In Dawn and Darkness

by Kate Avery Ellison

  In Dawn and Darkness

  Secrets Of Itlantis #5

  Other books by Kate Avery Ellison

  A Gift of Poison

  The Season of Lightning

  Frost (The Frost Chronicles #1)

  Thorns (The Frost Chronicles #2)

  Weavers (The Frost Chronicles #3)

  Bluewing (The Frost Chronicles #4)

  Aeralis (The Frost Chronicles #5)

  The Curse Girl

  Of Sea and Stone (Secrets of Itlantis #1)

  By Sun and Saltwater (Secrets of Itlantis #2)

  With Tide and Tempest (Secrets of Itlantis #3)

  For Wreck and Remnant (Secrets of Itlantis #4)

  Once Upon a Beanstalk

  Discover more about Kate Avery Ellison’s upcoming books at http://thesouthernscrawl.blogspot.com/

  In Dawn and Darkness

  Kate Avery Ellison

  Copyright © 2015 Kate Avery Ellison

  All Rights Reserved

  Do not distribute or make copies of this book, electronically or otherwise, in part or in whole, without the written consent of the author.

  For Jaewan Oh

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Epilogue

  In Dawn and Darkness (Secrets of Itlantis #5)

  Alliances have been formed. Stakes have been set. Time is running out.

  Aemi and her team of unlikely allies from across the ocean must find the mythic and long-lost final city before war with Nautilus destroys the rest of Itlantis. Secrets must be uncovered, and Aemi is still discovering her role in the fate of the republic. As enemies close in, who can she trust?

  CHAPTER ONE

  WHEN I WAS a thrall child living in the Village of the Rocks, the woman I knew as my mother told me stories about her home, Perilous.

  “Tell me about Perilous,” I’d beg, and as she washed garments in the sea or chopped heads from freshly caught fish, she’d fill my head with tales, spinning words into gossamer dreams in the twilight while the cook fire flickered and the wind sang against the stone walls around us. Her eyes would grow soft and her gaze would focus on some unseen spot in the distance as she recalled the place where she’d once lived, a place that seemed like a paradise to my young and eager imagination.

  “In the center of Perilous is a great lake, perfectly round, and water falls into it from rocks and statues,” she’d say. “Mist fills the air, and the water makes a great roar that drowns out all other sound.”

  “Like the sea?” I’d ask, thinking of the roar of the storms that battered the village during the winter months.

  She’d pause and consider this. “The sea sings in a rhythm,” she’d say. “But the sound of Perilous’s waters is steady. You’ve never heard such a continuous rushing as the white water pours down into a round basin lake from all directions.”

  I’d close my eyes and picture it.

  “The sunlight bathes everything in dappled gold,” she’d continue, her voice taking on a faraway quality, as if she could see the lush scenery as she described it. “And at night, the sky is pale with stars. We used to lie on the great domed roof and look for the ones that fell.”

  I loved her stories. She’d tell me about the paths through the forest of twisted trees as she combed my hair and braided it into a plait of four strands, and she’d whisper about the clouds of white birds that lived in the treetops as we fell asleep. Some of the things she told me were fantastical, and as I grew older, I wondered how much she embellished to entertain a tired thrall-girl who needed a dream to keep her head up through the drudgery of cleaning fish and scouring stone floors with sand.

  Gradually, eventually, I wondered if any of it was real at all, for how could a poor thrall covered in fish guts and sand have come from such a wondrous place, and if she really did, then why did she ever leave?

  ~ ~ ~

  On the Itlantean lightship carrying my grandmother and other members of the senate home to Verdus, I hissed in pain as Nol wrapped bandages around my burned fingers after applying a healing salve. He worked quickly and efficiently, his fingers gentle, but still the ministrations sent stabs of pain through my hands and brought a stab of startled tears to my eyes. A few I ground my teeth together to keep from making more noise, and Nol’s eyes met mine. He gave me a sympathetic nod.

  “I’m done,” he said.

  I drew back my hand and placed it in my lap, breathing a quick sigh of relief.

  Around us, people ate quietly at metal tables. Nobody was making much noise, and faces were grim.

  Two days had passed since we’d negotiated a tenuous peace with the Dron in exchange for promising to work together to find Perilous, one day since Azure-sent monsters attacked our ship on its return home.

  We were almost to Verdus now, and my mind still swirled with questions that seemed to have no answer. Tempest, Azure, Nautilus... all dangerous. All a threat. All with motives I didn’t completely understand.

  Across the room, Tallyn sat with his elbows braced against the table, gazing at his bowl as if it might give him answers to some of the questions we shared. As if aware of my gaze, he lifted his head and met my eyes. I looked away first, my stomach tightening.

  I didn’t want to look at him.

  I’d only recently discovered that he was a member of the Mist, a shadowy organization tasked with finding the one who could lead them to the lost city of Perilous.

  Me.

  Something he, as my bodyguard and most trusted friend, had never mentioned.

  A bowl clattered against the table as Garren joined us. The Dron soldier had avoided us all since the fight with the sea creatures, choosing to spend his time eating and practicing fighting in the room set aside for exercise. The Itlanteans gave him a wide berth. Still, I woke every morning expecting to hear that he’d knocked the teeth from one of the more pompous Itlantean diplomats. As of yet, violence had been avoided.

  “How’s the hand?” he asked, examining the stew with an air of skepticism.

  “It will heal,” I said.

  I spotted Valus entering the room and my expression froze.

  He approached the table, all sleek confidence as he slid onto the bench.

  Everyone else looked down at their bowls. I scowled.

  When we were attacked, he hadn’t helped. Of course he hadn’t helped. He’d hidden like a coward while others died.

  Valus looked at me. Half his mouth slid up in a smile.

  “Don’t be so cold, Angelfish. We’re part of a team now. Don’t you remember?”

  I recalled Garren mentioning as much, but why was he part of our team to find Perilous? “What do you contribute, exactly?” I asked, my words coming out hard and cold.

  Valus smiled wider, but from the way his lashes flicked I could tell I’d irritated him. “Don’t underestimate my connections.”
>
  “Believe me, I’m well aware how useful you are,” I said. “Especially as of late, when you contributed by hiding in the common area while everyone else risked their lives.”

  There was a short silence.

  Valus laid down his spoon and pushed his bowl aside. He licked a bit of stew from the tip of his finger. “We are not so different,” he said, ignoring my accusation. “The Graywater family is not loved everywhere in Itlantis, and many want you dead. We are both alive perhaps only because of our usefulness.”

  My face flushed.

  “I thought you were more polite than that, being the son of a governor,” Nol said angrily.

  Valus ignored him, focusing on me. “Don’t think they care about you, Aemiana, because they do not.”

  “Go away,” I ground out.

  He stood and braced himself against the table a moment, both hands spread. “When you need me to survive after they’ve finished using you to win their war, remember that you are the one who accused me.”

  With that, he turned on his heel and stalked from the room.

  A cold feeling, brought on by his words, slid into my stomach and huddled there. My rage couldn’t shake it away. I knotted my fingers together and bit down on my lip until I tasted the coppery tang of blood.

  Garren picked up the bowl of stew Valus had left and dug into it. “Are you sure you want to antagonize a snake?”

  “He only looks out for himself,” I said, but my words were halfhearted.

  He wasn’t the source of my anger.

  “Perhaps you should ask your bodyguard. He seems to know everything these days.” Garren finished the bowl of stew and burped loudly.

  I didn’t want to talk to Tallyn. Thinking about him sent a splinter of pain through my chest.

  As if he’d heard his name mentioned, my tutor and bodyguard rose from where he’d been eating alone and headed toward us. He stopped at the end of the table. He looked at me. “My lady,” he said with a nod.

  I didn’t answer. Words danced on my tongue. So many things I wanted to say. None of them would come out.

  “Perilous team, we will be meeting in an hour to discuss important matters. My quarters, don’t be late.”

  After he left, I rose and headed for the door.

  Footsteps rang quietly behind me as I entered the corridor, and a hand closed around my wrist. Nol. He pulled me to the left, opening a door that led into a dimly lit closet lined with shelves. I bumped against a bag of food and put out a hand to steady myself. Thoughts of Tallyn and Valus dissipated as I faced him, replaced by questions, by a pulsing heat that built in my chest and crawled across my skin.

  We’d fought before my “death.” His words still lingered in my head.

  He said my name like a question. Like a promise.

  Uncertainty and excitement ran like lightning through me at the way he looked at me. I licked my lips, because they were suddenly too dry. I was aware of every movement he made, every movement I made. Every breath, every twitch, was a dance between us.

  I was awash in feelings. I remembered the ways he had hurt me, betrayed me, the ways we had fought before my faked death, but I also remembered the ways he’d supported me, fought for me, stood by me. How he’d kissed me when he’d discovered I was still alive. The way he’d trembled with relief at my realness.

  “When I thought you were dead,” he began, and stopped. He ran a hand over his face, and a muscle in his jaw flexed as he shook his head as if he couldn’t find the right words. He looked at me directly.

  “Aemi,” he said again.

  We crept toward each other, drawn like moths to a candle.

  “I don’t know what I’m fighting for if it doesn’t include you,” he whispered, and then his hands were on my face and he kissed me. My mind tangled as I breathed into him. I slid my arms around his neck and he pressed me against the door.

  “We are still enemies, are we not?” I asked when he pulled back to look at me.

  Nol leaned his forehead against mine. I felt him breathe against me.

  “I am still with the Dron, and you are Itlantean,” he said. “But we are much more than that. You can’t still think it’s that simple, not with the alliance between the two.”

  “But when that alliance is over, what then?”

  He sighed. “I don’t know. I’m sorry, that answer cannot be very satisfying, but I just don’t know.”

  Frustration rose in me, a quick swell that made skin itch. “But you kissed me. You said you loved me.”

  “I do love you,” he said firmly.

  I loved him too. The certainty of it startled me. But I didn’t say it. I didn’t say anything. I looked at him, seeing the man before me who had been my tormentor as a child, my competitor and then my friend, and then my confusing enemy-turned-ally. I saw his pain and his hesitation.

  How could he not know what he wanted from this?

  This was something we both had to sort out. I couldn’t give him his answer. I wasn’t even sure of mine, regardless of the love I felt.

  “Decide how you feel, Nol,” I said, pushing past him for the door, armoring myself in brusqueness. “Figure out where you stand, and tell me when you do. In the meantime, I have a lost city to find.”

  ~ ~ ~

  I spent the next few hours in the ship’s tiny garden sphere, breathing in the scent of plants as I watched the ocean beyond. The endless murk of the water made me feel lost and alone, and I remembered Valus’s words although I tried to forget them.

  When you need me to survive after they’ve finished using you to win their war, remember that you are the one who accused me.

  “You’re not really angry with me,” Valus said from behind me.

  I didn’t turn to acknowledge him. “Oh?”

  “No,” he said, moving to stand by my side. “I haven’t done anything that I don’t always do, but other people have. I’m just a convenient target.”

  I kept watching the sea pass.

  Valus folded his arms. “I have no reason to risk my life for this lot. Don’t act so righteous in your anger. They wouldn’t do it for me either.”

  “I would,” I said.

  He was silent a moment, but then he let the words slide past unremarked upon. “Don’t let them use you. Don’t be helpless in their grasp. You’ve shown your quick wits by adapting to your Graywater heritage so effortlessly.”

  I flinched. “Am I that like her?”

  He only laughed. “I know what it’s like to have a difficult parent. You take the good and leave the bad. My father, for instance, has an excellent palate. I like to think I inherited that from him.”

  “I have been good at being harsh with people lately,” I said with a sigh.

  “That’s the spirit!” He grinned at me, his face momentarily transformed to something carefree, almost boyish. That smile, his genuine smile, was infectious. It begged to be returned, and my lips almost tugged up in response.

  “You and I,” Valus said, “could have fun together.”

  Now it was my turn to let words go unacknowledged.

  “Aemi,” Valus said after a pause, serious now.

  “Oh, it’s Aemi now? Not Angelfish or Mermaid feet?”

  “That’s ridiculous because mermaids don’t have feet,” he said. “Anyway, be serious. If my father ever... if we ever...” He paused. “I won’t let him hurt you.”

  “And how is that looking out for yourself?”

  He met my eyes and held them. “I won’t let him,” he said. “If we were captured, I’d do everything to help you escape. You can believe that.”

  I didn’t know what to say. “Let’s hope it never comes to that.”

  “Indeed,” he replied, turning back to face the sea.

  ~ ~ ~

  When it was time, we left the garden sphere and went to Tallyn’s quarters. Nol was there, as was Garren and Olis. The Dron stood together in a group, straight and proud.

  Tallyn tried to catch my eye as I entered, but I looked away
.

  Nol eyed Valus and then me, as if trying to determine what it meant that we’d arrived together. Valus made sure to give him a sly smile and a wink.

  “When we return to Verdus,” Tallyn said, “we’ll need to be absolutely vigilant. We will be staying with Senator Annah until the rest of the team arrives, and then we will leave under the direction of our guide.”

  “Myo?” I asked.

  Tallyn nodded without looking at me. “Myo and his brother, Dahn.”

  Dahn—the handsome, self-assured guest of Merelus who’d been keeping an eye on me while I was working as an Indentured. I hadn’t seen him in months, since I’d ordered Myo to leave me alone. I remembered a description I’d heard of him from the Graywater steward, Hexor: He’s a treasure hunter. He searches the depths for sunken ships, for lost cities, for caves of gold.

  Hexor had also called Dahn a leech.

  I wondered how much of that persona was real, how much of it a ruse.

  “Is Dahn also a member of the Mist?”

  Tallyn frowned, as if he loathed to discuss the Mist so openly and blithely. But he answered me. “He is not.”

  “Will my mother be informed that I’m alive?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Tallyn said. “We will discuss it with Annah.”

  The feeling of being a pawn wrapped around my neck. I clamped my lips shut, keeping in angry words.

  It ought to be my decision.