The Shadowglass

by Rin Chupeco

  “The evidence of Dark magic. Witnesses report a girl transforming into some foul creature—one much like a daeva, which only a bone witch is capable of. Mykaela has been cleared of the crime, leaving only one other bone witch.”

  There was some movement among the Deathseekers. I looked past them and saw, much to my shock, my family in attendance. My mother and sisters were weeping, and Daisy was pale. My brothers stood silently beside my father, though they cast frequent glares at the elders.

  It was the first time Councilor Ludvig broke a promise to me; our good-bye at Istera was the last I would ever see him.

  “Yes,” Councilor Ludvig admitted. “I never saw her after that. Hindsight is quite the bastard, isn’t it? I should have accompanied her back to Kion. I did good by Rendor and his father for decades. Could have done good by her…” His voice trailed off, and he coughed. “What good is half a century of experience when I’ve got nothing to show for it but an old man’s regret?”

  The Valerian survived the fires that had engulfed many parts of Kion, a miracle given the ruination of the Willows. Cha-khana stood smoldering, stripped down to their foundations, and other asha-ka fared no better. Their noted botanical gardens lay in ruins, centuries of landscaping and meticulous tending eradicated in the space of minutes. In between the dawn and the dead, very little remained. The destruction here was worse than the rest of Ankyo.

  Now it served as a base of operations for its surviving leaders. Mistress Parmina granted Councilor Ludvig temporary rule of her asha-ka while she was away, and until she crossed the Swiftsea with the rest of the Kion army, the Isteran made the most of his duties, overseeing both the repairs for other asha-ka who were not as lucky and negotiating safe havens and supplies for the rest of the newly homeless.

  A quick word passed between Khalad and Kalen, but the Heartforger did not follow us into the Valerian. His face was drawn, an invisible weight pressing down on his shoulders that made him bend, an old man despite being in his prime. But he walked with a steady, inexorable pace, quickened by some intangible motivation. He strode past the Valerian asha-ka toward some destination I could not fathom. I paused, unsure if I should follow, but Lord Fox made the decision for me.

  “Leave him be.” He sounded harsher than usual. “It’s been a while since he’s set foot in the Willows, and there’s someone waiting for him. This is not the time nor the place for an audience.”

  “Is it family, milord? Or the old Heartforger?”

  “No. Old Narel passed away some months ago. Khalad left Kion shortly after that. I always thought that grief from his master’s death motivated his wanderlust. Khalad would not have chosen to leave her here in Kion otherwise.”

  Her?

  Fox continued, “But his alliance with my sister puts his reasons for leaving in a different context entirely.”

  “Was someone he knew injured by the fire?”

  The man smiled briefly. “You will get nothing else out of me, Bard. Tea may have granted you permission to her story, but Khalad’s is not open to discussion until he says otherwise.”

  “They might come after him next, Fox,” Lady Altaecia cautioned. “The elders’ numbers have greatly dwindled, following Hestia and the others’ deaths. They may suspect him to be Tea’s accomplice.”

  “We’ll look after Khalad,” Zoya promised. She’d entered the room long enough to catch the tail end of our conversation. “Where is he now?”

  “With her,” Princess Inessa said gently. “Give them as much solitude as he desires but remain ever on alert. Notify us if any other problems arise.”

  Zoya’s face fell, adopting the same melancholic expression the Heartforger had worn. Shadi sighed heavily and linked her arm to her sweetheart’s. “We understand, milady. We’ve been staying with her while he was away. It would be good to tell him what happened in his absence.”

  “It would be best if you moved into Parmina’s room,” Councilor Ludvig suggested. “It’s the largest in the asha-ka. I have soldiers and volunteers trooping in and out of here at all hours, and it would be best if you talk in more sequestered quarters, where there are fewer strangers to overhear.”

  “I’ll help you sort out the logistics, Lord Ludvig,” Fox offered. “There’s enough work here for twice our numbers.”

  “As will I,” Princess Inessa interjected, a stubborn tilt to her chin. “Morale ought to increase when the people see me here. I’ve already sent word of our arrival to my mother. She’ll send for me if she needs. What do the current reports say?”

  “There was damage to many properties in the business district, but the worst hit was the Willows, Your Majesty,” the old man reported. “Tea, at least, had very good aim. She hit the council house hard—not even a post remains. Many of the asha who’d been inside reported extreme lethargy. It appears they’d been compelled and herded out of the building before the first of the dragonfire hit. Those in nearby asha-ka and cha-khana mention the same experiences. All the runic wards around Kion still stand though. It does little to prevent the azi, but if Tea is still within the city, she would not be able to draw in the Dark and cause more mayhem.”

  “She minimized our casualties, at least,” Lord Fox muttered, and I remembered the steps she had taken to prevent the Daanorian soldiers from engaging the Kion army in battle back in Daanoris, the aid to the civilians affected by her invasion.

  “Not quite. At the temple of—”

  The rest of the conversation was lost as Lady Altaecia guided us into the next room. “Now that we’re all nice and settled,” Lady Altaecia said, “tell me more about her letters. Whatever possessed her to take in a bard, of all people?”

  I was wary of relinquishing Lady Tea’s writings, but Lady Altaecia was every inch the authoritarian that the Dark asha had recounted. I handed them over reluctantly, my eyes on her fingers as she rifled through the pages. I was tempted, again, to ask her to skip to the last page, wanting to know the Dark asha’s true ending—but refrained.

  Lady Altaecia looked up and chuckled. “I don’t intend to eat them, good sir. Surely you know why I am invested in what she has to say. You may be wondering where the rest of us are. You’ve met Zoya and Shadi. Likh is away, fighting another battle outside of Kion, with all our support. Parmina is expected to arrive in another week. Rahim is somewhere in the city, rallying the people with Chesh. He and the other shopkeepers are coordinating with Alyx’s troops and offering aid to the hardest hit. Have you finished reading these pages?”

  “Not all of them, no. Lady Zoya’s control of the ship made it difficult for study. But I read about her meeting with Lord Garindor”—the Drychta nodded in confirmation—“and about your findings in Istera.”

  “My king asked her to avenge poor Yarrod’s death,” the old man added dolefully, “little had we known then that it would be many months in the making, with the end still nowhere in sight.”

  Lady Altaecia leafed through the sheets. “I didn’t believe her at first,” she murmured. “It was such a fantastic, unvalidated theory, to believe that the elders kept secrets of this magnitude from the rest of us. But Tea proved me wrong, made me trust her. For a time, I even held out hope that she had a motive for this madness. That she had a reason to raise all seven daeva and bind them to her. That she had a reason to travel to Daanoris and upset the kingdom for the price of a Faceless’s heartsglass. She intended to raise shadowglass and take magic from the lands. The elders oppose it for good reason. It is a hard pill to swallow, to go from vaunted silver hearts to the common red, and all their influence gone with it.”

  “But why did you believe their words over hers? Did you not consider them your enemies, even then?” I asked. Lady Altaecia had accompanied the Dark asha, had seen all she had. Surely she knew of the elders’ culpability. What could estrange a trusted mentor, cause her to abandon her ward in her hour of need?

  The woman turned to me, the grief
in her eyes genuine. Pain puckered the skin alongside her crow’s-feet. “Because Tea killed an innocent, my boy.” She spoke softly but with authority. “The darkrot took control, and she slew an innocent, and her brother was there to see it all with his own eyes. I cannot trust a Dark asha on the cusp of darkrot, no matter how deeply I love her. The black has taken hold of her heartsglass, and it is only a matter of time before it corrupts Tea completely, bringing us all down with her. Was not the destruction of Kion—for no other reason than petty vengeance—enough proof?”

  6

  “The charges are ridiculous,” Zoya complained as we sat down to lunch.

  The cell I was provided was the cleanest in the Kion dungeons. Kalen had put two soldiers to work scouring and scrubbing. It was bare of furniture and essentials but comfortable enough to while away time. Zoya had solved the former issue by dragging in tables, pillows, and a softer, wide feather cot (“Needs to be big enough for two people, I reckon,” she quipped wickedly, and I blushed), glaring at the guards, daring them to protest. They did not.

  Althy and Kalen were still conducting daily Delvings, and our food was carefully monitored, prepared by either Althy or my mother, the latter soon taking over the kitchens in the Valerian asha-ka and shooing the Valerian’s suspicious maid, Farhi, away.

  To ensure my good behavior, the association had uprooted my family from Knightscross while my case was pending. My connection to the azi remained intact, however—a secret I kept. More than once, I was tempted to sic it on the elders for the condescending way they had treated my parents and siblings.

  “Bone witches aren’t the only suspects. Druj is still running amok.” Zoya slurped her tea and slammed the cup down on the table. “They have little to stand on, and they know it.”

  “The elders are doing everything in their power to restrain Tea’s movements,” Shadi reminded her, setting down her own empty cup. “And despite the flimsiness of the evidence, they remain in charge. They’ve successfully argued to withhold their findings until the trial commences.”

  “A witch hunt, then,” her lover grunted.

  “They want to humiliate me,” I said shortly. “To have my family on hand to watch.”

  “Well, they thought wrong,” my mother butted in, adding a plate of eggplant tahdig to the table. My father and brothers had accompanied Kalen to the barracks and weren’t expected back for the rest of the day. “We already know that they’re bullying you for being a bone—a Dark asha. And we won’t let them.”

  “Of course not!” Daisy chimed in cheerfully, following with some grilled jujeh. “Buck up and eat something to keep up your strength, Tea bunny. You’re skinny enough as it is.”

  Mistress Parmina had been kind to house my family. She and Mykkie went to the association daily to argue my defense. I scowled at my sister, then transferred my grimace to the plate she had set down. Daisy was not known for her cooking talents, and I doubted that my years away from home had improved her skills. “I’m not skinny.”

  “Yes, you are. All this magic takes energy.” She smiled brightly at Khalad, who sat beside me. “They say you’re the Heartforger. My sister’s told me stories, though I’ve never quite understood the intricacies of the work you do. It sounds rather noble.”

  Khalad blinked, looking up from some complicated work involving vials. “Pardon, Lady Daisy?”

  “Don’t bother the man, Daisy.” I was in no hurry to inform her about Khalad’s orientation—she’d learn it soon enough, and there were other things to worry about. Mykkie, Zoya, and Althy had been running themselves ragged investigating Sancha al-Sarim’s murder, and I still didn’t know who she was or why I had allegedly killed her.

  “And Fox is with a princess now. Fox!” Mentions of royalty had always rendered my sister awestruck. “I wasn’t expecting—well, I assumed being technically dead would close some doors when it came to relationships, but sweet Anahita of Koshti, the princess of Kion herself—”

  “You don’t understand the gravity of the situation, Daisy,” I interrupted. As I expected, the jujeh tasted horrible, but I chewed on valiantly.

  “Of course I do.” Daisy refilled our bowls of tea. “I was there when you raised him from the dead, remember? I don’t claim to know anything about asha politics, but this isn’t all that hard to understand. You’re a powerful asha, more powerful than they are, and the Willows don’t want that. I’m happy for Fox, and I’m happy for you. Father has already given his blessing.”

  I almost choked on the jujeh. “What?”

  “Sir Kalen didn’t ask Father to the barracks just to show him around. Father already suspected he would ask permission to court you.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Though I figured that’s putting the cart before the horse at this point.”

  I looked down, a warm glow spreading across my cheeks.

  “Ah, I wish I had more of both your luck! My interests have dried up in Knightscross, so to speak.”

  “Did they blame you?” I found myself asking before I could stop myself. “Or Mom and Dad?”

  Daisy stilled. “For what?”

  “The people back home. Did they blame you for me?”

  My mother sighed. “There were many who thought bone witches the spawns of the seven hells. But more were afraid than they were hateful. They feared retaliation should Lady Mykaela—or you, for that matter—hear of any mistreatment, and they relied too much on Rose’s and Lily’s services as forest and water witches to be too hypocritical. We knew the townspeople had resentment, but they left us alone and bought from your father’s forge as they always had.”

  Daisy grinned. Her heartsglass shone a healthy, cherry red. “You being Dark asha actually elevated us in the community, albeit not in the usual manner. People go out of their way to give due deference, strain their backs as they bend over. Whatever they may personally think of us, they are outwardly respectful.”

  “I’m sorry.” I didn’t want that. Knowing they were disliked was worse than receiving false courtesies, polite or not.

  My sister shrugged. “We’re a hardy breed, and it’ll take more than a cold shoulder to take us down. I miss talking to you, Tea bunny. It’s been a while since we’ve had any sisterly heart-to-hearts.” Daisy clasped my hand to hers. “We all miss you,” she said earnestly. “Mama wouldn’t stop crying for weeks after you two left, and the only comfort she had was knowing two of her children were leaving, instead of one remaining in the ground.”

  “Oh, Daisy.” My mother sighed.

  It had been hard growing up these last years without them. In many ways, my family members were almost strangers to me now. The more years standing in between their lives and mine, the fewer chances there were for them to intersect. “It wasn’t smooth sailing for me either, as you can tell. I had to learn to be something I knew nothing about. And Fox had it even worse.”

  “But you both made so much of yourselves,” Daisy argued. “More than the rest of us could in Knightscross.”

  “I’m in prison, Daisy. That’s not exactly an upgrade.”

  “Not for long, I’m sure. You have friends in Princess Inessa and Empress Alyx! I figured occasional arrests came with the territory. Dark asha frequently clash with people in power, just like in the books you used to read. You used to love all those volumes on asha.”

  “I was sillier then. Reading about asha was very different from becoming one myself.”

  “I knew you’d leave the village sooner or later. Mama’s looking a bit teary eyed again, but it’s true. When Lady Mykaela first arrived and told us you were going to be a novice, it seemed like you were simply fulfilling your purpose.” She smiled. “I was jealous. I thought about leaving Knightscross myself, but it’s hard to give up the safety and comfort of family for the unknown. I don’t have a silver or a purple heartsglass, but do you fancy one of the zivar or dress shops here would be willing to take me on?”

 
“You want to stay in Kion and work?” I was delighted. “Mama?”

  “We talked about it, Tea.” My mother sounded rueful, proud. “Your father and I agreed it was Daisy’s decision to make.”

  Daisy made a face. “As I said, I’ve exhausted all my options in Knightscross. Hawk and Wolf can run the forge just fine.”

  Khalad looked up, briefly distracted. “Was all that previous talk intended to butter up Tea into giving you a job at the Willows?”

  I burst into laughter. “I don’t mind. I really don’t.” The idea that I would have one more sibling in Ankyo with me was marvelous. And whatever flaws Daisy had, this was her way of asking me for my blessing. I responded with a hug. “Chesh’s is the best zivar shop in the city. I accidentally filched one of her assistants, and I can ask her if you can replace him. Or you can work with Rahim Arrakan.”

  “Rahim Arrakan?” Daisy was wide eyed. “You know the Rahim Arrakan?”

  I had no idea Rahim was popular in Knightscross.

  “I’d love that! I appreciate all the money you and Fox send back home, but I’d like to earn one of his dresses with my own money. Besides,” Daisy sighed. “He’s rather handsome in a rough, burly sort of way, don’t you think?”

  Khalad and I looked at each other and decided, without needing to voice it aloud, that Daisy should find that out in her own time too.

  “And where is our brother anyway, Mr. Heartforger?”

  “Sneaking into Hestia’s quarters with Zoya and Shadi.”

  “What?” I cried.

  “Oh, right.” The Heartforger looked abashed. “I wasn’t supposed to—”

  But I had already sent out my mind, touching on the edges of Fox’s as he rummaged through the elder’s study. The wards couldn’t stop that.

  What are you doing? I seethed, and he straightened up.

  Damn it, Khalad!

  Don’t you damn it, Khalad me. Why are you at the Imperial asha-ka?