Arrival of the Rifted (The Rifted Series Book 1)

by C. C. York

  She breathed a sigh of relief once they reached the gardens. Alik readjusted the simple cloth mask over her eyes as Shauna passed her a dark blackberry lip stain to reapply before they met everyone else. The quiet rows of orchards blocked out a star-speckled night sky, and the music from the Tiers below felt a world away. Pea gravel crunched under the girls' leather sandals as they walked further from the Palace.

  Shauna said, "It's been too long since we've done something fun, Alik."

  "Goddesses, tell me about it. You know, though, you don't have to always stay in because of me. You should be out exploring this city every night. I know I would."

  "You're my person, Alik. I know I could, but it isn't nearly as much fun without your terrible dancing." Shauna smiled and sprayed her with a push of Waterwerk.

  She gasped at the shock of cold water dripping from her face and used her meager Waterwerk to pull from the fountain as well. It fell in a single drop on Shauna's forehead, and they both burst out laughing at the pathetic trickle. By the time the path came to an end, Alik felt more wet than dry, and Shauna had a handful of droplets in her hair.

  They nodded to the women guarding either side of the stone archway at the end of the path. Taavi, Agnian, and Taavi's best friend Ty waited for them dressed in servant's attire as well. Alik and Shauna laughed even harder at their faces when Alik's half-soaked dress came into view.

  Ty shook his head and smiled, "It's as if we're all 15 again."

  "If I remember correctly, if we were 15, we would have snuck into your aunt's tavern and be drunk by now," Taavi said.

  Alik smiled as they rehashed a First Night memory, chiming in only when they forgot a funny detail. She rang out her dress as best as she could next to the stone fireplace while they waited for Damari, and bit back a smile when Agnian shifted closer to her.

  He asked, "Couldn't you just use Dua to dry yourself faster? You're Queen Firtina's daughter, so you have the ability to control all four Duawerks, right?"

  Alik snorted. "Clearly, you haven't been in Efendi before. My handle with fire or air would likely just singe the dress or blow a few strands of my hair back."

  He wouldn't be able to see the change in her pupils in the darkness, so she snuck a scan of him at the admission. Orange surprise mixed with a tinge of chartreuse apprehension circled his face as he smiled broadly at her. At least he's moved on from disgust or hatred for a moment.

  "Where are your companions? Did they not want to join you?" She asked.

  His aura flooded with a pale blue shame, startling Alik. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply—"

  He cut her off, "No. You didn't say anything wrong. I just didn't tell them where I was going." His crooked smile came back as he leaned in, "I wouldn't mind a night without the politics if you know what I mean."

  She watched his aura shift again in the moonlight and blinked to clear her eyes. He's not lying, but he's certainly not saying something. It had been a couple years since Alik couldn't understand her readings, and the conflicting man next to her simultaneously confused her and drew her in. It might be nice to be with someone that I can't read entirely.

  Damari jogged to them. "Ready?" He asked as he reached around the statue of Ates. He pulled a lever hidden behind her carved hair. The low flames hissed in the hearth as a stone door dropped to reveal the hidden stairwell.

  The group walked down the steep steps that wound around the public halls of the Palace. The lower they dropped, the louder the Trades' music rang out until they reached an iron door. The guardswoman at the door opened at Taavi's silent nod, and they spilled out into a narrow alley filled with discarded chairs, cracked lanterns, and mismatched tables. Damari looked back at the group with a wicked smile when a stunning woman with beautiful obsidian skin in a white silk dress joined them from the broken chair she waited in.

  Alik rolled her eyes. Always an Eye.

  If the haphazard route, the latecomer, or the onslaught of noise they faced in the main path of the Trades surprised Agnian, he didn't show it. Streams of musicians spun past with Efendians of all ages dancing behind them in a long parade that would wind all the way up to the Palace steps before the night's end. Firewerkers set off sparkled powder in the middle of the path. The ruby and gold embers glittered down on night stalls lining both sides of the path that sold masks, food on sticks, wine, and more potent vices. Alik's party bumped merrily along with the crowd, linked arm in arm, to wade through the deafening noise. Agnian, sandwiched between Alik and Shauna, turned back to Alik several times with an increasingly expanding grin.

  If I scan him now, I'll likely just trip. Might as well enjoy this. Alik smiled wide at a Groundwerker pulling delicate flowers from a crack in the Tier wall and nearly bumped into Agnian at his abrupt stop.

  Alik couldn't see what he stared at in the throng of people.

  "Is everything alright?" She asked, looking over his shoulder.

  Shauna stopped ahead of them, a question in her eyes, but before Alik could scan him, he shrugged off the tension in his frame and smiled at her again. "It's just a bit much to take in."

  "Too much?" Alik asked, "Because where we're going, it doesn't exactly calm down."

  He held his hand out to her, and she placed hers in his warm palm. "Not at all. I just didn't expect to enjoy it this much."

  Alik decided she liked this smaller, crooked smile best as she took the lead to rejoin everyone.

  Their little parade stopped at a narrow street beyond a fountain of Sulu. Water flowed into the path, and the naked and laughing goddess was carved so that it appeared she splashed the crowds. Waterwerkers altered the colors in the fountains to the warm hues of garnet, marigold, and burnt orange in celebration of Hasateen, and Shauna trailed her fingers in the shimmering water as they passed.

  They weaved down the crooked street, laughing. A group of young men dressed in black rags and ghoulish masks raced past them, bumping into Agnian. He looked at their group, startled, and Shauna answered his unasked question.

  "It's the First Night of Hasateen, and some people dress up like the Edicisi," she explained. Shauna laughed at his perplexed look and continued, "It's folklore of ours. The Edicisi came on the First Night of Hasateen and ate the fires of Efendi, shrouding us in darkness." She pointed to the orange powder swiped above one of the doorways they passed. "We mark our doors each night this week to show him we remember so he doesn't snatch our daughters and sons while they sleep!"

  "Do your holidays all revolve around such ghoulish creatures?" He asked Alik.

  Laughing, she replied, "Only the fun ones."

  She and Shauna linked arms with Damari's Eye, who introduced herself as Mara. Mara pulled them back from skipping past an unassuming umber-stained door. She blew air from her open palm like a kiss, and a series of curving locks appeared on the door frame. Alik's heart raced when the door swung open to reveal a rainbow-colored hallway throbbing with drumbeats from inside. She felt drunk with giddiness at escaping the Palace for a night and grinned wildly at Agnian as she and Shauna pulled him down the hall. Her brothers jostled each other behind them, arms around each other and already singing.

  Alik shouted to Agnian over the din, "You are about to see one of the many reasons why we love our city. Tonight, you'll be an honorary Efendian!" She led him into the fray at the end of the hallway where two scantily clad Firewerkers parted a 10-foot flame so they could enter the thumping room beyond.

  Airwerkers twirled spirals of glitter above a crowd that jumped to the beat of horn and drum players onstage at the end of the cavernous room. Waterwerkers flew streams of shimmering almond liquor at the open mouths of the young Efendians, and everyone cheered as more drum players took the stage. Shauna and Mara came back with ale for everyone that frothed over their mismatched wooden mugs, and their group found their own space in the throng to dance together. Alik rolled her eyes when Shauna stepped behind her right shoulder to guard her back, but her best friend just shrugged and hopped t
o the drumbeat while pouring a steady stream of ale to her own mouth through the air.

  Alik glanced at Agnian ahead of her with her Dua to see his reaction to everything but only found shimmering white wonder swirling around him. He laughed with Ty and joined the fray of dancing that would last hours into the night.

  The dark ale was a welcome bitterness as she scanned for any abnormalities while they danced. A few plumes of deep blue came and went with drunken fights before guards tossed the aggressors outside, but she didn't see anything ominous. Taavi stationed a few Horde members to patrol the Silos and Low Town tonight, and she relaxed a bit more with each sip.

  She scanned Agnian, and sparkling gold merriment swirled with faint mint guilt. She thought back to his statement in the garden about wanting a night without politics, and she brushed off the first tinge of alarm at registering his second emotion. I know what it's like to feel guilty doing something for yourself.

  She watched her loved ones dance together, unhindered by the burdens she carried. You have the rest of the week to deal with the trade negotiations, Alik, and the Horde is now patrolling the streets alongside guardswomen. No one else will go missing tonight, and you scanning this crowd will do little for the girls already gone. Tonight is one night in a full year of duties. Everything else can wait.

  She cleared her eyes and waved a Waterwerker over to arc wine into her mouth. Alik spent the next couple of hours dancing circles with her friends and strangers alike.

  ***

  They were drenched in sweat by the time they all looked at the door longingly, and Alik could see through her brothers' linen shirts through the cloth mask plastered to her face. Agnian lifted his shirt's hem to wipe his face, revealing pointed tips of black tattoos that crawled over a flat stomach from beneath his leather pants. Alik, Mara, and Shauna caught each other watching him, and the three dissolved into laughter. Everyone hugged their newfound friends surrounding them goodbye before weaving out of the crowd and back into the crooked alley, still laughing.

  Damari and Agnian led the way singing one of the songs from the festivity, badly and loudly. Taavi and Ty twirled Shauna and Mara behind Alik. She clapped in tune with the drumbeats coming from the main road a little way ahead and turned back to see Shauna dancing.

  She noticed the man then.

  He followed them dressed in a black, ragged cloak that covered his head. Why does he feel wrong? Another pulse of alarm shot through her. Her eyes glazed over to read him, and thick black smoke engulfed him. She shouted her warning, and Shauna and Mara jumped in front of Alik with their hands in the air. Shauna's vile of water at her wrist swayed with the abrupt movement.

  "What is it, Alik?" Damari asked.

  Alik's brothers and friends said little about her readings in front of strangers as it was not public knowledge. Queen Firtina insisted that she play the weak princess with minimal Dua so that her peers would not learn of her other abilities. This worked well enough for Alik most of the time since she was abysmal at the other werks, but in situations like this, she felt helpless.

  "I thought I saw someone. A man, dark black cloak around the bend."

  Mara said in her steady, quiet voice, "There are a lot of men in dark cloaks out tonight, Princess."

  Alik waved her off, but doubt crept in. Agnian withdrew a wicked knife from somewhere in his boot. She scanned him when his eyes were on the path behind them and saw only a flare of red alarm. Ty ran back from the party's entrance, knives in hand as well now, shaking his head.

  "I didn't see anyone, Alik, but a few drunk partiers," he said.

  They stood still, ignoring the confused looks of a young couple walking around them, but Alik saw nothing else.

  "Let's just go. Taavi, don't take the Ates stairwell. Let's take the boats to the top." I don't want to wind through the crowd this late, and I'll happily play the princess card if it means we can take the boats. I'll deal with the consequences if Mother finds out.

  Taavi nodded his agreement. They walked quickly through the alley, heading for the boats that hovered over the center of the Trades that would glide them above the domed rooftops home. Mara shifted ahead of them at the main road of the Trades. Alik's ears popped at the push of air Mara forced around them to shuffle the crowd out of the way. A few people were clearly annoyed at the disturbance as they scurried past, but most were too drunk and happy to do much but dance out of the way.

  Alik breathed a sigh of relief when they all loaded into the waiting ferry cars. The cream and gold cars only accommodated two at a time, so Damari and Mara took the lead, followed by Alik and Shauna. Taavi and Agnian brought the rear. Ty circled back with a few Horde members to patrol the crooked alley once he saw them off.

  She described what she saw to Shauna as they waited for the Airwerkers below to lift their ferry car into the air. The Mizi moon cast a scarlet glow over half of the celebrating city, and the other half glowed a faint blue under the smaller Mina moon.

  "It's been a long night, Alik, and you've spent every night looking into missing girls. I don't doubt what you saw; I just know that you've been on edge as well."

  Alik shrugged as Damari and Mara's car took off. She looked to her left to see what was taking their Airwerker so long to get them off the ground. The woman's aura was the dull yellow of boredom, and Alik read exhaustion and a gray unease off both Agnian and Taavi behind her. She sighed contently as the car began to rise and leaned over her edge to watch the Trades sink below them when the ferry dipped for a moment. A chill of ice-white fear brushed past her just before her eyes cleared.

  She jerked up to see what Shauna saw, only to find her friend had vanished.

  ***

  Alik sank in the cushions of the dove white divan hours later with bloodshot eyes and a raw throat from screaming Shauna's name. Her pounding headache subsided to a dull ringing in her ears as she drank, but didn't taste, the warm liquid put into her hands.

  "You should have someone look at that," Tryska said, gesturing to Alik's legs.

  Alik brushed her hand over the dried blood on her knees but didn't answer the guardswoman. She leapt out of the ferry car when Shauna disappeared and landed on her knees and arms several feet later. Her chest constricted at the panic threatening to consume her again. Panicking caused her Dua to focus and refocus constantly, so she closed her eyes to lessen the headache.

  I did this. I caused this. Shauna would not have gone out had I not insisted.

  Firtina's study door opened to release a beige-cloaked servant that nodded to Alik to enter. Alik said goodbye to Tryska and shuffled into her mother's lair. Four of Firtina's longest-standing advisors waited near a massive oak table at the center of the circular book-shrouded room. No windows graced her mother's study, so the only light flickered from her orderly rows of firelight orbs hovering above them and the low flame in the hearth. As a child, Alik used to think the books stacked tightly from the floor to the ceiling were waves threatening to crash down on her, and she fought off her childish unease at the sight of them. Firtina, wrapped in a magenta robe, stood like a stone pillar with her back to everyone else in the room. She turned only when her advisors stopped speaking at Alik's arrival.

  Alik knew she looked as horrible as she felt when her mother's eyes widened. At a head jerk, the advisors fled the room. Alik never liked those particular sycophants much, but she smiled her thanks to them for gathering this late on Shauna's behalf.

  Firtina stood still. Alik knew this game well and was adept at losing it, so she spoke first. "Thank you for gathering your advisors so late. I didn't know what to do when we couldn't find her."

  "How many people did you encounter in the Palace before you came to me now?" Firtina asked, picking at her sharp nails.

  Alik's mind was unusually soft. Sometimes she could guess where her mother's thoughts were leading, but she was exhausted and emotionally drained at Shauna's disappearance. She shrugged and said a rounded answer, "Ten or so? Excluding the guar
ds and your advisors, so maybe that's closer to twenty-four?"

  Firtina stalked to Alik from the opposite side of the table. She snatched a piece of paper and a pen off its polished surface and shoved it across the room at Alik. Alik caught it in the gust of Airwerk her mother used, stepping back at its force.

  "You will listen to me, and you will do only as I say for the next several turns. First, write down everyone's name you passed looking like a pathetic Towner. Next, you will rise in a couple of hours looking as marginal as you typically do in your own attire. You will proceed with the negotiations with the Dvarian emissary as planned, and you will not mention this to anyone else in the Palace, particularly the emissary."

  This isn't the time then to mention that Agnian was with us the entire night, Alik thought.

  Firtina continued without pause, "Under no circumstances are you to mention tonight again. Am I clear?"

  "I will do all that you ask Mother--," at Firtina's raised eyebrow, Alik corrected herself, "--my Queen. May I ask, though, what is the plan to find Shauna?"

  Firtina mastered the uncanny ability to move one part of her face without anything else shifting. She blinked several times at her daughter. "The only thing we are doing concerning Shauna is cleaning up the despicable mess you made parading through the Tiers and the Palace like a screaming ghoul."

  Other kids may argue with their parents, but Alik learned painfully at a young age that this was unacceptable as an Iktidar. Her hands shook, and her stomach felt like it sunk to the floor. She had never pushed back, let alone confront the terrifying woman in front of her. It's Shauna, though. There is no option but to find her, whatever the cost.

  Alik took a deep breath. "Surely you cannot mean to ignore this. What about the other missing Daughters?"

  Firtina paused. "What about them?" She asked.

  "The missing girls, the fact that we have someone, or something, snatching our Daughters from our streets? What about the fact that my best friend wasn't safe when she sat. Right. Next. To. Me?" Alik flinched when the fireorbs flared higher above her, and her mother stepped closer.