Someone laid their hand on her shoulder over the Nif cloak. She jerked forward and looked back at June. A splash of red and purple lit their nose and mouth from the inside.
“There she is. The most lovely ’dant in the city of Zebub.”
Lil started. Never had she heard an Ante compliment a ’dant at all, let alone in such a manner. To call one lovely. It would be foolish to pretend such assignations did not happen between some of the more physical Antes and the more daring or powerful ’dants, but to speak or even imply such a thing in public usually brought immediate censure and punishment. Yet here this Ante was talking about it in the seat of the Ruling Courts themselves.
More surprising, other than some looks of mild discomfort from one Ante, which might have counted more, as his skin was dotted with hundreds of eyes, anyone else who had heard had obviously chosen merely to ignore it. It made her more nervous. Who was this white snake that they had such power?
“Hello.” She greeted them politely but turned back to her meal. As before, she pushed most of the unfamiliar lumps of yellow and white to the side of her plate and dined on the nuggets of meat, on the bed of bright blue phai leaves. The sauces added back the flavor that was lost in the cooking of it. It seemed like a lot of wasted time to her.
“I had worried you would be . . . gone when I returned. Or too busy in the Ossuary to come out for supper.” June shifted around to come into Lil’s view.
Lil faced the Ante with a tremble of fear in her chest and a false smile. She kept her eyes roving across June’s face and the wide expanse of chest displayed by the shirt, never allowing her gaze to stay on one pattern of lights for too long. She felt the attention of others at the table on them, sharp and hard.
“We have no intention of leaving before the creeping dark is defeated.” Lil lifted a glass of dark wine to her lips, unsure how to approach the other question. The implications that they were delaying on purpose, that they were not working hard enough, and that they should be made to tell everything they had learned all swam in the depths of his words.
“As for the Ossuary . . . it is a trial. Much is without context and therefore unexplainable or, more accurately, undecipherable. It is like trying to read something in a language that is long dead by picking out remnant words and images you recognize from your tongue millennia later.”
“Ah, but are languages not the stock in trade of all Holders?”
Her nerves fell away as she fell into teaching mode. “Yes, in some ways.”
She could not outright contradict an Ante. The white snake blinked, and for just a second the lights in the face went dim. It made Lil suspect the patterns and brightness that swirled within were more under control than they liked to imply. Before June could take control of the conversation again, Lil took up the thread, finishing her answer.
“We study communication. The way that thoughts are passed on and changed, the way they are expressed, whether that be in words, dance, or mathematics. Everything is an expression of ideas and we wish to understand the ideas through their many interpretations.”
Lil saw that the Ante was still confused, but would June admit it?
“Fascinating. Please tell me more.”
Lil saw through it, suspected others did as well.
“Of course. Please do me the favor of picking an ideal or a powerful thought in history.”
“The crike.”
“Not exactly what I meant.” She had wanted something more abstract. “However, I can make that work. We know that the crike was tamed and bred as transport, but before that it was a food animal. What were the thought processes that led to their taming? When did they change from food to transport in the minds of everyone? Is there an easy way to say this is the moment, when the first one was tamed, when the first one was deliberately bred, when public crike became available? You can examine the art of the time, the novels and the dance, the messages sent from one being to another, or anything, really, that lingers from that time. If you have enough of the surrounding information you may be able to discern the answer to a question by what surrounds it. That is what we do. Though we all do it differently and have separate focuses.”
“Fascinating.” June waved their hand for her to continue. The explosion of purple in their palm distracted her.
“As you can imagine, since we know absolutely nothing of the creeping dark, no date, no hint of its nature, or even if we are looking in the right place, it is much harder than usual. We examine every piece and try to divine its purpose, knowing that what we find could be the key to success, though it is most likely simply another dead end. We are disappointed often but we continue to try for the good of Corpiliu.”
Lil was surprised by her vehemence, but she was tired of the looks and the whispers and the commentary and the suspicion that followed her everywhere she went now. She stopped herself just short of saying that if the Ruling Courts had not obscured their history so well, buried and hoarded the knowledge they had, then maybe progress could be made.
She bit at her tongue until she tasted blood; she had no wish to die today.
There was a smile on June’s face and Lil noticed some of the tension in the hall had melted away. She still felt the prickle of danger up her spine but it no longer felt like a knife was constantly aimed at her. June wandered away and the rest of the dinner was better, though she noticed Mayer frowning at his food and Riana and Krezida fiercely whispering to their Apprentices.
As she left the Hive and entered the chill of the courtyard, a voice called out behind her.
“Liliana.”
Lil sighed and turned. It was Razel. They had gotten along quite well in the last couple of weeks with the exception of Razel’s insistence on calling her by her full first name.
“Yes, Razie.”
Razel frowned.
“How did you know what to do in there, to calm everything down?”
Lil studied the woman in front of her. Just because they had been getting along was no reason to trust her. Lil sighed. She felt like she was on a tightrope at all times. She couldn’t give the other Holders a reason to believe she was turning on them or attempting to hoard power. She had to appear competent so they wouldn’t turn on her to rid themselves of something weak. Normally she would not worry as much, knowing Mayer was there to help, but right now she knew nothing of the kind.
Her Holder had only spoken a few words to her at all in the past two weeks. Her overtures had all been ignored and after the first few days she had mostly stopped trying.
She made her decision.
“I didn’t. I think it was all that Ante’s plan, to be honest with you.”
“Really?” Razel looked skeptical.
“I believe so. Either way, I swear, I had no plan coming into dinner tonight.”
Razel studied her face and whatever she read there convinced her. She nodded and slipped back into the Hive and to the dinner without a goodbye. Lil rolled her eyes. For someone who could read most ’dants so easily, Razel sometimes had no manners whatsoever. She shook it off as she made her way back to Hive Chayyliel. She had more important things to worry about, like what was the endgame of June’s plan?
To win her trust?
She was more suspicious now. She was exhausted, but still managed to brief Arel and Jagi on what had happened before crawling into bed between her sibs.
The next day she said goodbye to Min and Davi, leaving them in Arel and Jagi’s care. As usual they were sad to see her go, but she had made sure to rise earlier than necessary so she could have some time with them this morning. Besides, the separation was not nearly as traumatizing since Arel and Jagi were quickly becoming favorites. Especially for Davi, who had taken to drawing little circles on his sides in soot to imitate their bodies.
As soon as she closed her room’s door behind her to head to the courtyard, the same voice as last night stopped her. “Liliana.”
“Razie.” The girl frowned in annoyance but still nodded in greeting.
&
nbsp; “We are not going to the Ossuary immediately today. Instead we are to meet at the top of Hive Chayyliel.”
“The top?” Lil cursed herself for the question as soon as it left her lips. There were ears everywhere, or so Arel and Jagi said. She smoothed all emotion from her face. “Very well.” She had questions, but asking them would give Razel the upper hand and Lil had no intention of giving up any ground to her fellow Holder-Apprentice.
They were unfortunately joined by Haydn as they reached the foot of the great stairwell that climbed in a spiral up the center of the Hive.
“What do you suppose Queen Chayyliel wants with us?” he asked.
Lil, who had not known that Chayyliel had called the meeting, only shrugged her shoulders and made sure Razel was between them. Haydn had shown himself to be both easily distracted and unconsciously cruel. A combination she had never thought possible but had learned was dangerous. She was never sure when he was truly lost in his thought or simply feigning it to glean what he could from careless lips. He was not smart but he was cunning, which could be twice as deadly.
“We won’t learn anything down here, will we?”
Though the climb all the way to the top was hard and strenuous, none of them faltered, but neither did they have any extra breath for speech.
As they reached the final landing, the pits and necks and backs of their clothing were soaked almost clear with sweat. Two hallways led off from the upper landing but there was no clue as to which way they should go. They all stared at one another, unwilling to admit ignorance.
Suddenly the crack of stone sounded from above them. All their heads shot up, Razel leaping back toward the stairs while Lil and Haydn fell into crouches. There was now a square hole in the ceiling and Krezida looked down at them all with a frown while her rainbow of hair cascaded down around her. Lil could not recall ever seeing a pleasant expression on the woman’s face, though what did any of them have to feel good about?
“Hurry up.” Her head disappeared and a long knotted rope fell down to them. Again they froze, none willing to be the first to show their back to the other two. Finally with a sigh Lil moved forward. As if it were a challenge, the others moved to grab the rope as well. Lil was quicker, snatching it out of Razel’s path and pushing it into Haydn’s grasping palm.
“After you.” She smiled.
Haydn was silent but his jaw tightened and he grabbed the rope from her and scurried up, quick as the rodent he was. Razel went next and Lil brought up the rear.
Yanwan blazed in the sky today and the world was bright. The roof shone around them, a gentle golden glow moving about their feet like a living thing. Over to the side two dragons lazed around in their pen, unwilling to move in the heat. Chayyliel stood with two members of its Court. Both were rapidly moving black clouds that whipped around and around in a cone shape. A small Turms stood near him as well. Lil wondered if it was the same Turms that always accompanied Chayyliel, or if they worked in shifts.
The Holder-Apprentices joined their masters in a semicircle facing Chayyliel. They stood behind and to the right, subservient and non-challenging. Lil stared down at her feet, watching the gold light circle them, billowing out into paler smoke, then coalescing into bright points.
“Time grows short.” Chayyliel did not sound impatient or angry, only matter-of-fact. Nonetheless Lil could feel her Holder stiffen in front of her, and was sure the other Holders could sense the same. “It is not your fault, but in many ways fault does not matter. Powers in the Ruling Courts grow impatient, and allies turn against me.”
“Would it be safer to move back to our own Athenaeums?”
Lil recognized Riana’s rough tone.
“You would never make it. Some would see it as admitting defeat, some as betrayal. One of them would attack and whoever survived would retaliate. The city would not survive it. No, the only way out is to find some sort of answer and quickly.”
“What do you think we’ve been trying to do?” Krezida’s voice had an edge to it. She teetered between despair and anger daily and both laced her words.
Chayyliel shifted and Lil glanced up once, quickly, to see that it now stood with its multiple spindly arms crossed over the narrow stick chest, hands curved inward.
“Peace. I did not call this meeting to chastise, but so that we may figure things out together.”
Lil slid her gaze back to the floor. The gold light was diffusing below her soles, spreading out and becoming dimmer but opalescent as it expanded. Then in the center a dot of complete darkness appeared.
“Are there any ideas that you may have?”
“We need more information.” Mayer spoke for the first time. “I have done my best, but all of the Courts claim to have no knowledge of our history farther than twenty thousand years back. Though I know it a lie.”
Chayyliel snorted, which startled all of them. It was odd for an Ante to use a gesture so associated with ’dants. “Most likely they all have crumbs they are desperate not to share with others even if it means their death.”
The small spot of darkness in the light had begun to send out tendrils; it spread across the light beneath her feet like blood on hot stone, it bubbled and burst and spread. She noticed a star pattern that looked to be winking at her and then she realized it really was winking at her.
Nif!
They were inside the light somehow.
“Could we convince them to work together in this?” This from Riana. Lil would have thought her an idiot had her voice not held so much contempt and weariness. She did not say it because she thought it might actually work, but because it felt obligatory. Something that one of them should suggest before moving on to more likely solutions.
No one convinced the Ruling Courts to do anything. They were in charge and no one challenged them. Every once in a while a rebellion rose up and those who survived were the unlucky ones, as their tortured voices would ring out over the city for days and sometimes weeks, driving any surviving family mad with grief and pain. The Athenaeums were impregnable and spots of sanctuary. Many times they had sheltered ’dants and even some Antes without asking the reasons. The Holders would have been able to withstand the Ruling Courts from within their homes, but coming here had robbed them of that safety.
No one answered Riana.
“Would we be able to somehow induce them to share with us?” Krezida asked. Blackmail was a time-honored tradition, after all.
“I have enough influence left to force one or maybe two of the Courts, but how would we pick which ones had the best information? And they would then definitely be enemies afterwards. That is a last resort because it leaves us with fewer options.” Left unsaid was the sinking feeling they all felt, that they were sorting through “last resorts.”
The Nif were coalescing into a dark sinuous shape that slowly became longer. It looked like a long rope, or a drawing of a river seen from above, small threads of black tributaries still running from its main body.
“Perhaps some sort of word, to glean an idea of the knowledge they have?” Lil immediately felt the attention focused on herself and Mayer. She carefully kept her face blank, even though at the mere mention she could feel the Babel trying to form on her tongue. No one had noticed her problems so far but she was not fool enough to think that meant she was safe.
They all knew they were asking Mayer and herself to risk almost certain death by bringing this up.
“No.” Mayer did not elaborate and no one said anything to try and convince him otherwise.
The Nif were clearly showing her a snake now. A serpent made of their darkness that looked poised to strike at the tip of her shoe. They were showing her an answer; just not one she wanted.
“We could extend our hours in the Ossuary.”
“That would mean asking for extra protections and also any one of you missing a dinner could be seen as guilt on your part.”
“Is there a way to contact the Athenaeums left in other cities? Perhaps they might have something?”
“How about—” Krezida started.
The snake was staring at her and Lil found her mouth opening.
“Snake.” It was more a whisper than anything but everyone heard and turned to her. She kept her head down and began to curse herself for a fool. This was not her place but she knew it was the only choice. The shadow serpent about her feet began to break apart, the Nif returning to wherever they came from.
“What, child?” Chayyliel did not sound offended that she had spoken, simply surprised.
And now she had no choice but to speak.
“The white snake—June.”
“What about them?”
“I am told that the white snakes gather secrets and June seems especially powerful within the House of the Madame.”
“Yes, those are both very true.” Impatience entered Chayyliel’s tone. “Look up, child.”
Lil raised her face and met the gaze of everyone on the roof. Mayer was livid. She could tell by the way his lips had disappeared. The others looked angry as well or perhaps jealous that all of their suggestions had been shot down. Hers was the first that had gotten some consideration.
“June has expressed an interest in you. You would have to be the contact. No one else has interested them that much in a very long time. At least not to my knowledge. Would you be able to do this?”
Lil was so nervous she had to swallow several times before she could speak without her voice breaking.
“I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
The anger on Mayer’s face ratcheted up a notch and everyone else looked shocked. She did not know what possessed her and was instantly regretful. However, the Queen simply snorted again and looked her up and down.
“Not unless you have another idea that might work in that head of yours.”
She shook her head. She felt guilty for taking credit for something that wasn’t actually her idea, but drawing more attention to her strange relationship with the Nif could only make things worse.
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