City of Spells

by Alexandra Christo

  She would have said as much if a delg bat hadn’t then swooped down from the sky, cutting through the trees. It circled overhead, around the three of them, squeaking mercilessly as it awaited the code word it needed to land.

  “Who would be sending bats to us?” Karam asked. “Everyone we know is here, in this camp.”

  Everyone except for Wesley, of course. Though none of them would draw attention to that if they could help it.

  “Relax,” Tavia said, and then, looking up toward the sky, she called, “Truce.”

  The messenger bat darted downward and landed on Tavia’s outstretched hand with all the speed that it took for Karam to blink. Tavia stroked its head and the creature nestled into her fingertip. Karam had always thought they were awful things, not because of their appearance but because they could find anyone, anywhere, delivering a message even to the spirits. It seemed too much power for one thing to hold.

  And then, of course, there was how they delivered their messages, with someone else’s voice trapped in their throats. It made Karam shudder to think of.

  “Speak to me, little guy,” Tavia said.

  The bat seemed to nod, and stretched out its wings like a curtain. It opened its mouth and Karam braced herself for the transformation of its voice.

  “I have kept my promise,” the bat said in a croak.

  Karam recognized its tone as belonging to the underboss she had heard Tavia dealing with before.

  Casim.

  “I have four dozen buskers ready to send your way,” it said. “I’m talking to the other underbosses, but you’ll understand it takes time and I must be careful. Once we have your location, my forces will be with you within the week. Give Wesley my regards and let him know that I’ve put my faith in him.”

  “Good job,” Tavia whispered into the creature’s ear.

  A few dozen more buskers wasn’t something to scoff at with their armies so depleted, and so Karam clapped Tavia on the back in a way she hoped said that she was pleased.

  “I have to tell Casim where we are so he can send the buskers,” Tavia said. “But I promise that he’s too scared of Wesley to betray us.”

  Saxony seemed to think this over, and Karam wondered whether she would have to referee another fight between them, as Saxony refused to trust an underboss.

  To her surprise, Saxony nodded.

  “Do it,” she said. “Send the bat back. You were right to contact him.”

  “I was right?” Tavia repeated the words slowly, like they were the last ones she had expected.

  “You were,” Saxony said. “And it’s time I did something to help our armies too. I’m done trying to convince my amja to help me summon the other Lieges. I’ve got a new idea.”

  “We are not killing your amja, are we?” Karam asked. “I think perhaps that is an overreaction.”

  “That’s Plan C,” Saxony said. “Plan B is going to someone else for help, like Tavia did.”

  “You are going to the next Liege you know with the power of summoning,” Karam said as the understanding dawned on her. “Asees.”

  Saxony nodded. “And your friendship with Arjun won’t hurt to convince her.” She smiled tightly. “If you don’t mind me wagering your connections, that is.”

  “Of course,” Karam said. “But once Asees helps you to summon the other Lieges, what will we do next?”

  “We kill Ashwood.”

  Karam liked that plan.

  “But I want to find a way of killing him without hurting anyone in his army,” Saxony said. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. We know that not everyone follows him willingly. Some people are just civilians infected with the Loj.”

  Tavia crossed her arms over her chest with a sigh. “They’re innocent,” she said.

  But Karam shook her head. “There are no innocents in war.”

  Though truly she thought the opposite.

  Everyone was innocent in war, doing whatever they thought was best, even if it was convoluted and evil to everyone else. No soldier set out to be the bad guy. Every villain was the hero of their own story. War was built on innocence corrupted and lost. That was the thing battle stole from people, before it took their souls.

  “I’m going to figure out a way,” Saxony said. “But we need a real army before we talk about how to storm the gates of Creije.”

  “You mean save Creije,” Tavia said. “You have to make sure that the other Lieges you contact know that’s the plan. They can’t just be out for blood and revenge. We need to save the city.”

  Karam knew that by city, Tavia also meant Wesley, since the two had always been very much one and the same. Karam couldn’t help but agree with her, because it was Wesley who had seen the promise in a young Wrenyi runaway and offered her the means to become the warrior she needed to be. She owed him so much—too much—and abandoning him now, after he’d saved them all in one way or another, was not the way forward.

  “We must find out if Wesley is still himself,” Karam said. “If the Kingpin is inside his mind, then—”

  “Zekia’s mind is the one we should be worried about,” Tavia said. “Since she’s clearly lost it.”

  Karam agreed, but she could also never forget that Zekia was Saxony’s little sister, and in Karam’s mind that afforded her a certain unfair immunity for her crimes.

  “She is just a child,” Karam said.

  Tavia’s eyes turned severe. “That stops being an excuse when you become a mass murderer.”

  Karam supposed she had a point, but she had to wonder where they drew this invisible line of morality. They had all killed someone at some point, or played a part in the deaths of strangers and foes alike.

  None of them were free from sin, with clean hands unstained by blood. They were soldiers and warriors, and Karam couldn’t quite work out how they had made the distinction between fighter and killer.

  She wasn’t sure what side of the line she fell on. For Zekia and the Crafters who believed in the Kingpin’s new world, weren’t Karam and the others just villains who were trying to steal it from them?

  “Wesley has killed people too,” Saxony said. “He handed Zekia over to Ashwood once before. Maybe my sister is too far gone, but you need to think about the possibility that Wesley might also be beyond saving.”

  “I have,” Tavia said, but there was no change in her eyes.

  She had been threatening to give up on Wesley for years, but her inaction spoke volumes that her vows could not. Threats were nothing if they didn’t carry weight, and Tavia’s words were as light as air, flying from her lips and across the wind into nothing.

  She couldn’t give up on Wesley, even if she tried. Karam could see that. Just like Karam would never give up on Saxony, or choose a side that didn’t have her on it.

  If the years of Wesley being a crook and a total bastard hadn’t changed Tavia’s heart, then Ashwood’s influence wouldn’t. This war wouldn’t. She’d try to save him until the end, even if that put her on the opposite side from her friends.

  Karam clutched her pehta’s pendant, threaded around her neck and falling perfectly beside her thumping heart. She wondered what side he would be on, or if he would counsel the absence of such a choice, trying to bring their armies together instead of preparing for them to fall apart. Or perhaps he would still have preached peace and given them a solution that offered no bloodshed or trampled loyalties.

  Karam wished he were still alive to ask, but it was useless to hope for such things, because her father was gone, as so many others soon would be.

  Life and loyalty were constantly in flux and Karam knew that sooner or later every bond on this side of the Onnela Sea would be tested.

  She and Saxony and Tavia would fight this war on whatever side it took to save the people closest to them. Karam could only hope that those sides stayed the same for as long as possible.

  * * *

  ASEES LOOKED between Karam and Saxony, as though she were trying to decide who was more senseless. She finally settled
on Saxony.

  “You want me to go against the leader of your Kin? The woman who is allowing us safe stay in this place?” Asees asked her.

  Though Asees and Karam had grown to respect one another, their mutual love for Arjun like a bond between them, she often looked at Saxony in a way that was far from endeared. Nobody could blame her, given everything that had happened between the two of them.

  Asees resented Saxony for the delg bat that Ashwood had intercepted, leading so many of her Kin to be killed and for Asees herself to be inflicted with the Loj elixir. While Saxony resented Asees for trying to kill her while infected.

  It didn’t make for a sturdy partnership.

  “Saxony was the one who brought you here, to that safety,” Karam said. “And she also helped to save you when Ashwood had you under his thrall. She could have easily killed you to protect herself.”

  From beside Asees, Arjun folded his arms across his chest to indicate how stubborn he planned on being, as though the way he stood as a shield beside Asees wasn’t enough of a clue.

  “Both Asees and I helped to save Saxony’s people from that island and grant her underboss the magic he needed to help,” he said.

  Karam cared for him as a brother, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t smack some sense into him when he needed it. “I believe we are all even with saving each other’s lives,” she said. “But does the Indescribable God not teach us to also think of the rest of the realms?”

  Asees let out a long breath. Karam knew that using their god as a bargaining chip was a low blow, but that didn’t make it any less true. Being selfish was not the same as being right.

  Asees stared at Karam.

  She wasn’t a tall woman, especially compared to Saxony, but she had a way of sizing people up to make them feel smaller than her, despite her stature. It was the job of Liege to be wary of everyone who might be a danger to their people. Right now, Karam fell reluctantly into that category.

  “It is an ancient spell,” Asees said. “And it has not been used in an age.”

  “That is only because Crafters keep to themselves now,” Karam said.

  “We have always kept to ourselves.”

  Asees shook her head so that her dark hair swayed against her stave-covered arms.

  “Asees is right,” Arjun said, because of course he took her side in most things.

  The last time he hadn’t, their Kin had nearly been destroyed. Karam knew he still carried that guilt with him each day.

  “Traditions are sacred and varied,” he said. “We have never even agreed on where our powers come from. Saxony’s realm believes one thing, ours another. And even among realms, the Kins were always separate.”

  “That did a lot of good when the war came,” Karam said. “Hei reb. Heb mina kori ak maku.”

  Karam hadn’t planned on calling him an idiot, but she also hadn’t thought he’d be acting like one.

  “Times change,” Saxony said. “We can’t do what we’ve always done just because it’s all we’ve known. We have to make a change to see one.”

  Arjun shuffled and looked to Asees, his eyes filled with conflict. “I agree that more magic would help in the war, and we have seen firsthand what happens when we try to escape fighting.”

  They were all picturing the attack on Asees and Arjun’s Kin back in their homeland of Granka. Ashwood had slaughtered so many of their people, and the rest he had taken and forced to do his bidding under the Loj elixir. If they had joined Karam and the others back then, rather than staying behind, then maybe that blood wouldn’t have been spilled. Karam didn’t want them to make that same mistake again and she trusted Saxony’s judgment on this.

  “War is not something you can hide from, or pretend is not happening just because it is not yet on your doorstep,” Karam said.

  It would get there eventually, it always did. And even if it didn’t, even if the forest kept them safe for the time being, how could any of them live with themselves if they stood by and watched others die in their place? The good of their people wasn’t more important than the good of the world, and Karam would bring dishonor to her family and to the order of the Rekhi d’Rihsni her grandparents had died for if she let them choose their people over everyone else.

  “The summoning spell is dangerous and it has only been used a handful of times since the beginning of the realms,” Asees said. “The last time anyone thought to try it was during the War of Ages.”

  When the Crafters were stolen from their beds and used like commodities rather than people.

  “We brought magic into this world,” Saxony said. “Let’s use it for good.”

  “You truly believe calling strangers to help us is best?” Asees asked.

  “We cannot look at everyone we do not know as a stranger who is not important,” Karam said. “Strangers are not strange to their own families or the people who love them and mourn for them. They have lives and they deserve a chance to live those lives. We can help them do that, with your magic.”

  The silence that followed those words was tense, and Karam dreaded the thought that maybe they had burned a fragile bridge, or alienated another leader. With Saxony’s grandma refusing to help, Asees was the only Crafter left with the power they needed to make a real change.

  “I left last time to follow these people,” Arjun said. “But I will not leave your side again, Asees. I will follow you and your decision in this. Whatever it will be.”

  “But if I say no, then you will think I am wrong,” Asees said, with a small grimace.

  Arjun’s silence was enough of an answer.

  “You trust her with your life?” Asees was looking at Karam now. “You love this woman, but you are of our people, Karam. So I ask you now, once more, is this the right choice?”

  “There is only one choice,” Karam said. “One side and one war for one enemy. Dante Ashwood has to be stopped.”

  Asees nodded. “Thank you,” she said, and looked to Saxony with large, firm eyes. “I will help you. I will not run from this and make the mistakes of my past again. We will call the Lieges of the realms to come to our aid.”

  Saxony’s smile was like magic in itself. “Thank you,” she said. “I promise, doing this will change everything for us.”

  Saxony was finally taking the steps she needed to help her people, and though Karam was proud of her, it also made her wonder if she should start doing the same. Her hands were tied here and even if she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Saxony, her beautiful Crafter seemed finally ready to go at things. She was starting to become strong enough to do this without Karam by her side, and that meant that it was nearly time for Karam to go.

  There were things she had to take care of, things she knew nobody else could, and she’d been putting it off for too long.

  Karam threaded her hand through Saxony’s, knowing that this was both the start of something and the end of something.

  7

  SAXONY

  Saxony was alone with Asees, her stomach tied in knots as the Liege explained the ritual and the fact that she was going to be greeted with fear and hesitance. Lieges didn’t often speak among themselves and Crafter Kins almost never came together in harmony. They stuck to their own, hiding from the world and from each other.

  “Are you ready?” Asees asked.

  She held out her hand.

  “I’ve been ready for a while now,” Saxony said.

  She tried to hide her joy, but as she took Asees’s hand to form the summoning circle, Saxony couldn’t help but let her lips tilt upward into a smile. Tavia was right: She had spent too long trying to pander to her own family, or waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  She needed to get something done, just like her old friend had.

  Now was that moment.

  She and Karam had convinced Asees—the Crafter Liege of another Kin, of another realm—to join hands for the first time in decades. It felt good to have them on her side, trusting her judgment. They believed in Saxony, and that was some
thing she hadn’t felt for a while.

  All that was left was for the rest of the magical world to follow.

  “We’re going to save everyone,” Saxony said. “Together.”

  The moment the words left her lips, their magic ignited.

  Though they both spoke the summoning command—Saxony in Uskhanyan and Asees in her native Wrenyi—the words were not what mattered. They rarely were. It was the intention, and magic could always read that well enough.

  Saxony focused on the wish inside of herself and let her mind reach out like a talon to those she needed. Her skin warmed with her Energycrafter magic, the fire in her veins igniting as it propelled her mind onward, but Asees’s grip didn’t lessen in her own. She didn’t flinch or rip her hand from Saxony’s. She only squeezed tighter, until Saxony could feel the woman’s Spiritcrafter magic tingling against her fingertips.

  The power of a Liege, feeding Saxony’s magic with her own and imbuing the spell with the sacred power it needed.

  Any person could use a delg bat, any Crafter could contact a blood relative with the help of a crystal ball, but only a Liege, someone trusted to lead the ancient power of their Kin, could call another Liege.

  And Asees was calling them all.

  Help us fight for peace.

  The Kins scattered across the realm of Uskhanya that Saxony called home.

  The Kins revered in Asees’s home realm of Wrenyal.

  Those hiding in Volo, or blending in on the streets of Naustrio.

  Every Liege in the four realms, however many or few there were, would hear this call.

  Help us destroy the man who would destroy us.

  The air hummed and crackled and burned.

  Saxony pushed harder.

  She felt Asees push harder.

  And then, like a wave bursting from the ocean, Saxony heard the voices of her people echoing back to her.

  Crafters, across the realms.