by Karen MacRae
Seleste laughed, embarrassed. “Oops. You didn’t get any details though, did you?”
“No, don’t worry,” Anna promised, laughing. “Sy’s teaching Beitris how to make his pancake sauce. He’s happy. He enjoys her company. She’s happy to be with him but bored with the cooking. Not that I’ll tell Sy.” Anna laughed again. “Jimmy’s talking to Brodie about fishing and Finn’s in Captain Alexander’s office, but I knew that anyway. He’s… mm… I’d say he’s focused, but that’s all I can get.”
“All right, next step. All but Finn and Cherry,” Seleste said. The assassin held up her medallion and swore the King’s Oath. Anna grabbed the golden spark with her gift and sent it flying down the links to the team. As soon as it reached its destination, she used Beitris to send it to Sy and Euan to send it to Spider.
Everyone regrouped back in the cabin once they’d felt the Shaping. It was the last of many experiments over the past few days and the reactions had proven unexpectedly varied. Seleste had been pleasantly surprised to feel only a momentary pulse of energy then a tingling through her body rather than lightning bolts she’d felt when helping Anna Heal. In contrast, Euan had felt absolutely nothing and Malik and Finn had thought they’d been about to explode. The others were somewhere in between. Receiving the oath had been a lot more consistent. All the Kingdomers had felt the golden badge over their hearts pulse exactly as if they’d said the oath themselves.
“So as long as we’ve got the peristones on us, you can see us in the dark, tell where we are and what we’re feeling and use us to Shape even if we’re not gifted. That’s pretty terrifying,” said Jimmy.
“I have to actively look for you and it’s not like I can handle being nine people all at once, all the time.”
“With practice?” asked Seleste.
Anna looked at her but didn’t answer. They both knew she could learn.
“No more practising,” said a voice from the door. Finn. “Right now, we need to find the best surveillance spots. Elona can’t be far behind us.” The King’s man lifted a heavy bag onto the bunk in front of him and started distributing identity cards and gowns: Physical Arts’ blue for Spider and Seleste, Creative Arts’ green for Sy, Jimmy and Beitris, Languages’ orange for Malik and Humanity yellow for himself.
“According to the identity cards, we’re all visiting alumni, here for the graduation festival. No one will believe you’re old enough to have already graduated, Anna, so Lady Kuri got you a black gown. No offence intended; it’s just the colour applicants wear. There are hundreds of alumni and applicants here at the moment for the festival so we won’t look out of place. Beitris, Jimmy, everyone used to use indigo as camouflage, but Lady Kuri tells me the guards are on to it. They’re not likely to waste their time checking green gowns, but if you’re challenged, pick a gift that can’t be tested on the spot like cooking or sculpture. If you come a cropper, pretend you’re sneaking in to see whatever show is on. Euan, Lady Kuri wasn’t expecting you so we don’t have a violet gown, but Hew’s green should fit you. Same applies as the others.”
Finn paused then turned to face Anna. He hadn’t yet given her a black gown and his hand was empty. “I’m sorry, Anna, but you’re going to have to stay on board. What everyone saw with Lord Witheridge’s glass is all anyone can talk about in the city. You’re famous.”
Anna pointed at her birthmark. “I’m used to a few stares, Finn.”
“Not from the Quorum Guard. The Inner Quorum have refused to accept your appointment as King’s Shaper. The old law still stands in the University and the Quorum Guard are sworn to follow the law, not the King. You have to stay put and out of sight. You too, Seleste.”
“You can’t leave both me and Seleste on the ship,” argued Anna. “If Elona’s as good as you say at disguising herself, the only thing to give her away is her missing aura. And what harm’s going to come to me as long as I stay on board? There’s a ship full of armed sailors loyal to the King between me and the pier.”
“It’s a good point, Finn,” said Seleste.
“I’ll consider it, Seleste. For now, I need you helping Anna and Euan to read these from cover to cover, and quickly. We need to get them back to Lady Kuri.” Finn emptied a second bag he’d brought in with him and two heavy tomes fell onto the blankets on Anna’s bunk.
“That’s them?” asked Spider.
“No, I thought I’d bring you some comedies to pass the time,” replied Finn with a deadpan face.
Laughter broke out. “All right, stupid question,” laughed Spider, holding up his hands in submission. The smiles faltered as everyone regarded the books their enemy wanted so badly.
“Why aren’t we just burning them?” asked Sy.
“Too complicated to go into. Suffice it to say that we can’t. Politics. They have to go back to the library.”
“For light’s sake,” complained Spider. “Politics might let Nystrieth make black peristone? Maybe we should just stick a blade through the politicians who think that’s a good idea. Especially if they’re the people who think all Shapers are the same.”
“I sympathise, Spider, but we’re under orders. It’s also our best play. We can’t cover the entire city effectively. There are far too many ways in and out of the city and the Festival of Gifted starts in a couple of days. It’s going to be a nightmare to maintain surveillance with so many people milling about at all hours. We put the books back in the library, make sure this Professor Ebdry knows they’re there and lay in wait. Right now, I need you all out there finding the best places to keep watch. Cherry, I’m assuming you’ll have to check in?” The Mastran nodded. “We’ll see you back here at nightfall. Feel free to line up some extra manpower. Anna, no matter what happens, I want you to stay on this ship. You understand?”
Anna nodded, Lady Braxton’s order clear in her mind. She was not to put her life in danger, even if it meant others died. It was in direct opposition to her own Forever White oath. She honestly wasn’t sure how she would react if she had to choose. On one hand, people she loved might die. On the other hand, Nystrieth might have no White Shaper in his path and millions might die.
“What’s the festival for?” asked Anna.
“Officially, it’s for graduation, enrolment and promotion,” Jimmy explained. “To us locals, it’s a mad four weeks with every trader you can think of trying to sell as much as they can to hordes of visitors. We make more money during the festival’s two weeks and the weeks either side than we do in the next six months.”
“What does each thing involve?” asked Anna.
“Graduation’s just that,” replied Finn. “It’s a ceremony for students completing their courses and being granted full membership of the Quorum. Enrolment is the testing of applicants and issuing of coloured gowns for those who pass. It used to be done on ability only, but the Chancellor has brought in other criteria to try to increase the number of foreign students. The finals are open to the public and are the highlight of the festival. That and the graduates’ leaving show. Imagine a load of students showing off their gifts and you’ll get the idea. The promotion bit of the festival is an invitation-only session for people going for membership of the High Quorum. All I know is that applicants have to demonstrate outstanding ability in more than one discipline, preferably in more than one Sector, and the Inner Quorum votes on who’s sufficiently impressive to be admitted.
“The King wants you to have the protection of High Quorum membership, Anna. He tasked Lady Kuri to make it happen, but it’s tied up in the stand-off over your pardon. She’s been doing all she can, but she’s still one vote short so we can’t risk you going anywhere near the place, not when failure means death.”
“Well, that’s a cheery note,” said Spider.
“It’s blatantly ridiculous, but it is what it is,” replied Finn. “Enough talk though. We meet back here in six hours to compare notes. The first shift leaves immediately afterwards.”
CHAPTER 35
A nna and Euan poured over the t
wo books while Seleste kept frustration at bay by exercising and sharpening her blades. “Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?” she asked for the fiftieth time.
“It’s virtually all in Shaen, Seleste. Even if you could read it, it’d probably make no more sense to you than it does to us. The authors must have been half-mad.”
“More like completely mad,” complained Euan. “Like this bit here. ‘The indigo shall bear violet and all shall become lilac before returning to its true nature, but the heart of the light and the light of the heart shall be transformed and purity shall glow from within.’ And this bit later on. ‘Only a tempestuous vortex and an innocent benefaction shall be granted perfection.’ It’s complete gobbledegook.”
“What about the illustrations? Do any of them make sense?”
“This one here does, but it says it’s the second of three phases and the author hasn’t drawn the first or the third. Honestly, it’s useless.”
“What about the other book?”
“It’s not much better. Most of it is a rant about how dire the consequences are for any who dare to make black or white peristone.” Euan turned a few pages back in the book and held it up so Seleste could see one of the illustrations. It looked like a mass of squiggly lines roughly in the shape of a ball and surrounded by words in capital letters. “It says, ‘Split the earth. Maketh an angel, maketh a demon. Know thy maker’s fate is death.’ Now I can guess the middle bit means where there is white, there is black, just like grandfather says, but what does ‘Split the earth’ mean and why would the Stone Crafter die?”
“So the books are useless?” asked the assassin.
“I can’t see how anyone would make sense of them, but perhaps Nystrieth knows something we don’t?”
“This section here looks like we might be able to work it out. It’s less… disorganised,” said Anna, holding the smaller of the two books out to Euan.
He took it from her and looked at the illustration she’d found towards the end. “It’s a Crafting station. See the different sized circles? It’s the view from above.” He flicked forwards and backwards in the book, his face a mask of concentration. He closed his eyes to try to put the series of illustrations together. After ten minutes of silence, he grabbed the second book and turned back to the text he’d read aloud to Seleste. “Sweet light. No wonder it’s forbidden.”
Both Seleste and Anna could see the horror in Euan’s aura, but Anna could also sense the shame and fury he was feeling at his ancestors. The two women waited for the Shaen to explain himself. His voice broke when he began, but he cleared his throat and tried again.
“I always wondered why there was room in the Hall with a pointless shallow basin and one wide tower. Grandfather said it was built as an experiment long ago and abandoned for being ineffective. Ineffective, it was not,” he snapped, his eyes welling with tears. “All a Shaper needs to make black or white stone is a Stone Crafter with a gift strong enough to destroy a set of beads and evil enough to take a life. The light given off from the beads at the point of destruction melds with a sacrifice’s aura and the Shaper forces it to separate into pure and impure. The light sucks in the particles of stone that match it and the Stone Crafter reforms it into white and black stone. The amount of aura needed depends on how strong the Crafter and the Shaper are.”
“Someone died to make Evaline’s white peristone?” Anna asked in a whisper.
“How big is the basin in that abandoned room, Euan?” asked Seleste, her brain stuck on the word ‘shallow’.
“Tiny… Big enough only for a babe.”
The three friends looked at each other in horror.
“A babe? A babe died to make Evaline’s stone?” Anna said, her voice barely audible. She lifted her hair and turned to Seleste. “Take it out! Take it out now! I won’t have it on me!”
“We need to stay calm. Evaline was no child killer. She was a Healer. Anna, you’ve replenished auras. The King’s was almost entirely gone when you brought him back. Surely Evaline could do the same? Euan, you said a strong Crafter and Shaper wouldn’t need to use as much aura. Evaline survived the Shaper Wars and Breac was Stone Elder for light’s sake. They were incredibly powerful. Maybe they only needed a tiny bit of aura? Or maybe Evaline used her own? Remember, she said it was always an option?”
Anna took a deep breath and sat back down with a thud. “It comes to this,” she said. “Do we trust Evaline and Breac?”
Euan hadn’t heard her question. He was inspecting the books, his mind focused on what Nystrieth might do with this knowledge. There were plenty of Shaens out travelling the world. Almost all Shaens went on an adventure as young adults and good proportion were Craft gifted. Many never returned to the hard life Shae offered, instead settling down overseas. Nystrieth would find a Stone Crafter with no difficulty. But how many children might the Emperor kill before he found a Crafter with the right skill and power to make black stone? Euan shuddered. Politics didn’t matter. These books could not be allowed to survive.
Seleste and Anna didn’t notice Euan carefully select the worst section in Divining Purity, but they heard his knife cut through the paper. They watched in silence as he walked over to one of the lanterns, turned up the flame then methodically burned each page. Three sets of eyes watched the flames race across the old paper and the last little triangle of smouldering white drop to the floor. No one said a word. He didn’t stop until every incriminating page had been destroyed.
Seleste dragged Finn into Captain Alexander’s office as soon as he came back on board. The King’s man couldn’t believe his ears. “He did what?” he yelled. “I’ll kill him!”
Seleste held her leader back with great difficulty. “Finn, you have to listen. I couldn’t have stopped him even if I’d wanted to. My oath wouldn’t allow it.”
Finn still glowered but stopped ranting. “Your oath intervened?”
Seleste nodded. “I literally couldn’t move my arms. The King would never approve of these books being in the library.”
Finn sat down. His aura was still scarlet, but Seleste could see he was sufficiently in control to listen.
“The books are written in crazy language, but Euan managed to work out how to make black peristone from them so Nystrieth will too. It won’t be hard for him to find someone who can read Shaen and, according to Euan, it won’t be hard to find someone with the Stone Crafter gift. Nystrieth won’t have the Hall, obviously, but all he’ll need is a deep, perfectly circular, stone-walled hole in something he doesn’t mind blowing up. It’s minor hurdle at best - he’s bound to have an ordinary Stone gifted in his army to make the hole and there are hundreds of solid stone hills in Danjeon alone. The other thing…” Seleste cleared her throat and steeled herself to tell Finn the gruesome part of the process. “The other thing he’ll need is a sacrifice with a pure aura.” Seleste caught her leader’s eyes to make sure he was listening to every word. “Finn, the most readily available source of a pure aura of sufficient strength is a human newborn. The Shaper pulls the aura from the babe as the beads are spinning. If the Crafter can’t get the beads to the right speed in time, the babe will die before the beads are destroyed and they’ll have to start again. Same beads, different child. Very few Crafters have the strength to destroy beads. Nystrieth is going to go through dozens of Stone Crafters and perhaps hundreds of babes, but he will get there.”
“They’re made from the souls of babes?” Finn asked, aghast at the very idea.
Seleste nodded. “Anna is beside herself. She knows the King needs her to use Evaline’s white stone, but she can’t bear the thought of what it might contain.”
“What a mess,” sighed Finn, his head in his hands. He forced his mind back to the immediate problem. “How bad are the books?”
“Euan took out the important pages and burned them. He’s devastated his ancestors were evil or just plain greedy enough to kill children.”
“Please tell me he cut them out.”
Seleste nodded. “There
weren’t any page numbers so I think a Paper gifted could make them look all right. Certainly passable to the average librarian and they were in the restricted section so very few, if any, will know them well and even fewer will read Shaen. To be honest, I doubt anyone would notice the text doesn’t flow from one page to the next even if they could read Shaen. It’s mostly gibberish.”
Malik arrived as the two were discussing where to find someone with a Paper gift who wouldn’t run screaming to the head librarian. “I know one. Assuming he’s still in business. I used him a couple of times when an ex ripped up my room in a fit of jealousy.”
“Nice to know you inspire such trust, my love.”
“Seleste!” exclaimed Malik, pretending to be deeply hurt by her assumption it was his fault. “We were young and in love…” He looked at her utter disbelief and laughed. “All right, perhaps I was in love with rather too many people at once. Some might have taken offence at my generosity.”
“I blame the exes. They should have ripped you up, not your room.”
“That’s why I love you, my beautiful assassin,” Malik said, bowing and kissing Seleste’s hand.
“Good grief, save it for later!” complained Finn, his smile taking the sting out of the reprimand. “Cherry, I need you to find this book mender. I promised Lady Kuri she’d have the books back this evening so pay him whatever necessary to get him here this afternoon. Best have a look at them before you go so you can tell him what to expect.”
The three found Anna and Euan in the women’s cabin, going over the books again to triple check nothing in them could ever allow anyone to learn how to make black and white peristone. Anna was still distraught at the thought of her white stone containing the soul of a child. She could feel it throbbing against her skull, almost like it was desperate to talk to her, but she ignored it just as a mother might ignore a child having a tantrum.
