“I can’t believe I didn’t think of it,” she said. “Don’t fight me. Please.”
Another shove. This time my spirit plummeted toward the fading ghost inside my body. Nyralit had asked me not to resist, but I had no hope of fighting this. The compulsion was irresistible.
Of course. She was using her ability as a soul priestess. Like the Ulstat nightstrands, I had no choice but to obey her commands. And right now, she commanded my spirit to rejoin my body.
I passed through the veil separating life and death like smoke through a curtain of frigid beads. Chilled to the core, I landed inside my body. My blood was syrup, my heart a lump of clay. I tried to draw breath, but couldn’t find the strength.
Raav laid his lips over mine and breathed warmth into my lungs.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
THE SUNLIGHT FALLING on my skin was like warm honey, drenching me in sweetness. Overhead, gulls circled in the breeze rising off the harbor. The smell of smoldering embers drifted over the water, its surface scattered with half-burned planks, bobbing casks, and rowboats filled with frightened gutterborn.
I lay near the edge of the wharf, upon packed earth where the northern coast road curved up and away from the harbor. My head was pillowed on Raav’s jacket, while a ratty blanket, probably pulled off of one of the docked ships, covered my shivering body. I didn’t know how long we’d been here. I could remember little after Nyralit forced me from the aether.
Tyrak? I asked.
Shh, he said sharply. No spirit contact. Not now. You’re still too fragile.
Later?
Yes, now clap shut.
I blinked, weakened by the conversation, and drifted again. Later, when I found the strength to turn my face to Raav’s, a shaky sigh left his body.
I squinted in an attempt to understand the situation in the city. The smell of smoke told me fires still burned, but I couldn’t hear the roar or the crackle of a true inferno nor see a towering curtain of flame.
“What happened?”
“There’s so much to tell,” he said.
“The fires?”
“Doused. Mostly.”
I closed my eyes, relieved.
“Still thinking of others first, I see,” he said, tracing one of my eyebrows with the tip of his finger. Another sigh swelled his chest. “I thought I’d lost you, Lilik. Your heart stopped.”
I tried to smile but lacked the strength. “To tell the truth, you almost did lose me. Even I realize it this time.”
“The Ulstats told me you were dead once before. I didn’t want to believe them, but I saw the blood. And you were gone. It nearly crushed me.”
“They told you that the morning after we vanished?”
He nodded. “They said you and Nyralit made the mistake of attacking the guards. I didn’t know what to think. But you were gone, so I had to consider the possibility that they were telling the truth.”
“Is that why you married her?”
He flinched then shook his head. “The day after they said you’d died was the worst of my life. I couldn’t sleep so I was out wandering the hallways. I thought if I kept moving I could forget. Or hurt a little less, anyway. It didn’t work. While I was out, I caught one of Trader Ulstat’s spies coming out of a hidden door.” Raav stopped speaking, his face awash with emotion. The muscles in his jaw rippled beneath his cheek.
“What is it?” I asked.
“He didn’t see me, thank the tides. But I’ll never know whether he worked for House Ulstat out of loyalty or because he had no choice. The worst part of it is, it wasn’t that hard. Just my hands around his neck. My forehead smashing his nose.”
He looked away, shame on his face. I wasn’t sure what to say. We’d both killed before. We’d shared the regret and the guilt and the questions about what sort of people that made us. But the only reassurances I could come up with were empty. Instead, I raised a trembling arm and slid fingers along his jaw. The effort was too much; my arm flopped down.
“Nyralit’s gone,” I said. My voice broke on the words.
He clenched his jaw, fighting tears. “I thought so. We can’t let it be for nothing.”
I swallowed. “But she told me Captain Altak is alive—she’s sure of it. He may already be on the way to Ioene.”
“I don’t understand how anyone could sail those waters now,” he said, looking out over the harbor to the strait beyond. Enormous waves crashed along the coast, throwing spray high into the sky. My duskweaving had forced back the darkness, most likely because the Ulstats strands had given it a foothold. With Leesa’s congregation filling the aether, it would be much more difficult for the lurking evil to intrude. But Mieshk was still growing stronger.
“We’ll have to try. There’s no other choice.”
He nodded, grim-faced.
“How did you find me, Raav?”
“It goes back to what I was saying about the spy corridors. After I killed the man, I dragged him into the tunnels within the walls. They’re dark. Narrow. Better than trying to hide him in my room, that’s for sure. Anyway, I heard voices through the wall and found a peephole into Trader Ulstat’s study. He was talking about you to a guardsman. I was so relieved, Lilik. It almost pushed away my guilt over the killing. Trader Ulstat said they were laying a trap for you at the gallows. I knew I couldn’t fight my way off the grounds, and I didn’t think I’d manage to sneak out. I thought my best chance of helping you was to earn their trust. So I agreed to the wedding.”
“I saw the ceremony.” I didn’t mention the kiss. I didn’t think I could without sounding jealous. Whatever he’d done, I had to take him at his word that it was for me.
The knot of cartilage in his neck bobbed when he swallowed. “Going through with that ceremony was almost as difficult as dealing with the knowledge that I’m a murderer.”
I forced strength into my arm to reach for him. He accepted my open hand in his palm and traced circles on my skin. “I thought maybe they’d let me leave the grounds after Ashhi and I were married, but Trader Ulstat locked me in a new chamber near Ashhi’s bedroom. I was inside when a group of rogues attacked.”
“Caffari,” I said.
“I kicked the door open when I heard the fighting in the hall. The guards had already overpowered the intruders—nothing I did would change the outcome. But I thought I might earn the Ulstats’ trust by jumping in.”
A cloud crossed the sun, and I shivered. Despite the day’s warmth, I couldn’t shake the feeling that dusk lingered at the edge of my awareness. That the shadows were deeper than they’d been a few days before.
“Caffari said you fought to protect Ashhi.” At the memory of the smuggler’s words, I felt a faint echo of hurt. But I brushed it away. Even if I couldn’t master my feelings, at least I could banish the invalid ones.
He smiled a bit crookedly. “I’m glad it looked that way from the outside. In truth, she was about to sink a letter opener into the back of someone’s neck. I made it look like a clumsy attempt to defend her when I knocked her arm away.”
“Did they trust you after?”
He sighed. “Maybe a little. That or they couldn’t spare someone to fix the lock on my door. In any case, I slipped out later and ducked into the spy tunnels. Listening through the walls, I heard that Trader Ulstat had captured and imprisoned you in the main refinery. I heard about the approaching fires. Problem was, he had guards on every door. Patrolling the wall, and standing two-deep at the gate. I decided to try an escape anyway—maybe I could find a section of wall where no one was watching.”
“And you did. You escaped.”
He shrugged. “I suspect you had a little something to do with it. I was still outside when . . . whatever it was that you did happened. A portion of the back wall toppled early—I got out just in time.”
“They chose fire,” I mumbled. “Raav, what happened to the Ulstats?”
Moving to a crouch, he tucked one arm under my neck and the other into the crooks of my knees, lifting me easi
ly from the street.
“I’ll show you,” he said.
My strength was returning. By the time we reached the ruins of the Ulstat grounds, I could stand on my own. I walked with Raav’s help, leaning heavily on his arm. It felt strange, just the two of us. Nyralit’s absence was a gaping hole, and though I was glad to have sent my family to safety, I missed them.
House Ulstat was gone. Erased. Looking over the yawning pit where the manor and grounds and even the graveyard had stood, I shook my head in disbelief. Only a small island of land, ragged-edged and peppered with stones with a solitary dead tree in the center, remained. The earth plunged deep around it, a crater tall enough to hide Istanik’s courthouse within. Rubble filled the bottom, scorched wood and shattered stone. Ash still hung in the lower reaches of the hole.
“It started like the earthquakes we felt on Ioene,” Raav said. “That’s when the wall behind me fell apart. I thought it was a lucky opportunity to escape into the city. I didn’t realize I was fleeing for my life. I didn’t see the house collapse. But someone on the street said it was like a void opened on the grounds and then collapsed in a flash of light followed by a column of fire.”
I took my weight off his arm, stood under my own power, and entwined my fingers with his.
He smiled at me almost mischievously. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
I blushed. “I think so, yes.” I paused. “You pity Ashhi. I felt it when I touched your spirit. She was inside?”
He chewed the corner of his lower lip and nodded. “But I pitied her for more than an early death. She was nothing but a creation of her father. Never really had a chance in life. She lacked the strength to be better than her birth. I suppose I’d feel sorry for anyone in those circumstances. But it doesn’t mean I cared for her. I’m not sad she’s gone.”
“So you’re a widower.”
His lip twitched. “I suppose so. Trader Ulstat will contest the financial arrangements.”
“He’s alive?”
“He was in the city when it happened. Anyway, with a marriage of less than a day, I doubt even the most conservative Kiriilti would argue against House Ovintak’s title and fortune remaining with me.”
“You’re sure he was off the grounds?” I asked, eyeing the destruction before me. Beyond the crater where House Ulstat once stood, half the city had been blackened by flame. The exodus that had begun the day before continued, trains of commoners filling the roads. “Though actually, I’m not entirely sure that would have saved him.”
Raav nodded with his chin as he pulled me down behind a pile of rubble. “If I wasn’t before, I am now.”
Nearby, screened by thin brush that had grown outside the wall, Trader Ulstat cut a silhouette against the hazy backdrop of the sea. He stared at the ruins of his House. Behind him, stood a phalanx of House guards and ruffians hastily dressed in mish-mashed armor pieces with the Ulstat sigil whip-stitched to the shoulders. After a moment, the Ulstat prime pounded a fist into his other hand and faced his followers.
“The daughter I considered naming as heir is dead. Cowardly Araokans are abandoning their capital city. Fortunately, my true heir, Mieshk, holds dominion over Ioene. Today, we sail for the volcano to join her.” He paused, dragging a saber from his belt. “I’d anchored a fleet of ships on the north coast in preparation for this voyage. But time is too short now. Instead, we’ll repay Ilaraok’s betrayal by commandeering the vessels taking advantage of our harbor. If anyone resists, cut them down. Take those who surrender prisoner. We’ll need strong backs to pull the oars through seas like this.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“WE HAVE TO stop him,” I hissed as I stood.
Raav jumped up and held out steadying hands in case I fell, but I kept my feet. A wave of lightheadedness passed quickly.
“How, Lilik? There’s just the two of us.”
My hand fell to my hip. The empty dagger sheath sent a dart of panic through me. I recovered quickly and crouched to work at the knots holding the linen bandages to my leg.
“Wait. Here.” Raav dragged Tyrak from a belt loop. “I was worried it—he—would fall out of your bandage.”
“Thanks,” I said, accepting the weapon.
“But I don’t think you can take on Trader Ulstat’s army alone,” he said, tapping a finger against the end of my nose.
No. I couldn’t. But a plan was already taking shape in my thoughts.
“Follow me,” I said, setting off at a trot. Unfortunately, my ankle gave out on my third step. “Scratch that,” I said. “Carry me.”
Don’t get your hopes up, Tyrak said as we neared the door to the safe house. They’re criminals.
Or maybe you should stop being such a pessimist, I returned.
Carrying me on his back, Raav moved at a light jog. The jostling was giving me a small headache, but with every passing minute more of my strength returned. If anything, I was hungry. A nice hunk of bread with some sort of jam—not onion, please—would set me right.
When we reached the back door for the safe house, I asked Raav to stop.
“Here?” he asked, looking around.
I nodded, feeling faintly impish about my new association with the criminal underworld. Stepping to the door, I tapped in the proper pattern.
“At least someone remembers to knock,” Daonok said as he swung the door open. “Busy night?”
“A little.”
He glanced up at Raav and cast me a skeptical look. “Looks like trader stock to me. Are you trying to get us arrested?”
“He’s a friend,” I said.
Daonok’s eyes narrowed, but he stepped aside. “Fair enough.”
Inside the room, around ten smugglers lounged across the grain sacks and storage crates. Some slept, while others stared at the ceiling. Near the door, a woman was popping grapes into her mouth. My stomach growled.
“May I?” I asked, reaching for a branch of the purple orbs.
“Seems you’re going to help yourself regardless,” she said, shrugging.
Raav had to bend his knees and duck his head to fit through the door. He squinted in the dim light from the single lantern. Unlike the night before, when the flames burned uncannily strong, the tongue of fire on the wick was feeble and ordinary. But again I had the sense of creeping doom. I needed to talk to Tyrak about it—until now, I’d believed that the last disaster, the cataclysm that had ended Vanished civilization, was due to the power of Ioene’s fire. But the dark presence I’d felt beyond the aether was different. Hungry and hollow and entirely evil. Could it be that feeding the fire somehow granted the dark force passage into the world?
“So, Lilik Boket, turned nightcaller to the Nocturnai, turned Councilor to the gutter hordes, turned miscreant of Caffari’s legion,” Daonok said with a smirk, echoing my words from the mine and adding his own interpretation, “what brings you back to our humble group.”
“Where’s Caffari?” I asked. “And the others? Was anyone hurt?”
In the back of the room, someone grumbled. Probably about me. But Daonok shot him a glare.
“Caffari got your little friend, Geren, to one of our holdfasts in the hills. She returned early this morning and is busy reestablishing contacts in the wake of . . . whatever that was you did to House Ulstat.”
“So you just assume it was me, too?”
He shrugged, showing his palms. “You have to admit it’s a good guess. You are the one with magic that no one has seen for a thousand years.”
Okay fine. He had a point.
“Listen. Trader Ulstat is marching on the docks. He’s taking prisoners and stealing the ships. We have to stop him.”
Daonok dropped to a seat on a crate and cupped his chin in his hand. “Honestly, Lilik, we’re hurting from the last couple days. You managed to convince us to take on the most powerful man on the island, plus rescue a little rat from the gallows out of the goodness of our hearts. But at some point, we have to take care of our own. There’s just a few of us here. The rest are wor
king fast to save what we can before we leave the city.”
“Leaving? Why? The Ulstats are gone.”
He smiled crookedly. “Exactly. Not much living for our sort if the only folks left here are gutterborn. The port died the moment you obliterated the ruling House. Foreign merchants and other traders have no reason to stop.”
I blinked, adjusting to the information. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to damage your interests.”
He grinned, pulled the brass knuckles from his pockets and tossed them from hand to hand. “Truth is, we were stagnant here. Change brings opportunity.”
“But what about Mieshk? Ioene? Caffari wanted to join me.”
He shrugged. “That’s between you and the boss. I’d say it’s high on the list of options. But seriously, we’ve nothing left to risk right now. And do you really think Trader Olev Ulstat is still a threat to your plans? He can’t have that many guardsmen left over, and I’ll be a greased rat if any of them are experienced sailors. Why not let him go find the bottom of the sea all on his own?”
Behind me, Raav leaned against the wall. I felt his eyes on my back. Did his silence mean he agreed with Daonok, or was he letting me fight this on my own?
“Because he’s taking gutterborn prisoner. I don’t care if he drowns. But I do care if he takes innocent people with him. Listen. I have a plan to stop him and his army, but I don’t want the commoners caught up in it. You just said you won’t harm gutterborn with your criminal activity. Would you consider going so far as to help them?”
Wait. What? Tyrak said. I thought you just agreed not to fight the army alone.
Shush, I said. I didn’t say “fight” just now, either. I said I planned to stop them.
All eyes in the room turned to Daonok. Even the thief who had grumbled earlier now listened with interest.
Daonok slipped his fingers into the brass knuckles and sighed. “Okay, fine. We’ll see what the boss has to say.” He turned to the grape-eating woman. “Caffari headed for the safe house beyond the crafters’ district. Go tell her Lilik wants help herding the commoners away from Ulstat’s thugs.”
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