by Rin Chupeco
“But do it anyway,” he said finally. “My brother will help people whether or not he remains the Heartforger. There will no longer be beasts to roam the land and attack people. With or without heartsglass, there will always be war. The asha and the Deathseekers will fade and become like the rest of us. They will learn in time that our existence is not so bad. I beg of you, Tea—if you have the opportunity to rid yourself of the magic that will one day consume you, then do it.”
“I cannot lose my brother again, Kance.” Tears dripped down to where our hands were joined. “I cannot. If you were in my place, and the price was Khalad, could you do it?” A silver heartsglass and the Resurrecting rune, Aenah’s voice whispered in my head, as if she hadn’t been dead all these months. And a kiss from the First Harvest. That’s all you need to bring young Fox Pahlavi his own heart, my Tea. But the harvest requires shadowglass, and shadowglass requires sacrifice. Surely he is worth the risk?
Kance withdrew his hand from mine, his face immeasurably sad. He stood and drew his cloak around himself, but not before his heartsglass swung free. My eyes followed the movement and spotted a smaller crystal pendant that hung from the same chain. He saw where my gaze drifted and touched the smaller stone with a finger.
“You told me it would help with my exhaustion. You gave this to me the night my engagement to Inessa was finalized,” he said quietly. “My anger at you in the days that followed did not prevent me from drawing comfort from your gift, and I am never without it. You are right. I could not ask that of Khalad. But had I been in his or your brother’s place, I would like to believe I could offer my life willingly.”
He sighed. “Maddening, isn’t it? The bonds that tie us together are the same bonds preventing us from what we would sacrifice for ourselves. I will let Kalen know that you are awake.”
• • •
“Do you mean to tell me,” Zoya said much later, sounding incredulous, “that Druj intended to turn King Aadil over to us all along?”
“It seems that way.” Once Kalen decided I was fit enough to get out of bed, I had emerged to find the Odalians hastily erecting makeshift prisons for the compliant Drychta. “Druj knew there was no First Harvest in Mithra’s Wall yet convinced the king to invade.” To seek me out.
Zoya scowled. “I’m not sure Aadil would make a competent ally. Perhaps the Faceless was simply foisting his trouble on us.”
“Be that as it may,” Althy said sensibly, “Kance has offered to assume charge of the prisoner, so it is one less burden for us. The other asha and I must make haste to Kion. Empress Alyx will want to hear what’s happened immediately. The asha association, no doubt, will be very interested as well.”
“Are you going to arrest me?” I asked her.
“You know me better than that. However, the azi has likely been sighted by now, and Kion should be receiving independent verification from other messengers soon.”
“Won’t you get in trouble for not bringing me in?”
“If a whole city could not contain you, then what should they expect from a handful of asha?” Althy smiled sadly at me. “Everyone misses you.”
“You know that that’s a lie, Althy.”
The plump asha sighed. “He does, Tea. You will both heal from this one day, but you two must choose to. Fox has not been the same since you left, my dear.”
“I cannot stay in contact with him, Althy. The elders will use our bond. They will know the instant I break through the runic wards around him again, and Mykkie has sworn to be truthful.”
“Inessa is gaining ground. She is loved by the people, just like her mother, and she is fighting for you both. We all are.” She hugged me. “We must take our leave soon. I will look over Likh, perhaps prescribe something stronger for him to take.” Althy sighed. “Protect those two.”
“You know I will.”
She turned to Kalen. “And it is on you to protect Tea, or I will be very much put out.”
“You know I always will, Althy.”
Kance and General Lode had gone to question more of the Drychta prisoners, and they returned troubled. “King Aadil’s madness is an open secret among the people of Drycht,” the Odalian general said. “But they serve him because they knew no other way, even as they feared him. There have been attempts to overthrow him in the past, though all were unsuccessful, and the instigators were made to suffer horrible deaths. Some of the prisoners tell us that Aadil had once been a kind king, with the potential to become one of their greatest rulers. How that change happened in less than a decade is puzzling.”
“That was Druj’s doing.” It horrified me, knowing that I had inflicted King Telemaine with the same madness the Faceless had on the Drychta ruler. No. I am better than him. I am better than him. “What do they say about Druj’s role in this?”
“That he was first installed in Aadil’s court as one of his closest advisers, though he never bared his face to the public. He always presented himself as a mystery. Behind Aadil’s back, the people called him a sorcerer. Those who went so far as to publicly oppose him were either killed or imprisoned. All of Drycht lives in fear.”
“Those poor people,” Zoya said quietly. “What do we do now?”
“We are looking into who is next in line to the throne. Once we’ve found someone outside the Faceless’s influence, we can ask neutral parties to set that person in Aadil’s place as a trusted regent. I’ve heard that Adhitaya’s son was exiled from the kingdom before the purge, and he may still be alive. Barring that, some distant relatives of the last king live, though they remain in hiding. Some of Aadil’s factions remain in power, and I doubt they’re willing to relinquish their control all that easily. We can hold Aadil captive for now, demand restitution for his crimes, but that’s the extent of what we can do. We don’t want to be accused of intervening in Drychta affairs more than we already have.”
“We must leave soon,” I added abruptly. “My presence complicates the situation, and I’m sure people from Kion already know I’m here, if sightings of the azi haven’t already given me away. Althy is an ally, but the asha association will send their own representatives after me.”
Kance hesitated. “You can claim sanctuary in Odalia,” he said slowly. “They believe that we’re not on good terms, and we can use that to our advantage.”
“You told me my exile still stands, Your Ma—Kance.”
“I am the king. I am allowed to change my mind.”
I smiled weakly. “I’m a target in many different ways, Kance. I refuse to put your kingdom at further risk the way I did with the Yadoshans.”
“But where will you go?”
“Somewhere they won’t find us. It’s a big world. There must be a small spot in it for us.”
“But surely there’s something else I can do?”
“There is.” Kalen slipped his hand in mine. “Feign ignorance when you are asked where we are. Tell people we are still estranged and told you nothing. We want to live out the rest of our lives in peace, Kance, and we can only do so if we are hidden away.”
“But will the elders stop sending people after you?”
“Wars come sooner or later, but they come all the same. There are no guarantees, but we have to try.”
“I will do my best.” Kance gripped Kalen’s other hand in a firm handshake. “Blessings be upon you then, Kalen. Take care of yourselves, and look after Tea and Khalad for me.”
“Without question, Your Majesty.”
It took less than an hour for Likh and Khalad to get ready, both in noticeably better spirits. It was a good decision to make our departure immediate; the Yadoshans, Drychta, and Odalians were uncomfortable around me now, and even Knox seemed a shade awed, though not fearful, like most. “It was a good fight,” the dark-skinned Yadoshan told us reverently. “I will remember it to the end of my days. I know I may not necessarily speak for my kinsmen, but should you eve
r find your way back to Yadosha, feel free to look me up. I owe you a tankard or two.”
The azi was also eager to be off, its wings braced for flight. Once we had loaded the rest of our belongings on its back, it was quick to take to the air, and I watched as Kance stared up after us, an indecipherable expression on his face until he disappeared in the distance.
• • •
“There’s something on your mind,” Kalen said once we had set up camp. After much discussion, we had decided that time away from the Odalian-Kion-Yadoshan continent was needed, and when Likh had proposed staying overnight by the Sea of Skulls while we planned our next moves, we found little to protest. Khalad and Likh had caught enough fish for dinner, but I spent most of the evening staring into the campfire, lost in thought.
“There’s something I’m missing,” I confessed. “It’s been nagging at me ever since we left.”
“You need to give your body time to heal, Tea,” Likh said with a smile, stirring a small pot.
I wrinkled my nose. “That doesn’t smell like soup.”
“It’s some herbs Althy gave me before we left. My supplies were running low, and she offered some of her share.” Likh blushed and lowered her voice. “She suggested that you take some. She mentioned that it was good for, ah…for preventing…when men and women have relations. It’s for the woman to not…”
I blushed in turn. “I have my own herbs for that. But I’m not sure how you would benefit from, um…”
Likh was bright red. “O-of course not! She says it’s also good for keeping up one’s strength, and I thought I could brew you some as well.”
“Thank you.” I accepted a cup, breathing in the slightly bitter aroma. Althy had always favored quality over taste. Wryly, I recalled the terrible-tasting concoctions she had administered to me over the years, though they did a good job of healing me quickly enough, whether it was coughs or—
I froze, staring down at the herbal drink. The steam rising from the brown liquid felt hot against my face. Fallowroot and winter ginger, I thought almost absently, mixed in with juniper berries and lacrow flowers…
“It’s not quite the cha-khana,” Likh sighed, raising her own brew to her lips. “But this is better than nothing.”
My arm whipped forward, dislodging the cup from her hands. The earthen bowl fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.
“Tea?” Khalad rushed forward at the sound, and Kalen turned from his cooking. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t drink that!” I staggered to my feet.
“What—”
I delved. The rune stood, bleeding red, in the air. Likh’s jaw dropped.
“All this time we’d wondered if the Blight rune affected silver heartsglass worse than it did others. We thought we were watching what we ate and drank. We were wrong.” Shaking, I upended the contents of my bowl on the ground, liquid sloshing everywhere. I felt sick to my stomach, my appetite gone. “Likh, how long have you been drinking this?”
The poor girl was shaking. Khalad pulled her closer, and she all but collapsed against his chest. “Ever since we left Kion. Althy told me to take it every day, that it would be good for long journeys, especially now that I’d been blighted…”
I remembered Kance, the headaches and pain plaguing him in the days before his engagement to Inessa had been announced. How his father’s death gave him the peace to chase them away; how he stopped drinking the herbs after that. Who had brewed his tea, during those long months?
Hadn’t I been drinking her concoctions as well? Strange dreams and visions had swirled my days together. Dreams that made me want to jump from high Isteran towers, that taught me how Kion should burn. Nightmares that drew my knife into my hands and stabbed my sister with my anger. Those nightmares had lessened after leaving Kion, but I had prepared my own herbs by hand since then.
Had Kance been blighted during those months as well? Was it a last resort, an unfulfilled threat?
I was wrong. I must be wrong. I would give up almost everything, not to be right.
“Tea.” Kalen’s face was strained. “Surely you don’t think…”
“I don’t know what to think. But you need to take the runic wards off me, Kalen. We need answers, and there’s only one person I know who can give us them now.”
The Compulsion dissolved around us, but the soldiers had learned their lessons and dared not approach.
“You didn’t believe me about Daisy,” the bone witch said, breathing hard. “You would not have believed me had I told you the truth about Altaecia. Why would you? I had no proof. Khalad knew then, but Altaecia only arrived back at Kion after he had left for Daanoris. She claimed to have visited Odalian villages, it seems—a deliberate ploy. It was my word against hers, and of the two of us, she was not the known kinslayer, not the renegade bone witch. Altaecia was clever, treating my mind with ills and humors until I questioned even myself.”
“I was stunned when I saw her at the port,” Khalad murmured. “I’d told no one about what had happened to her. I kept silent—I had no way of reaching you with this new information, Tea, but it seemed you knew all along.”
“Not for a long time, no. But who would you side with—the highly respected asha of the Willows, or a poor bone witch who’d slain her own sister and showed every indication of losing her mind? In your places, I would have sided against me. Poor Likh could not have testified for my sake. Only Khalad believed me.”
“And even then, I knew I could not speak up,” the Heartforger admitted. She thought I was unconscious the whole time back then, and that her secret was safe. “I held my tongue for Likh alone. I could not risk retaliation against her.”
“You must have been mistaken, Tea,” Zoya said, her voice quavering. “After the fight at Mithra’s Wall, Althy placed me in charge of the asha and told me to return to Kion without her. She said she had mulled it over and decided to accompany Kance back to Odalia, to keep watch over Aadil. She said she would follow me in a few days. Althy…Althy would never…”
“Look around you. Where is Altaecia now? I have scried the whole area while you all stood compelled and could find no trace of her anywhere. Isn’t her absence enough evidence?”
The asha sagged. “But it can’t… Surely there’s an explanation…”
I swayed on my feet. “She must have taken the letters,” I choked out, remembering her strange insistence at seeing them, her indifference after the pages were missing. “I refused her at first…but then turned them over when she asked again. She might have…”
“Subtlety is her asset. It would be easy enough to compel you in the middle of the Willows, surrounded by asha, if she thought herself beyond reproach. And now she is gone.”
“But Althy did not know compul—”
“Why would she go through all this trouble?” Lady Zoya croaked.
“This war is a farce. Druj intends to keep you occupied here while she journeys to Drycht and to the Ring of Worship, where the First Harvest lies. Shadowglass and lightsglass are the keys to unlocking its secrets, and I possess both. She has woven wards around the Ring of Worship to ensure that I cannot enter without her presence, and took on a new identity to hide herself from me. I attacked Kion in the hopes of drawing her out, trying to dismantle the disguise she now assumes.
“In response, she orders the Drychta to occupy the Hollows, knowing it will bring me out in the open, knowing I will not stand by and allow Kance and the others to come to harm. She knew that when I came to Mithra’s Wall, to aid the Odalians and risk discovery when I could have chosen prudence and kept myself away.” Her lip curled. “She knows my weaknesses, and she knows that I am aware of her ploys—and that I have no choice but to rise to her bait. But there is no turning back. She will be waiting for me now at the Ring of Worship, where she believes the runic wards will give her the upper hand.”
“But if she shares your g
oals of completing shadowglass…”
The Dark asha laughed. “Did you believe her? Druj rages against the elder asha for usurping their powers, but Druj has known the Dark longer than they and wants it more. Should I complete shadowglass, she will find some new way to wrest it from me. I will see that monster dead before anything else.”
“And how will you defeat Druj?” Lord Fox was hoarse.
The Dark asha offered her hand to her brother. “You can come with me and see for yourself.” There was a quiver in her voice. “I could not tell you all this before, Fox. You testified against me in my own trial. You told them about my black heartsglass. You would not have believed me had I told you the truth about Altaecia, and you would have told her about your suspicions. That you didn’t kept you safe from her. Do you understand now, Fox? Why I refused to contact you all this time?
“She thought me a powerless vagabond, and I needed her to think that. Your trust in her would have prepared her sooner for my rebirth. I could not have asked you to choose between Inessa and me any more than you would ask me to choose between you and Kalen. But everything is out in the open now, and as I told you in Daanoris, there will be no more secrets. Please trust me one final time. Give me a good burial. I never gave you one, Fox…but oh, please give me this.”
He stared at Lady Tea for the longest time before he silently took her hand.
I sprang to my feet. “Let me go with you.”
“It is one thing to summon a bard to write my song. It is another thing entirely to bring a Drychta royal noble as vanguard to a fight I may not win.”
Kance looked stunned. Zoya’s eyes went wide.
“So you know.” I understood then why she had been adamant about sending me away—not to break her promise, but to preserve a bloodline.
“I am not so arrogant as to find a bard solely for him to sing my songs. You are good at tales, but you would make a better ruler for a kingdom mistreated by tyrants for far too long. I am sorry for what happened to Princess Esther, Your Highness. We can choose who we love, but we cannot choose who loves us. Your father was a tyrant in his own way—but you are not. For the good of Drycht’s future, you must be kept out of harm’s way.”