by Caitlin Seal
Naya ran to the open window. The wooden ledge was splintered where an iron hook had been lodged. A narrow rope dangled from the hook, almost invisible against the white stone wall. Naya squinted but couldn’t make out any sign of movement in the dark gardens beyond.
A commotion rose behind her and she heard Delence shout, “Where is my son? Get out of the way!” He stormed into the room, somehow managing to look imposing despite his hastily donned clothing and unkempt hair. Dark blood soaked the knees of his pants as he dropped to Francisco’s side. “Francisco?” He reached down gingerly and squeezed Francisco’s hand.
Francisco’s eyes fluttered and he let out a soft groan, but otherwise he didn’t stir.
“It was a wraith eater,” Lucia said with a hard edge in her voice. “The contact wasn’t long enough to fully drain him, but I’ll need to re-ink the runes as soon as possible if he’s going to recover.”
Naya tried to keep her attention focused on the physical. Splintered wood under her fingers. Cool night air. But still the room’s aether pressed against her senses, a nauseating mix of panic and anger magnified by the all-too-physical smell of blood. Lucia was a genius necromancer—if anyone could help Francisco, it would be her. “We need to go after the assassin before he escapes,” Naya said.
“I’ve raised the alarm,” one of the older soldiers said, directing his words at Delence. “The gates are locked, and in a few minutes we’ll have three squads out to search the grounds.”
“Good. Keep me informed.” Delence stood, his eyes falling on Naya. He seemed to take in her torn sleeve and exhausted expression. “You were attacked as well?”
“Yes, by a woman. She was also dressed like a servant.”
“Where is she?”
“Dead.”
Delence’s expression tightened into a look of frustration before smoothing again. He turned to the soldier. “Explain how two assassins managed to saunter in here without your men so much as noticing them.”
“Sir,” the soldier said, his spine straightening. “I don’t know, but I swear by the Creator’s grace I intend to find out.”
Naya was surprised by the note of sincerity in the man’s tone. She couldn’t pick out any details of his emotions from the foul backdrop, but he seemed genuinely angry about the attack, nothing like the soldiers she’d encountered during the attack outside the palace gates.
The surgeon arrived then with a team of assistants carrying a stretcher. He grew pale when he saw who his patient was. “Are you sure you need me? I don’t have any experience tending to dead—”
“He isn’t dead yet,” Lucia snapped. “Treat the wound as you would any other of its type. When you’re done, I’ll reapply the tattoos and handle the rest.”
Delence stepped aside as the surgeon and his assistants loaded Francisco onto the stretcher. “Come with me,” he said to Naya. He led her out into the hallway, shooting a sharp look back when one of the soldiers sought to follow him. Other members of the delegation stood in the doorways of their rooms.
Delence stopped near the end of the hall, then turned to Naya. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Naya crossed her arms. Her fingers shook and her aching bones made her feel dizzy and tired. For once she wasn’t angry at Delence’s commanding tone. It was something familiar at least. “A woman wearing a servant’s uniform forced her way into my rooms and attacked me with a wraith eater. She was obviously trained to fight. And she moved faster than anyone I’ve ever met,” Naya said.
Delence’s expression darkened. “Did you recognize her? Did she say anything to you?”
Naya hesitated, focusing on Delence’s aether. “She did, but it didn’t make any sense. She said, ‘We are the flood, we will wash you away.’ Do you have any idea what that means?”
Delence’s frown deepened, and Naya sensed genuine confusion mixing with the fear and anger in his aether. “That’s all?”
Naya nodded.
Delence slumped, running his fingers over his mustache. “The flood…” he muttered, then shook his head. “It could mean we’re dealing with insane radicals, or something else entirely.”
“It’s hard to imagine this isn’t connected to the attack at the gates,” Naya said, keeping her voice low. “You said yourself that they’d try to kill me. If the palace soldiers are involved, we can’t just wait around and—”
“Enough,” Delence said, raising a hand to cut her off. “Whatever is going on, the attack failed, and I doubt they’ll make another attempt tonight.”
“But—”
“I need to see to my son. I don’t like the idea of him alone with all those Talmirans. It would be too easy for someone to arrange an accident while he’s weak.” He glanced down the hallway. “I’m sure Queen Lial will try to lock down control of the investigation soon. I’ll have to make sure someone examines the assassin’s body before her soldiers can remove it.” His voice dropped and his eyes unfocused as though he were talking to himself. Then he blinked and focused back on Naya. “It won’t be practical for you to use your rooms tonight. I’ll have someone send for Felicia. She can help you get settled in one of the extra rooms at the end of the hallway.”
“I could help with the investigation,” Naya protested. “The second assassin is still out there somewhere.” She lowered her voice to a near whisper. “After everything that’s happened, I don’t think we should trust Queen Lial’s soldiers.”
“I am aware,” Delence said. “But there’s little we can do about it tonight.” He shook his head. “Stay here. Avoid answering any questions if you can. I need to think about how best to respond.”
Naya glared as Delence walked away. Did he really expect her to just sit around and wait? The bones in her hand still ached from the contact with the wraith eater. She didn’t think she’d cracked them again, but that didn’t make the ache any less irritating. Tension hummed through the palace’s aether, prickling the back of her neck and filling her with the need to do something. She waited until Delence had disappeared around the corner, then headed for the stairs that would take her to the palace’s main level.
No fewer than six Talmiran soldiers had been stationed at the base of the stairs. Two of them promptly moved to block her path. “I’m sorry, Miss Garth, but we’ll have to ask you to remain in your rooms until the situation is resolved,” one of them said gently. After a moment Naya recognized Sergeant Leln, the soldier who’d spoken with her about art after the inaugural ball.
“Have you caught the second assassin yet?” Naya asked.
Leln frowned. “Our men are still searching. That’s why I’ll have to insist you return to your rooms. It isn’t safe for you here.”
Naya struggled to maintain a polite expression. “Apparently it wasn’t safe for me up there either. Let me through and I might be able to help. I’m a wraith. I can sense things your soldiers can’t.” If she opened her senses, she might be able to pick out the assassin’s aether and find him before he could escape.
Reminding them what she was only served to heighten the unease and mistrust in their aether. “You won’t be doing any such thing,” the soldier next to Leln said. “Return to your rooms, Miss Garth, or we will have to escort you there.” The way he said the word escort made it clear he didn’t intend that process to be pleasant.
“That’s enough, Ralen,” Leln said. “Miss Garth, if you would please—”
“No!” Naya said. “I’m not just going to sit around and wait while you let him get away.” Leln didn’t seem like a bad person. But Naya remembered all too well the way the other soldiers had reacted the last time she and Francisco had been attacked. What was to stop them from letting this assassin slip away now? They might not even consider what the assassin had done to be a crime, not when the people he’d attacked were already technically dead.
Naya tried to slip between Leln and Ralen, but the lingering ache and
exhaustion from the previous fight made her slow. Ralen grabbed her arm in an iron grip. “Stop!”
“Don’t touch me!” Anger flared hot and strong through her. How dare he grab her! Naya twisted, reversing Ralen’s grip and wrapping her fingers around his forearm. Aether rushed into her bones, and this time she didn’t hold it back. The rune for force shone in her mind as she squeezed Ralen’s arm. Pain flared through her hand, but it was nothing compared to the satisfying sound of Ralen’s bones snapping like dried twigs. He screamed. Naya shoved him away and spun to face the other soldiers. The anger that had been locked inside her for so long felt like an inferno. Had she really thought she could change anything here? She was a fool. These people hated her. Queen Lial could have organized this whole attack for all she knew. She had to get out of here. A soldier behind Leln began to draw his sword, and Naya felt the tug of a wraith eater activating.
Her lips curled in a sneer.
“Naya?”
The voice wasn’t loud, but it hit Naya like a blast of icy water. Mel was standing in the hall, a little behind the group of soldiers. Her eyes were wide and she held her hands over her mouth in obvious fear. Fear of Naya.
Naya stepped away. “Mel? What are you doing here?” She darted a glance around the gathered soldiers. The one whose arm she’d broken had retreated behind his allies. The others were watching her with a mix of fear and anger. Leln stood directly in front of the injured soldier with his hand on the hilt of his still-sheathed sword.
“Step away, Miss Garth,” Leln said in an icily calm voice. “And think carefully about what you do next. The Congress protections do not give you the right to harm my men.”
Shame rose like ashes from Naya’s anger. She backed away from Leln. “I only wanted to help,” she said. She glanced at the faces around her. “He grabbed me. It wasn’t my fault.”
“That damned corpse broke my arm!” Ralen snarled.
“What’s going on?” Mel asked, her voice a little higher with the edge of panic. “Naya, what happened?”
“I was just trying to help.” Naya tried to hold on to the anger, tried to summon back the inferno that had made everything feel so right and clear just a moment ago. All she found was the bitter taste of ashes, the hate and fear reflected in the eyes of those around her.
Corpse. Monster. Murderer.
Naya turned and ran back up the stairs, ignoring Mel’s cry to wait.
Naya bolted up the stairs and squeezed past the soldiers and delegates still lingering in the hall. She muttered a vague excuse in response to their questions. At the end of the hall, she found one of the unoccupied rooms and slipped inside, locking the door behind her. The room was a mirror of the one she’d been assigned before. The only difference was that the furniture here was upholstered in golden yellows and pale creams instead of shades of green and brown.
Good thing I didn’t get this room. They never would have gotten the bloodstains out.
Naya let out a sound that was part laugh and part sob at the gruesome thought. Her legs collapsed until she was sitting on the floor with her back to the door. She stared down at her hands, feeling the snap of the soldier’s bones in her grip. All she’d wanted was to help find the assassin. He shouldn’t have gotten in her way.
She thought about the look of mingled confusion and fear on Mel’s face, the ice in Leln’s voice that was so different from the hesitant kindness he’d shown her before. So much for proving she wasn’t a monster. Her eyes burned, and not for the first time, she wished she could still cry.
How could she have been so stupid? Even if the soldiers had let her past, the assassin would probably be captured or gone by the time she could get outside and join the search. And if Queen Lial or her soldiers were involved in this somehow, she’d just given them the perfect excuse to condemn her publicly.
Maybe worse, after what she’d just done, Delence could decide that keeping her here wasn’t worth the risk.
A knock came at the door and Naya tensed. Her eyes went first to the window. She could pry it open and escape. The palace grounds would likely still be full of soldiers searching for the assassin. If she was clever, then maybe she could sneak past them. Once out in the city, she could change her face, find a way to keep away from the queen’s soldiers and the city guard. Finding Lucia’s journals would be harder on her own, but not impossible.
She’d taken two steps toward the window when the knock came again.
“Miss Naya? Are you in there?” Felicia called.
Naya hesitated, logic catching up to the panicked spin of her thoughts. She squeezed her eyes shut and drew in aether, trying to calm herself. No. If she ran, she would almost certainly be caught.
“There you are,” Felicia said when Naya opened the door. “Are you all right? What’s going on?” Behind her a soldier stood next to Naya’s door, very carefully not looking at her. So they’d had someone follow her.
More questions brimmed in Felicia’s eyes, though it was obvious she didn’t want to ask them in front of the soldier. “Come in,” Naya said. She saw the soldier’s mouth twitch, but he didn’t object as Felicia stepped into the room and Naya shut the door behind her.
Felicia reached out to touch the torn sleeve of Naya’s dress. “Are you all right? I heard there was an attack. People are saying Francisco was stabbed, and Delence’s man told me I needed to make up a new room for you because there’s a dead body in your old one.” Felicia was obviously trying for a casual tone, but her eyes were too wide to pull it off.
“I’m—” Naya tried to say fine, but the word wouldn’t come out. She swallowed and started over. “Francisco will be fine, I think. Lucia and the surgeon are with him now. They haven’t caught the man who stabbed him though. He could be anywhere. He could be one of the queen’s servants for real.” She was babbling, breathing hard even though her body didn’t need the air. She tried to stop herself but somehow the words kept spilling out. “I’m trying. I’m trying so hard. But I’m not fine. I just killed someone. And I broke a man’s arm. And Mel saw it, and Delence’s going to be furious, and everything is broken. I don’t know what I’m doing here or why I’m even telling you any of this.” She pressed her hands against her eyes in a futile effort to make the whole world disappear.
“Did they deserve it?” Felicia asked after a pause.
“What?” Naya looked up, confused.
Felicia stood with her hands clasped in front of her, not quite meeting Naya’s eyes. “The people you hurt, did they deserve it?”
“I…” Naya took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t know. The woman was one of the assassins. I guess I didn’t really kill her, she took something so she couldn’t be captured. I’m not sad that she’s dead. I don’t know if that makes me a bad person. The man whose arm I broke…I don’t know. I guess he was just trying to do his job, but he grabbed me and I was angry, so I hurt him.”
“Well, that’s not so bad then,” Felicia said, flopping down on one of the chairs. “I’ve done all sorts of stupid things when I was angry. When I was nine, I stole my big brother’s birthday cake because he and his friends wouldn’t let me play pirates with them. I hid under my bed and ate the whole thing out of spite, never mind that it was strawberry and I hate strawberries.”
Naya smiled at the absurdity of the image. Somehow it wasn’t hard for her to imagine Felicia with grubby knees and a wooden pirate sword sneaking into a kitchen to take revenge by cake. “What kind of person hates strawberries?”
“Anyone with good taste,” Felicia said with exaggerated affront.
“You must have made yourself sick.”
“Horribly so,” Felicia agreed. “But I think my brother was more impressed than angry. He let me tag along with him a few times after that.”
“That sounds nice.” Naya blinked hard, trying to force away the burning in her eyes and the shaky hiccup feeling in her throat. S
he sat down in the chair across from Felicia. They stayed that way in silence for several minutes.
“Do you think this has anything to do with that spy you told me about?” Felicia asked abruptly.
“Spy? Oh, that spy.” Naya tried to force herself to think clearly. She’d all but forgotten about the plans she’d made with Felicia. Had that really only been a few hours ago? “I don’t know.”
“Do you still want to try to sneak out?” Felicia asked quietly. “It’s going to be harder with that soldier at your door, but I think we could still figure something out.”
“You still want to?” Naya asked, not hiding her surprise.
Felicia met Naya’s eyes, and Naya was impressed by the force behind her gaze. “I didn’t really before, but now I want to know who attacked us. I know most people who look at me don’t see anyone important, but I’m not stupid. I know how to look and how to listen. It doesn’t take much of that to realize there’s something very wrong going on in this palace.”
“You’re right,” Naya said. She considered the idea for a moment, then shook her head. “But I don’t think we should try anything tonight.” Much as she hated to admit it, the attack had ruined any chance she might have had to go after Valn tonight. Security would be tight all over the palace, and after what she’d done to Ralen’s arm, Leln and the other soldiers would be keeping an especially wary eye on her. If she disappeared now, it would only cause more trouble.
“Then what are we going to do? Should we tell Delence?”
“No!” Naya said. She tried to soften the refusal by adding, “He’ll want to be with Francisco, and I’m sure he’s got more than enough to deal with right now.”
Felicia stayed with Naya a while longer, filling the silence with talk of inconsequential things. It helped. Eventually Felicia’s eyes began to droop and Naya pushed her off to bed.
* * *
