger pushed on doggedly. “Is it to protect her?”
Silence.
“Are there certain questions that you cannot answer because you’ve been bespelled by someone before you died?”
No answer.
“Let me rephrase that. Are there certain questions you cannot answer but would like to if given the chance?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know who killed you?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell us who?”
Silence.
“I still don’t understand,” Polaire said. “Why is he answering some questions but not others?”
“Because whoever bespelled him couldn’t anticipate all the possible questions we could ask or the loopholes we could use. They never thought we would know that he’d been compelled, remember? None of us had considered the possibility before. As long as we do not ask him directly about the location of Mykaela’s heartsglass or who killed him, he can answer.”
“I repeat Mykkie’s question. How is it possible for someone to control him even after death?” Althy demanded. “I was one of the asha who examined the king when he died. We found no traces of spells on his person.”
“The control could be through a rune we do not know, a spell we have not been taught—anything is possible at this point. Remember, there were missing pages from the Faceless’s book.”
“Vanor,” Mykaela said softly. “Did anyone from Daanoris bear any resentment toward you?”
“No.”
“From Tresea?”
“No.”
“From Odalia?”
More silence.
“If that isn’t an answer, then I don’t know what is,” Zoya looked smug. “He won’t respond to certain questions, but if we limit his answers down to a yes or no and eliminate possible answers as we go along, then I think we’ve found our loophole.”
“I hate complicated,” Kalen grunted.
“King Vanor, was the Duke of Holsrath responsible for your death?”
Silence again.
“OK, not the right question. Vanor, did the Duke of Holsrath begrudge your relationship with Mykaela?”
“No.”
“Did King Telemaine?”
“Zoya!” Kalen protested.
“Process of elimination, remember? We can eventually get to the…” Zoya’s voice tra
iled off. “He didn’t say no. King Vanor, did King Telemaine resent your relationship with Mykaela?”
The king said nothing, and a chill crept up my spine. Surely that didn’t mean…
Zoya swallowed. “Did King Telemaine wish to become king by assassinating you?”
Silence.
“Did King Telemaine wish he were the firstborn son instead of you?”
For the first time, Vanor tore his gaze away from Mykaela to focus on Zoya. “Yes.”
“Was King Telemaine willing to do anything to become the King of Odalia?”
Silence.
Khalad gasped. Mykaela clapped a hand over her mouth.
“I can’t believe that,” Kalen said hoarsely.
I spoke up, voice trembling. “Do the elders have Mykaela’s heartsglass?”
“No.”
“Is the Faceless, Aenah, working with the elders?”
“No.”
“Is Aenah in league with the king?” I asked.
King Vanor’s gaze shifted to the shadows. That was the only warning I had, but it was not enough. White-hot electricity lanced through me, the pain barely fading before I found myself on my back. From the groans and startled cries around me, I knew I was not the only one.
“That was sheer genius. I must congratulate you all on your creativity.”
Still unable to move, I opened my eyes—and stared straight into King Telemaine’s smiling face.
“How could you, Telemaine?” Polaire hissed from nearby.
The king shrugged. “Vanor was a fool. Throwing his heart away for a Dark asha—he was the laughingstock of Odalia, and he was too besotted to realize it. Your azi can rage all it wants outside these city walls, Lady Tea, but it means nothing here, where I am in control.”
“Impossible,” Althy said through gritted teeth. “You have no inclination for runic magic.”
“No, he doesn’t,” a voice behind him agreed.
I lunged upward, desperately clawing at the walls in a bid to right myself, to will myself the required energy to leap at the newcomer and attack her mind—to no avail. The pain in my head increased, and I slumped back down. The figure stepped forward.