The Shattered City

by Tansy Rayner Roberts

  Ashiol nodded grimly to the lictors who stood at his door, knowing that he was about to be their prisoner all over again. Fuck it. It wasn’t like he had anywhere else to go. He walked inside, heading straight for the little table where the glass vials were laid out for him. Two potion doses, one vial of pills, all different colours. One was basic nettlebane, to ease his sleep. Another was supposed to still his anxiety — it was the potion that made him feel numb for days, as if everything was a few inches out of reach. The pills were odd, misshapen gobbets of something green and oily. They were supposed to rid him of the hallucinations.

  ‘You are going to take them, I hope?’ said a quiet voice. Ashiol looked up, and saw Heliora.

  She seemed different, but only slightly. Her rough-shorn hair had grown out a little. She was taller, or maybe thinner. But it was his Hel. Not dead. Warm and ordinary and here. He had missed her so much.

  Ashiol’s bones ached with weariness. ‘I have to warn you. Seeing visions of dead people has never worked out well for me.’

  Heliora cracked a smile at him. ‘Story of my life.’

  31.

  Elsewhere

  Some time later

  The sand-coloured Palazzo at the heart of Tierce was a far more modest building than the grand edifice of Aufleur, but it still had high walls and towers, decorated with dormice and turtles. Those creatures Velody remembered — they were stamped on every canalboat in the city. Velody would never have set foot inside the Palazzo in her old life. That demme, the one who lived above the bakery and had to fight her sisters for the best cast-offs, would never have thought she would ever see anything so grand.

  ‘I still don’t trust you,’ she said as their footsteps echoed through the empty entrance hall.

  ‘No reason why you should,’ said Garnet lightly.

  ‘Why are we here?’

  ‘Mirrors.’

  ‘I have a polished glass at home at the bakery.’

  He laughed. ‘Home. Trust you, little mouse. You’ve set up home in this place, taken a tiny little nest for yourself when you could own the whole city.’

  ‘Half the city, surely,’ Velody said. ‘You don’t strike me as the type to share unconditionally.’

  ‘Ah well,’ said Garnet vaguely. ‘I won’t be here forever.’ He stopped in one lushly carpeted corridor, outside a set of carved doors. ‘Other mirrors work, once you’ve seen the truth, but these are better. Clearer, somehow.’ He pushed the doors open. ‘In you go.’

  Velody didn’t like him, and sure as the seven hells didn’t trust him, but what else did she have? She was trying so hard to hold on to herself. She couldn’t stand being on her own, and like it or not, Garnet was the only other person here.

  She stepped into the room.

  The walls were scarlet, and covered in century-old murals. Painted women circled them, dancing and holding trays of foods or urns of wine. Some posed with snakes or other sacred objects. Several baked honey cakes.

  ‘This is a hall of mysteries,’ Velody said, surveying the murals that adorned the walls. ‘You shouldn’t be in here. It’s not for the eyes of men.’

  Garnet shrugged. ‘Do you think anyone cares now?’

  ‘The saints and angels might.’

  ‘Let them punish me for my transgressions. A little religious judgement might cut the boredom.’ He made a sweeping gesture with his arm. ‘Further in, little mouse.’

  She kept walking, through the mysteries to the next room. The light inside blinded her momentarily before she realised what she was looking at. The walls were almost entirely made from polished glass. Grey light streamed in through windows on the far side of the room, which only made the mirrored walls glow harder, more intensely.

  Velody stood in the centre of the room, staring at many different versions of herself. Strange. She wasn’t sure she had ever seen herself so clearly — and at the same time it was hard to be sure who she was looking at. Her skin was paler than she was used to. Perhaps the light here in the sky-Tierce was different. Her eyes were still grey. Her dark hair was tidy, her body sturdy as ever, her fingers long and slender. The dress she had stolen from the Museion was the only splash of colour, but even the green silk looked muted and wrong. She was a child playing dressups, lost in a city she no longer belonged to.

  ‘What happened to them all?’ she asked in a whisper. She had not been able to bring herself to ask, before now.

  Garnet came to join her, standing almost close enough to touch. He was pale too, greyer than she was. His shirt and trews were almost colourless. His hair — his hair was still bright, but hadn’t it been brighter when she first saw him? She couldn’t even see his eyes properly. She had thought blue or green, but now they seemed grey like hers, pale and washed out. ‘They forgot,’ he said simply. ‘Some of them were still here when I arrived. Ghosts and echoes, holding on to who they used to be. Walking around in circles, keeping up their routine. But they faded, one by one. I think we’re not meant to be here. Once we lose who we are, we drift away.’ He shrugged. ‘Finally they were all gone, just the city left behind. At least the city seems to remember what shape it’s supposed to be.’

  Velody stared at the hundreds of Velodies reflected in the many mirrors, the hundreds of Garnets. ‘So you come here to stare at yourself and remember who you are?’ she said softly.

  ‘Ha,’ he said, amused. ‘I suppose it has that benefit. Dull, though. I find it very unlikely that the outer shell is the be-all and end-all. I always wanted to be taller.’ He gave her a friendly jab in the waist with one finger, like he was one of her brothers. ‘Look more closely, little mouse. There’s more in these mirrors than you and me and this fucking shadow of a city.’

  Velody couldn’t get away from thinking that he was out to trick her or trap her. She looked past the many Velodies and Garnets to the reflections of the windows, and then she saw it. Moments of darkness and light, of faces and hands — of movement.

  She whipped around and stared through the windows themselves and saw nothing but grey light, yellow stone and an empty city, then turned back to stare into the reflections. ‘That’s not Tierce, it’s …’

  ‘Aufleur,’ Garnet said calmly. ‘Well, not always. All kinds of places flicker into view from time to time. But the more you concentrate on what you need to see, the more likely you are to see fragments you care about. People, even.’

  Velody looked hard, but it was still just shapes and flickers. For now. ‘You do this a lot?’

  ‘Whenever I can. This is how to hold on to yourself. Remembering who you were, who you cared about. Seeing pieces of them — knowing what’s happening in the world outside. Talking to them, if you can. Sometimes it’s all there is.’

  He sounded so lost, and Velody had vowed she would not do this, not start feeling sorry for him or thinking of him as a person. ‘Why,’ she said. ‘Why hold on? Why not just let it happen? The sky swallowed us. We’re supposed to be dead.’

  Garnet smiled thinly. ‘And I thought you were a fighter.’

  ‘I don’t know what I am. But we can’t go back there. Why torture ourselves?’

  ‘Because there’s still a battle to be fought, and a war to win,’ he said, his voice harder than she had ever heard it. ‘If we don’t stay alive, if we don’t do everything we can, then what use are we?’

  ‘I didn’t think you cared about all that,’ she said, surprised.

  ‘You don’t know me,’ he snapped. ‘All you’ve ever known is what they said about me.’

  ‘You’re the one who was so keen to point out what a monster you are,’ she commented.

  ‘Of course I’m a fucking monster. We have to be. It’s the only way we’ll win.’ Garnet had never reminded her more of Ashiol than in that moment, his stance aggressive, a scowl on his face. They must have been astounding together when they were young and strong and not yet damaged.

  ‘You still think we can win?’ Velody echoed. ‘I mean, not just survive, but win.’

  ‘More than t
hat,’ Garnet said, teeth gleaming at her in a wicked smile. ‘I think if we work together, we can get back there.’

  ‘To Aufleur.’

  ‘Aye, to Aufleur. That’s what the mirrors are for. You think I’d stand here staring into nothing out of nostalgia? You think I’m wasting my last days of energy in taunting Ashiol fucking Xandelian? These mirrors are our way home.’

  Velody swallowed. She had been so sure there was no way out of this but a graceful letting go. Fading away as her family must have, long before she got here. The thought of getting back to them all, to Delphine and Rhian and Ashiol and the sentinels, rose up in her as a sudden desperate hope. She had to do it. If it was possible, she had to try to get back.

  Even if it meant unleashing Garnet on Aufleur all over again.

  ‘Convince me,’ she said finally.

  Velody could not remember the last time she had returned to the bakery. It was not like she needed to sleep. The more she sat and gazed into the ever-reflecting mirrors, the closer she came to seeing what she wanted to see, back in Aufleur.

  She thought once that she saw a piece of Via Silviana and she looked at it until her eyes began to hurt (so rare to feel pain, or anything else in this false and empty Tierce), hoping for a sign of Rhian or Delphine.

  Every now and then, she caught the dark flash of a cat’s tail or a rat’s paw and wondered if it was Ashiol, or Poet.

  Sometimes Garnet joined her. She was getting used to his presence. Hate made so little sense when there were only the two of them here. The old rules did not apply.

  ‘There,’ she said one day, after finding a corner of the mirror room that looked directly into one of the main thoroughfares of Aufleur. ‘I see Macready.’

  There was no mistaking that stocky figure, the way he walked, though she could only really see a shoulder, part of his back and one boot.

  ‘Aye, the old bastard,’ said Garnet, sounding almost admiring. ‘Indestructible.’

  There was a gleam of light against a sword or a knife, just for a moment. Velody leaned back on her heels, remembering all over again that Garnet was an enemy rather than an ally. ‘I gave them back their blades.’

  ‘Good for you,’ he said evenly.

  Velody swallowed hard. ‘We can’t go back. I can’t let you go back.’

  Garnet blinked, looking almost amused. ‘So you will deprive them of yourself, of their greatest one and only, the Power and Majesty who saved their souls, because you don’t want to share them with me?’

  She stared at him. ‘I never said anything about being the greatest Power and Majesty.’

  ‘But you are, of course. That’s how they see you. Saint Velody, that’s how you are remembered. I suppose you’re afraid of losing that, if you’re back among the mortals. That they might realise you’re as flawed as any of us.’

  ‘How much have you seen through these mirrors?’ she demanded.

  ‘Oh, I see more than you think.’ Garnet stood, and left her alone in the room. ‘You’ll change your mind.’

  Another time, the mirrors opened up and Velody saw the gardens of Trajus Alysaundre at nox. She watched for so long, certain that she would see some sign of how the Creature Court were continuing without her.

  The nox sky was quiet, though, and they did not come.

  ‘Have patience,’ said Garnet from the doorway.

  ‘You don’t strike me as the world’s most patient person,’ Velody said, turning away from the mirrors in frustration. ‘This isn’t getting us anywhere. I don’t believe we can step through the mirrors at all. It’s just a game you invented to pass the time.’

  Garnet laughed. ‘To keep us sane, you mean? That doesn’t sound like me.’

  ‘I’m not convinced it’s keeping me sane,’ said Velody. ‘More like the opposite.’ Their hands brushed as she tried to step past him to leave the room, and they both recoiled.

  ‘Don’t touch me,’ he snapped.

  ‘You’re cold,’ she said in surprise. It wasn’t just the ordinary cold that seeped into everything in Tierce. He almost burned with it. ‘Are you sick?’

  ‘We don’t exist here. You think we can get sick?’

  ‘Then why —’ Velody stepped closer even as he backed away from her. ‘You’re losing the battle, aren’t you?’ she said softly. ‘You’re fading.’

  Garnet gave her a cynical smile. ‘Don’t pretend it’s not what you want. With me gone, you can return to Aufleur without bringing the fiend with you. Happy endings all around.’

  ‘I don’t believe we can return,’ said Velody. ‘We’re not real any more. We don’t have a place there.’

  Garnet threw up his hands. ‘Oh, by all means, let’s embrace the reality where Ashiol is Power and Majesty! Is that really the best future you can imagine for them all?’

  ‘Don’t talk about him like that.’

  ‘Should I not?’ His eyes burned with a deep intensity. ‘I’ve known Ash longer and deeper than you ever could, little mouse. If one of us doesn’t get back there, he will destroy Aufleur all on his own.’

  ‘I’m supposed to believe you care about the city, that you care about them?’

  Garnet gave her an odd look. ‘It’s all I’ve ever cared about. How can you not know that?’

  ‘I don’t know you,’ she reminded him. ‘I have no reason to trust the words that come out of your mouth, and every reason not to.’

  ‘Because of what my lovely Ashiol told you about me?’

  ‘Not just him. All of them. They hate you.’

  ‘They feared me. It’s not the same thing.’

  ‘Believe me,’ Velody said with fervour. ‘They hate you.’

  Garnet seemed to take it in that time, though his face was still devoid of emotion. He was so different to Ashiol, she thought. Ashiol wore everything on his face, every flash of rage or fear. Garnet kept his emotions so far inside that you only saw what he wanted you to see.

  ‘You’ve put all your trust in a madman,’ he said finally. ‘You’ve let yourself see the world through his eyes.’

  ‘Ashiol isn’t crazy,’ Velody retorted.

  Garnet looked amused. Well, that was almost an emotion. ‘Which Aufleur were you living in?’

  She reached out again, her hand brushing his. ‘You’re trying to distract me with all this talk of Ashiol. But you’re dying, or whatever passes for dying in this place.’

  ‘That is a distinct possibility,’ Garnet admitted.

  ‘Don’t leave me alone here.’ The words tumbled out before Velody could stop them.

  Garnet laughed, pulling his hand away. ‘I wouldn’t worry, mouseling. You’ll have company soon enough. If you don’t make your way back, Aufleur will join Tierce in the sky … you’ll have plenty of playmates then. For a while.’

  He walked out of the hall of mirrors. Velody expected him to come back after a moment or two. He never could stay away from her for long.

  But this time, he did not return.

  Velody waited at the bakery, at the hall of mirrors, but there was no sign of Garnet. She did not even know which parts of the city she might find him in, should she wish to look.

  Why would she look for him? Ashiol could be Power and Majesty. She knew he could. He was the one who had taught her. He was perfectly capable of accepting his place. Garnet was wrong. He had a nerve, suggesting that Ashiol was unstable, or that he couldn’t be trusted. Look what he himself had done with all that power.

  Once she gave up on Garnet, Velody spent most of her time lying on the bed in her old room, gazing into the polished bronze hand-mirror that had been her grandmother’s and thinking of home. When she finally saw a part of Aufleur that was familiar to her, it was nothing like what she wanted to see.

  She saw Ashiol raving, Delphine crying, Rhian on the point of collapse, the sentinels bleeding, falling, dying. She didn’t know if it was the past, present or future, but she knew now what she didn’t want.

  Garnet was right. Velody had to go back. There was no way she could do
it without him, without his belief in how it could be done. She needed him for her very survival.

  He still did not return.

  Velody searched the city for Garnet. The Palazzo first, then other buildings in areas where she had seen him in the past. She returned to the baths regularly and saw no sign he had been there. She scoured the streets for more broken glass.

  (He could be gone, really gone; she might be alone here.)

  It was impossible. He would not be found until he wanted to be found.

  Finally Velody returned to her mother’s bakery, inhaling the dust and absence of bread as she entered, and found Garnet lying wanly on her sister’s bed.

  She smacked him on the shoulder, and the cold burned all the way up her skin. ‘Is this your idea of fighting for Aufleur?’ she demanded.

  Garnet opened his eyes and looked at her. ‘You judge me for giving up? I’ve been fighting my whole fucking life for Aufleur. You’ve had a few months of it, and you claim to be the expert.’

  ‘I would have had longer if you had let me,’ she hissed. ‘If you hadn’t stolen my animor when I was a child.’

  ‘Why yes, you would,’ he said cynically. ‘Maybe then you’d be as tired as I am. This is it, Velody. You’re on your own.’ His skin was practically translucent, and his voice didn’t sound like him any more.

  ‘You can’t just give up,’ she said, but it sounded pathetic, like begging the sky not to fall.

  ‘Of course I can. I’m the selfish one, remember? You’re the saint.’

  She opened her mouth to snap at him not to call her that, but Garnet’s eyes were closed. He was still — well, not breathing, neither of them breathed here — but still present, even as he faded in and out of colour.

  Velody was not going to wait around and watch him fade away. She went out of the bakery, slamming the door behind her. She began to walk, just for the sensation of doing something, of being here instead of fading into nothingness like everyone else.

  She was so angry at Garnet she could spit. Where was that fire and venom that had taken control of the Court? Where was the man who had conquered Ashiol and stolen his powers? Seven hells, she would settle for the boy who had kissed her on a balcony twelve years ago — he at least had an ounce of daring in him.