by Elina Vale
Her hatred for Shri Moongale burned strong, but this conversation with Leah had also revealed a kinship with the girl. “Children will always disappoint us, “Shea said, opening herself to the magical streams, “but a mother’s love should never be withheld!”
As Shea’s eyes faded to black, Leah jumped from the chair and backed toward the wall in horror. “No! Leave me be, you beast!”
“What happened when Shri begged you for patience and understanding?”
“What are you talkin’ about? I did no harm to Shri! I fed ‘er, I clothed ‘er. She’s the one who ruined me!”
“Did you love her?” Shea took a step closer. “Did you support her dreams? Did you show her that she mattered?”
“It was the Pit, for pity’s sake! No one matters in the Pit!”
Another step. “Even If your child doesn’t matter to the Pit, or to the Spike, or to the Gods themselves, she should matter to you.”
“Please...” Leah slid down the wall and covered her head with her hands. “Please don’t! I will serve you! I will...”
“You withhold love from your own child.” All at once, Shea’s hair stood on end, wavering with dark power. “Now, I will show you the same consideration you showed Shri. I withhold the mercy you beg for!”
Shea grabbed Leah by the throat and repeatedly slammed her against the wall with all her fury, her wild magic sizzling uncontrollably. Then, she threw the screaming woman to the ground and began to pummel her with her fists and magic, over and over, possessed by the need to break every bone in Leah’s body.
The stone relished in Shea’s rage.
When Shea let go of the magic and woke from her haze, Leah’s broken corpse lay before her, drenched in blood and twisted in unnatural angles.
She took a calming breath and wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. She patted her curls, smoothing her hair with her hand. Adjusting her gown, she turned around to leave, but was startled by senatai Karama standing at the door. He was skinny and gray-haired, his face drooping like an old leather pouch. His pointy nose and large brown eyes reminded Shea of a hound dog. But with his eternal scowl, he lacked the charisma of such an animal.
Karama was the only seer in the Spike. Aldemar used to rave that he was a crazy man, and that nobody should trust his words. He had been on the old High Master’s list of most disposable senatai. Considering that Aldemar was dead, however, Shea decided to let Karama live.
“High Mistress Shea,” he greeted, bowing his head.
Shea studied his face. His eyes looked different than usual. They seemed somehow clearer.
Karama didn’t flinch at the sight of Leah’s body. “Death brings peace to us all.”
“And silences the noise, thankfully,” Shea grumbled, wiping Leah’s blood off her cheek. She rarely sought Karama’s company, for listening to his riddles and rhymes irritated her.
“I have seen the future,” Karama said. “It is not good.”
“Yes, Karama,” Shea sighed. “The crown is threatening to attack us, and I still don’t have the support of all the senatai in the Spike.”
“Irrelevant,” he answered. “The battle between two sides is never-ending. The world creates a vortex that seeks to balance opposing forces by spinning them opposite one another, lest the two meet and destroy all things.”
“What are you trying to tell me, then?”
“You hear but you don’t listen,” he chastised. “The Black Star is Doh, and Doh has an opposite part, which we call Dien. Together, Doh and Dien will make the most powerful weapon that could ever be.”
“What sort of weapon?”
“An artifact capable of destroying entire cities! It will make the seas boil, level the mountains, and uproot the forests.”
“Something I’d like to get my hands on,” she smirked. “How does one create it?”
“You don’t understand!” he pointed a condemning finger at her. “If they are used together, they will channel an awesome power, but if they are used against one another, one of them must be destroyed! And if the light conquers the darkness, destroys the Black Star... the stone that is attached to your chest...”
“It destroys me with it,” Shea whispered. Karama had never delivered so clear a message, and without madness in his voice. She pressed her hand against the stone. “What is this other part, then? Where is Dien?”
“The rivers of time have not revealed to me where it is now,” he said. “But they have shown where it will be. I saw it in the hands of a young woman whose hair is as white as snow and whose eyes burned with the white flame of magic.”
Shea’s eyes widened. “Shri Moongale!”
“Know this, High Mistress: in my vision, the stone of light, in the hands of this woman, destroys you.”
“Then she must not find it!”
The fog returned to Karama’s eyes, driving the crucially important words away from his mind.
“Karama!” Shea grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Come back from your madness and talk to me! What is this artifact? I have to find it before she does. I have to kill her... or get her back here and turn her to my cause.” She mused over the possibility. “What a weapon such a girl and that artifact would make!”
Karama’s eyes widened, and he unleashed a hollow giggle. “Oh, my! The mistress will put us into boats, and while we sail the streams, she will push us into the unholy river! Ah, she is a vengeful creature, she is.”
Shea sent him on his way down the dark corridor, babbling to himself all the way.
Since entering the room, much had changed about the way Shea regarded her enemy. First, she had discovered an unexpected kinship with Shri, relating to the way her own mother had emotionally abandoned her. Then, just when she had begun to feel her first scrap of sympathy toward Moongale, she had learned that Shri might be destined to kill her. But what if Shri could be turned to her cause? If Shri was meant to possess the Diem artifact, perhaps instead of mortal rivals, they could become allies. They shared similar pasts, and they held opposite magics. Perhaps Shri Moongale was merely a missing piece that Shea was meant to unite with. Shea could only begin to imagine the power to be gained.
She wrapped her hands around herself. She needed to get Shri into the Spike before she discovered the truth about the other stone, Dien, and the possibilities it held. Looking at Leah’s body, she realized that she had killed this one too early. A living member of Shri’s family might be the perfect bait.
It was time to find out how close Shri really was with the legless girl.
Shea found Susu on a huge bed, tucked under white blankets. She was clean for the first time in years, and her gorgeous hair was brushed and spread around her face like the feathers of a glorious bola-bird. She was in one of the better guest rooms. Not that this Pit slave deserved a great room, but it was near Shea's own suite, which made it easier to visit her.
Susu looked healthier already. Senatai Supra had worked with her legs, and they were healed. She still had only stumps, but they were healthy stumps, closed over and free of disease.
She watched as Shea approached.
Shea stared into her eyes, so dark and beautiful in her skinny face. “How are you feeling, Susu?”
“Better.”
“Good,” Shea replied, sitting down on the bed.
“Will my legs ever come back?”
“Sadly, no,” Shea frowned. “Magic has its limits. But the wounds are healed, and you should be healthier now. People won’t run from the smell.”
“I suppose it was foolish to hope for anything else. Still, it’s better than I’d have got in the Pit.”
“I ask for little in return.” Shea calmly looked at Susu. “Tell me, are you ready to speak of your friend Shri?”
“Where is she?” Susu quickly returned. “Is she alive?”
“As far as I know, yes.”
The joy shone in her eyes, and her soft lips curved into a smile. “I knew it! I mean, I didn’t know but I felt it in my heart. She sur
vived the Gate Run!”
“She made it through, yes. But then she snuck off with a band of criminals.”
“Criminals?”
“Traitors to the Spike,” Shea said. “Agents of the greedy king.”
Susu didn’t respond.
When Shea touched her hand, Susu turned away. “Susu... Shri killed the old High Master of the Spike. The punishment for such treason is death.”
“Then I’m glad she got away,” Susu blurted out.
“I’m sure you are, but you know what?” Standing up, Shea drew from her fountain. The magic filled her, and the horrified look on Susu’s face told Shea her eyes had changed again into the black voids alive with red sparks. She could feel it as well, like her soul was on fire.
The stone whispered inside her. ...Rip her... Devour her... She is nothing... We are everything. Kill her... Kill her...
Shea ignored the whispers, and with her magic, lifted Susu from the bed. The girl gasped at the sensation of floating through the air, but she didn’t scream.
This one is fearless, Shea thought. I like that.
She levitated the sheets off of the bed and, using her mind, molded them in the shape of legs around Susu’s stumps. Then, she pulled a grand mirror from the other side of the room, screeching it across the floor.
Susu floated in the air, legs made of bed sheets below her. Her eyes were cold and angry, and she wouldn’t face the mirror.
“Please, look at yourself, Susu,” Shea said, and forced her to do so. “I can force your eyes open, but that’s not going to be pleasant. Why fight?”
Susu obeyed, but when she saw herself, her expression was unreadable, blank.
Shea could sense the hidden emotions. “Ah, you miss them, don’t you?” She looked into the reflection of Susu’s eyes, her blond curls and rosy cheeks creating a beautiful contrast against Susu’s tanned skin and black hair. “Remember what it was like, to run? To walk? To climb? Remember when you weren’t like a helpless infant, requiring your friends to wait on your every need?”
“Yes,” Susu said. “Then you took my legs away. You left me bleeding in the rain. You get nothing from me.”
The mirror slid back to its place with a loud screech, and the sheets contracted around Susu’s body. She still didn’t scream. She stared at Shea, her nostrils widening with each dramatic breath. The girl was angry, not frightened.
“Are you not scared of me?”
“I was raised in the Pit, hungry and unclean. I was exploited for endless hours of labor. I lost my legs, and with them, every ounce of hope and independence I ever had.” She glared at Shea. “I got nothing left to fear, because I got nothing left to lose.”
“Of course you do,” Shea mumbled between her teeth, and released the spell of ripping. Glimmering black powder slithered through the air toward Susu, seeking her nostrils, ears, and mouth. Shea shivered from the sheer pleasure it gave her just to command the dark energy. The Black Star was pleased, and it sent euphoric feelings to reinforce Shea’s desire to tap into it. She didn’t need the energy like Aldemar had—she was, after all, younger and sturdier— but she craved it, she yearned for it. In the hazy lust, somewhere in the turbulence of her mind, she remembered she needed Susu.
Reluctantly, Shea cut off the stream of pleasurable energy and released the magic. Susu fell to the floor, shaking and panting. Shea’s vision cleared, and the world turned back into the gray, ordinary version of itself.
She leaned over Susu, who took Shea’s stare boldly. The legless girl refused to show any fear, but during the ripping, Shea had sensed it. Still, Shea admired her; even without legs, even being tormented by magic, she held her ground.
“Your courage will be your doom,” Shea warned.
“You think I fear death?” Susu scoffed. “Kill me and you release me from my suffering.”
“I have ways of killing you, but still denying you the mercy of death,” Shea said, crouching in front of her.
Susu lifted herself up with her arms, bringing her eyes to the same level as Shea’s. “Shri is in danger, and I won’t let her down again. Do whatever you want; my loyalties are with her.”
Shea burst into laughter. “Well, that’s a marvelous idea, Summerhaze. That is your real name, right? May I call you Summerhaze?”
“No.”
“Susu, I’m going to break you. I’m going to change those loyalties and make you my sweet little pet. When Shri Moongale finds out that I have her best friend, she will rush to me in an attempt to save you, only to find that you’ve come to my side.”
“You sicken me!” Susu spat in her face.
Shea’s expression darkened. “There are so many inventive spells I can test on you. You just keep giving me reason to do so.”
“What is it you want? You want Ironflare? You have it! You want magic? It’s already yours! What more could you need?”
“An army,” Shea said, polishing her fingernails against her cloak. “I’m going to create a mass of loyal, unkillable ghost-soldiers.”
“And what are you going to do with your army?”
“You’ll find out, little pet. Soon enough.”
Two ghost-servants came in and lifted Susu back onto the bed. She stared at them with concern.
“I’ll die before I become like them.”
Shea shrugged. “Perhaps.”
Walking to the window, she observed the city below. She would gather all her senatai and drokashai into the Spike and lock the rings. Her very best tracker would be dispatched to find Shri. Not to kill her, but to bring her to the Spike. With Shri by one side, Doria by the other, and the Black Star within, Shea would have the power to control everything. She chuckled.
Oh, the wonderful things that were about to happen!
CHAPTER 5
SHRI’S WEEK AS A DROKASHAI had passed. Training with Boa and the others made her felt a lot better. She didn’t need magic. She was a good fighter, and she could help her family even without it. She tried to find her fountain by herself a couple of times, but by now, she was sure it wasn’t there. Still, she would find a way. Smiling, she entered the shiny, white corridors that led to Eavan Firestone’s room. Shri would explain herself, and Eavan would understand; they had been wrong about her, all except Harnan. She didn’t have what it took to become a senatai. And that was fine.
Her plan was to ask permission to leave the Island and return to Ironflare. There, she would not only rescue Susu, Papa, and Mama, but anyone else who wanted to be free.
When she knocked on Eavan’s door, nobody answered.
Turning the knob, she found the room unlocked, so she poked her head in. The two green leather armchairs stood in their usual places, and a light wind wavered the white curtains. The same old bookshelves loomed beneath the glimmering chandelier.
“Hello? Are you here, Eavan?”
She stepped into the empty chamber, thinking she might wait for Eavan, only to discover the double doors to the balcony were open, and Boa’s hat was on the senatai’s desk.
They were here, somewhere. It was a good thing they both happened to be there; Shri could ask Boa if she could join the drokashai permanently. It was where she belonged. She felt right with a sword in her hand, the energy coursing through her as she pushed her body to its limits. That was her fate.
Soft voices reached from the direction of the balcony. Shri approached the open doors, and was about to step outside, when she heard Eavan’s voice mentioning a familiar name.
“...don’t want you to tell Shri.”
She stopped and bit her tongue. She shouldn’t eavesdrop. Yet, she stayed behind the wall, silently listening.
“Do you really think it’s wise to keep this information to ourselves?” Boa’s voice responded.
“She is so fragile right now,” Eavan said. “I don’t want to do anything that could make her feel more vulnerable than she already is.”
Silence.
“It’s been over twenty years,” Boa said. “The vision you had...”
“I still believe in it,” Eavan said.
Shri heard movement, the sound of fabric against fabric, followed by a soft moan from Eavan. They were embracing.
“Do you remember the day you agreed to become my drokashai?” Eavan asked.
“How could I forget? You saved me from myself.”
“I’m beginning to think it might have been the other way around.”
“Why?”
“Without you, I might have ignored these visions. I would have wasted my whole life chasing the wrong goals.”
“You would have found your way to your true purpose eventually,” Boa said.
Eavan gave out a deep laugh. “Really? Boa Riverson believes in destiny now? I’ve had some impact on you after all!”
“You know very well the impact you have on me.” Boa said.
“And you know I love you,” Eavan said. “There will never be anyone else. But this time... it’s not ours. I can’t give myself to anything but the war, and to the threat Shea now poses.”
“You don’t have to sacrifice your whole life for other people’s battles, Eavan.”
A sound of a kiss.
A sigh.
Shameful heat climbed into Shri’s cheeks. She was listening in on a very private moment, and if she could have, she would have fled from the room, and the memory of it. Peering through the crack between the door hinges, she witnessed Eavan gently pushing Boa away.
“No. We must focus on the upcoming events.”
“You’re using those as an excuse.” Boa refused to let go of her.
“Maybe.”
“Why?”
Eavan turned her back on Boa, revealing her face to Shri. Shri held her breath, certain that Eavan would see her, but the senatai’s eyes were closed. “My vision has never revealed a future for us.”
“Eavan...”
“I have seen many possible futures, Boa... but not a single one where we’re at peace together.”
“They’re just visions! Possible futures. Right now is real. This is our moment!”