“You said things had been rough for him,” I said. “What’s been going on?”
“His wife took a turn for the worse.” I knew what that meant: Kyros’s wife had been gently cut loose from the Sisterhood of Weavers because her moods became erratic so quickly. “Then Kyros did, too. I don’t know why Kyros is so changeable—he’s no sorceress.”
“It’s the spell-chains,” I said.
“Oh, that reminds me, another thing that went wrong—one of his spell-chains just quit working! He sent the aeriko out and it never came back. Isn’t that the strangest thing you have ever heard?”
“Well, that explains why I haven’t heard from him,” I said. “Are you heading back to Elpisia soon?”
“Yeah, probably tomorrow.”
So if I wanted to send a message to Kyros, Myron would be a good carrier. I sipped my wine and debated whether to send one. The trouble was that any message I sent, even false information, would likely teach Kyros something. The most important thing was going to be to get away from Daphnia as fast as I could. I wound up just smiling mysteriously over my wine, which had the benefit of irritating Myron more since he figured it meant I knew some secret he wasn’t in on.
As we were getting up to leave, Myron leaned forward and whispered, “He has you tracking down the black marketers, doesn’t he? The soul-stone merchants.”
“What do you know about that?” I hissed.
“Not much.” A self-satisfied grin spread from cheek to cheek. “I do know that the high-muckity-muck Weavers think they should be the only source of the stuff, and want to squash the competition. And Kyros is always looking for ways to be friends with the Weavers. So that is what you’re doing?”
“I can’t tell you,” I said coolly, and we stood up to go.
I took a roundabout path back to our inn as soon as Myron was out of site. No doubt Uljas was long gone; I hoped Tamar had followed him. I checked one more time to make sure Myron hadn’t followed me before stepping inside the gate. Tamar was waiting in our room. “Who was that?” she asked.
“Someone I used to know.”
“An old friend?”
“No. Well, I always had to act friendly, but he wasn’t a friend. His name is Myron, and he’s an idiot, which is just as well. Did you follow Uljas?”
“Of course. He belongs to a Weaver named Kallistrate. She’s only a short walk from the temple; she must’ve brought the horse along to show off what a big, heavy rug she was offering to Athena.”
“We need to come up with a way to get Uljas out tonight.”
“I can show you the house. Or you can find it yourself—it’s near the Temple of Athena and uses a lot of the same marble. There’s a big carving out front that looks like an eagle, painted to be lifelike. I don’t know how you’ll get Uljas out, though.”
“We should settle up with the innkeeper and get the horses out of the city,” I said.
“I wanted to talk with Zarina . . .”
“She made her choice, didn’t she?”
“I hoped . . .” Tamar shrugged. “You’re right. She made her choice.”
We paid the innkeeper, took our string of horses, and left the city. If anyone was still watching us, they made no attempt to stop us or search our bags. “I’m going to need you to wait here . . .”
“Lauria!”
“I’m not just trying to run off without you. Look, someone has to wait with the horses. Leaving them tethered right outside the city is just about asking for them to be stolen.”
“I want to risk it. I think you need me.”
“I don’t even know what I’m going to do.”
“That’s why you need me.”
“I need you to guard the horses. What are we going to do if they’re stolen?”
“Walk? We walked the first time we went to the Alashi. Oh, all right. But I’m going to hire an assistant to hold the horses if you ever try to use this excuse again.” Tamar dismounted and pulled several things out of her pack. “This wineskin is spirits of wine. It’s better than wine—stronger. If you need to bribe a slave, this is what you should offer. As for the gate—just remember, the fastest way out of any city after dark is to bribe the guards.”
Sundown was close. I made it back into the city just before they shut the gate. The temperature was falling fast, and my pulse quickened. I had no idea how I was going to manage this. Well, the first step was to find the house . . . I went back to the Temple of Athena and walked around until I found the place Tamar had described. It was shut up tight. If I knocked, someone might answer, but then what? Hand over the spirits of wine and ask for the doorkeeper to turn a blind eye for ten minutes while I made off with Uljas? That seemed. . . . risky.
This will be easier under cover of darkness. I’ll wait awhile.
I found a quiet spot in the shadow of a nearby building. The sorceress had neighbors, of course: some closely packed houses, a locked up silversmith, and—a few doors down—a neighborhood tavern. I could smell meat roasting. My mouth watered. I’d forgotten to bring food with me to eat while I waited, and I was tempted to go into the tavern to buy dinner, but what if I ran into Myron again? Better to keep hiding. I was nervous enough that I’d have had to force the food down anyway.
True night fell and the street became quieter. I had plenty of ideas, but they all seemed bad. I could climb over the wall and go look for him in the stable. I could bribe someone to pass him a message and see if he could make his own way out.
I was freezing cold; my feet were starting to become numb. I bounced up and down in place. I should have gone for dinner earlier in the evening, just to stay warm. I found myself thinking about the time Zhanna, the Alashi shaman, had tried to teach me to meditate. I had closed my eyes and breathed deeply, and gotten so itchy and twitchy that Zhanna had started laughing at me. Tamar had fallen asleep.
“Lauria.”
Not Myron’s voice: this voice was a hiss, like a snake. I turned and saw a shimmer in the air. A djinn. Kyros’s djinn.
My heart began to knock in my ears so hard that my head hurt. I thought it would take longer to find me than this. Much longer. And with the face paint—it must have wanted to find me. “Are you alone?” I asked, my voice trembling. “Or did Kyros send another djinn to watch us?” It was silent—unhelpful. I clenched my teeth and willed my voice to steady. I can banish it. It won’t return to Kyros, so I have nothing to fear. He hasn’t found me. “Did Kyros tell you what I did for your fellow djinn? Because I could do the same for you. But I want you to answer me.”
“Kyros tells me nothing,” the djinn said. It paused, and then added, “But there are no others at close hand.”
“Good. What message did Kyros send?”
“Kyros sent this message: Lauria, please tell me your status. I know something has gone wrong. Please reassure me that you’re still alive.”
Well, at least it didn’t sound like Myron had been able to send him a message yet. Rather than sending a message back to Kyros, I stretched out my hand and touched the shimmer in the air. My hand prickled, as if it had fallen asleep. “Return to the Silent Lands, lost one of your kind, and trouble us no more.”
The last djinn had screamed; this djinn whirled in the air for a moment, silently, then I felt it slip through me into darkness like water swirling down a pipe into a vast reservoir. Thank you, it whispered. Then, an even fainter whisper: Kyros doesn’t know yet that you have left his service. But he will soon.
Darkness again, and quiet. As my panic ebbed, my hands and feet felt even colder. I need to act. If I can free djinni, then surely I can free Uljas—if I have the courage to act, and not stand here freezing in the dark.
Something fluttered overhead and I ducked, my heart pounding again. As it sailed off, I got a good look at it. It was a white owl on the hunt. The priestesses of the temple kept owls, to honor Athena; I was near the temple, so it wasn’t surprising. It’s an omen, I thought, and then resolutely told myself: No, it’s just a temple pet. If it’s a m
essage, it’s from the djinni. You have nothing to fear from the owl, because you are not a mouse. You have nothing to fear from Athena, because you belong to us. The wind brought the scent of acrid smoke from the sacred fire burning deep inside the temple, and that gave me an idea. Fire and venom against our enemies. Perhaps I could set the house on fire.
It was too bad that I had no fire arrows like we’d used on our raid of the Greek garrison when I was riding with the Alashi Sisterhood . . . but surely I could find something that would burn well. I dug quickly through my bag. Would spirits of wine burn? Perhaps, but lamp oil would burn better. I ripped some loose cloth off my old shirt and wet it with the oil. It would need to be wrapped around something that could be thrown. I found a crumbled piece of broken brick in the street and wrapped the greasy cloth around it.
I went to the upwind side of Kallistrate’s household and considered whether I could throw well enough to get it over the wall. Ha. I should have brought Tamar after all. She could get it over a wall three times this high and right through the sorceress’s bedroom window besides. Well, I’d just have to take my best shot. I muttered a quick prayer to Prometheus and Arachne, echoing the words that Janiya had said before our raid: as a sacrifice in their honor, we use their gifts. I was using fire, at least. Give me the spark I need. Carry my gift over the wall.
I took out flint, iron, and tinder; the tinder caught readily, and I lit the cloth. It flared up immediately, almost burning my hand, so my throw was panicky. For a moment I thought it would bounce off the wall and drop back down onto me, but it cleared the edge by inches. Hopefully it will land on something that will burn.
I waited. Maybe it landed on something that won’t burn. Maybe it went out as it flew over. How long should I wait before trying again? But I realized quickly I already saw smoke—and sparks. Uh-oh.
I’d thought that I would just wait a few minutes and let the sorceress’s household discover the fire on their own, but my spark had apparently fallen on ready fuel—dry straw, lamp oil, I had no idea, but I could see the flicker of flame and the shadow of smoke boiling up from it. In a minute or two, this fire could easily burn out of control. I ran to the front door and pounded on it with my fists. “Fire!” I shouted. “Fire! Your house is on fire!”
Inside, I could hear a shouted oath and running feet. “Get out, get out!” I shouted. “You could all be killed, get out of there!”
Someone inside believed me; the door banged open and terrified slaves and servants spilled out into the street. “Get buckets,” someone was shouting. “No, not back in there, run to the neighbors! Has anyone seen Kallistrate? Surely her aerika . . .”
The people spilling out now were coughing, rubbing eyes that streamed from the smoke. Slaves and servants, women and men; I didn’t see the sorceress. But Uljas? There. He’d already drifted to the edge. I approached him and caught his arm. “Would you be free?” I hissed into his ear. “I can take you to the Alashi. But you have to come now.”
He was clearly half blinded from the smoke, but he closed his fist over my wrist. “I’ll come,” he said.
I led him swiftly away from the burning house. I hope I didn’t hurt anyone. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone . . . Uljas said nothing as he followed me. After a few minutes I stopped and took out the extra coat for him to put on. When I looked up, he was staring at me. Like Myron, he was not fooled by the face paint; he clearly knew who I was.
“I thought maybe Burkut had gotten away, and sent someone,” he said. “But it’s you.”
“What I did was wrong,” I said. “I was wrong to take you back to Kyros. I’m trying to make amends.”
“I swore that if I ever saw you again, I would kill you.”
I fell back a step, though he was unarmed and I was not. “We don’t have a lot of time. I’m here to take you to the Alashi, if you still want to go.” He looked furious. I didn’t remember him looking this angry even when I took him back to slavery. “Do you want to come with me, or do you want to stay? I’m not going to try to drag you out of Daphnia.”
“I’ll come,” he said, through clenched teeth.
The walk to the gate seemed to take a terribly long time. Surely the sorceress will be distracted by the fire. Surely they won’t suspect yet it was started by arson. Surely Uljas isn’t going to pick up a brick and hit me in the back of the head. Surely. Tamar was right, the fastest way out was to bribe a guard; these walls were too high to climb easily, especially in wind like we had tonight.
The guard post was quiet; the gate, of course, was closed. I banged on the door to wake the guard. He looked out at us dubiously. “We received an urgent message and need to leave,” I said.
He came out, yawning. “Gate opens at dawn.”
“We can’t wait that long. Surely there’s a fee . . .”
He named a sum, I paid, and the gate was opened a crack for us to slip out. That went more smoothly than I expected. The part of me that had once been Kyros’s willing servant thought, That went more smoothly than it should have. Well. It’s not my problem anymore.
We found our way to Tamar. It was too dark to ride, but with lanterns we could lead the horses and put some distance between ourselves and the city. “How did it go?” Tamar asked.
“I set a fire,” I said. “It proved an effective distraction.”
I had wondered if Uljas would stay with us once we were out of Daphnia, or if he’d immediately go his own way. Tamar, however, simply handed him the reins of one of the horses and set off, and Uljas followed her. I guess he’s coming. I brought up the rear, feeling some relief at not having my sworn enemy right behind me.
I was just starting to think that it was getting light enough to ride when Uljas spoke. “So, Lauria. What made you decide to get into the business of stealing slaves?”
“Freeing slaves,” I said.
He turned and gave me a long, guarded look. Tamar edged closer to me.
“Look,” I said. “You can go wherever you want. We’ll take you to the Alashi, if you want to go there. Do you?”
“What if I don’t?”
“Go where you like. I’m not going to stop you. You’re free.”
“What if I go to Kyros and tell him where you are right now?”
“You’d be a fool. He’d send you back to the sorceress.” Uljas’s face twisted into a faint smile at my words. No, not at my words; at my eyes. He’d seen that the idea frightened me.
“Does he know where you are right now?” Uljas asked. “Perhaps he’d pay well for that intelligence. Buy me back from Kallistrate, take me to the temple, and set me free before the priests, so that I could truly go anywhere. Like you.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I want to know what you’re doing. And why.”
“Can we talk about this later?” I asked, with a desperate glance back toward Daphnia. “They must have missed you by now, and they will send out searchers. We need to get farther away from the city to be safe.” He was still giving me a skeptical look.
“If you’re going to betray Lauria to Kyros, you’d better start by getting away from Daphnia,” Tamar said, her voice exasperated. “I don’t want to be executed for freeing you, so Lauria and I are going to get on our horses and ride right now. If you want to come along, we have a horse for you. If you want to stand here all day, go right ahead, but I am riding.” She mounted. I’d expected Uljas to need help, but he’d apparently learned how to ride while working in the stables; he mounted without difficulty. I guess he’s coming along. That means he trusts us. Surely that’s a good sign.
It was difficult to have a conversation on horseback, especially when traveling quickly, and Uljas needed to devote his attention to riding. I spent the day fretting about Uljas, and about the djinn Kyros had sent after me. I needed to tell Tamar about that, but not now, not when Uljas could overhear; he knew more than enough already. How much longer until Kyros knew for certain that I was no longer serving him? And once he was certain, what would he do? Wo
uld he realize that I was the one making his djinni disappear? If he did, the only logical course would be to send a djinn to watch me and report back with my location, since having the djinn approach me to carry threats would mean losing that djinn.
Of course, that was assuming he was able to get another spell-chain. He’d had two, and I’d freed both of those djinni now. Would the Weavers give him another? Would they forbid him to send it out looking for me, or would the strangeness of the situation—djinni didn’t just go missing—mean that they would give him a dedicated searcher? How long till it found me, if they did?
Dusk fell and we made camp. I thought we were a good distance from Daphnia. Chances were good that the sorceress would assume Uljas had seen his opportunity and run; her searchers would be in an area near the city. Tomorrow we would have an easier ride.
Tamar fixed a cold dinner and the three of us shared it. Uljas ate quickly, as if he thought we’d take it away from him. “So you want to take me to the steppe,” he said when he’d finished.
“If you want to go.”
“Then what?”
I wet my lips. “When I worked for Kyros, I took six slaves back to him. You, Nika, Prax, Burkut, Thais, and Alibek. Alibek freed himself a second time. I found Nika and freed her and her daughter, and I got you out. That leaves Prax, Burkut, and Thais.”
“So you’re half done.” His voice was mocking.
“I guess.”
“How are you going to get Prax out? Wasn’t he sold to a mine?”
“Yes. And I don’t know.”
“Burkut was sold to a farm south of here.”
“I was going to free Burkut next.”
“Next? You’re going to take me up to the steppe, then ride all the way back down here for him? You’ll be waist-deep in snow by the time you’re back at the steppe. You’ll all freeze.”
“The Alashi spend all winter on the steppe.”
“You’re not Alashi.”
“What would you have me do?”
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