Shadow City

by Francesca Flores

  “I took a few days to think about it,” Ryuu began. “After she took back the Tower, Mariya asked me if I wanted to join the Sentinel, and I—”

  “He looked like he wanted to run away screaming,” Lill interjected.

  “It’s not for me,” Ryuu finished with a shrug. “So instead, she offered to recommend me to the Kaiyanis king as an apprentice of his architect, as long as I agreed to make some business and diplomatic connections while I’m there. I’ll probably stay for a couple of years.”

  “And I’ve always wanted to see Kaiyan,” Lill said. “My father has family in the capital, so I’ll bring them his ashes, stay with them for some time, and travel from there. I want to be away from Sumerand for a while.” Her eyes trailed toward the window and her shoulders tensed slightly as she spoke. “It’ll be easier to move on if I’m away from here.”

  “What will happen to the mining business, Ryuu?” Aina asked. “Will it all be restored?”

  “There is damage, but it’ll survive,” he said slowly, looking down at the table as he spoke. “My advisors think the mines just got attacked in the fighting, and I don’t feel the need to give them any more details.” He grimaced then, and Aina remembered him standing in the mouth of the tunnel, a grenade in his hands as he faced the onslaught of Kohl’s fighters. “But I’m glad it happened; my parents always cared more about the city and the people here than a business. The advisors will be in charge of operations until I return. And when I come back, I’ll have enough skills to steer the business in a new direction. Something that my brother might be proud of.”

  A long beat of silence passed while Aina took in all they’d said. Though she’d only known Ryuu for a couple months and Lill less than that, she no longer knew what her life looked like without them.

  But at the same time, she could see the ghosts of the recent battle in both of their eyes. Her own memories rose up then, making her shudder slightly; the fire at the Dom, the bodies of Johana, Kushik, and Markus spread on the floor, her hands covered in both Teo and Kohl’s blood. She couldn’t blame Ryuu and Lill for wanting to get away from it all for a while.

  “I’ll miss you while you’re gone,” she finally said.

  “I’ll miss you too,” Ryuu said. “But you’ll be busy, I’m sure. You and Tannis can finally run the tradehouses properly, with Kohl gone.”

  She nodded, a brief surge of excitement flooding her at the thought. But it was quickly doused. She and Tannis had finally gotten the prize they’d fought for and no one stood against them, but it didn’t feel like the victory she’d envisioned it would be. Something felt off about it all.

  Her conversation with Arman Kraz when she and Tannis had recruited Thunder to fight at the Tower came back to her then. The chaos is what we take advantage of, he’d said. Don’t do too good a job of getting rid of the chaos, or else we’ll have nothing left.

  The tradehouses had first formed in the wake of the old civil war, steered by Kohl, full of revenge and a desire to prove himself. While the newly formed Sentinel had wrestled the country into some kind of order following King Verrain’s death, plenty of people had taken advantage.

  Her question was how she would handle the chaos, and if it’d be different from the rest. She had a chance now to take the tradehouses in a different direction; a chance to not follow in Kohl’s footsteps. But she didn’t know how exactly she would handle it yet, so she shook the thought away.

  The door opened then, and Aina didn’t bother looking up, knowing it would be a maid or butler offering them tea or reporting something to Ryuu. Maybe one of his advisors had stopped by.

  But when no one spoke, and no expensive shoes clicked across the wood floor, her eyes flicked up.

  Teo, Tannis, and Raurie stood in the doorway. They all looked exhausted, like they’d traveled for days, but pleased with themselves.

  Aina shoved her chair back, ran up to them, and pulled them each into a hug, holding Teo for a few seconds longer.

  “Finally!” she said, letting go and shaking her head. “Where were you? Nobody told me anything!”

  “You managed to keep it a secret from her the whole time?” Raurie called over to Ryuu and Lill.

  “She didn’t threaten to stab you?” Tannis asked in disbelief.

  “Oh, she definitely did,” Ryuu replied.

  “But we knew she wouldn’t,” Lill added with a wink.

  They all laughed then and Aina rolled her eyes. But a smile tugged at her lips too as they moved toward the table and pulled out chairs. Raurie and Teo walked a little slower than the others, and Aina felt a twinge of pain in her left arm. The pain had started on the burning ship, stabbing jolts that came when she least expected it, numbness and tingling, occasional difficulty to command her fingers to do anything. She had no idea if it would fade with time or not, but she had a good guess where it had come from.

  If you use it to kill, you might lose the ability to heal, the Sacoren Gevann had explained. The Mothers had given them a choice, in allowing them to use the magic in violent ways, and now they had their punishment. Ryuu and Lill’s burn scars might never go away. Raurie had sustained a bullet wound to her leg the day of fighting and now had to move gingerly on that side. Teo, although he’d never used the blood magic himself, had been saved by it when he should have died. Her poison had attacked his lungs and heart. Now he was sometimes short of breath and took more careful steps. Since he’d never used the magic himself, she hoped his aftereffects would go away soon.

  As for her own … it might be difficult to fight with her left hand from now on, but she wasn’t too worried. The Mothers had told her to embrace her weakness—and she had, learning to use her own strength, to only need herself to win—and perhaps they knew she wouldn’t need to fight much more in the future.

  Looking around at the group, Aina asked, “Will someone finally tell me where you three went?”

  Teo reached over to take her hand, brown eyes bright with whatever secret he kept. “I’ll show you.”

  She couldn’t really be mad at him when he looked at her like that.

  After leaving the library, she and Teo exited the mansion, passed the maple trees near the entrance, and walked across the grounds. The grass was wet beneath their boots, the sunshine hot on their shoulders—and no taste of ash in the air.

  Breathing it in, her frustration disappeared. With the battle over, there wasn’t a need to be hurried and impatient and panicked anymore. With Kohl gone, her fear had no place either. It was strange getting used to it, but she hoped the feeling would last.

  “Are we going to the mines?” she asked Teo, blushing a little at the fact that they were still holding hands. She hadn’t even noticed.

  He shook his head with a mischievous grin. “No, much closer than that.” Lifting a hand, he pointed at the cemetery ahead.

  Aina raised an eyebrow, but Teo just laughed and led the way forward. They reached the tombstones and walked between rows of them for a few minutes before Teo came to a stop. Memories of Kohl would crop up all over the city, and especially at the Dom, even though it looked completely different than when he’d been there.

  After a few minutes of walking through the cemetery, Teo stopped in front of a tombstone and pointed at it. Wondering which rich person was buried here and why Teo wanted to show her their grave, she read the names.

  For a moment, she was certain she’d stopped breathing. Then she blinked, shook her head, and read the names again. Rafael Solís Galán and Manuela Santos Plata. Only her parents’ names, no dates or messages, but a small, white shard was embedded between the two names.

  They knelt in front of it, and Aina reached out a hand to touch the stone warmed by the midday sun. Brushing the object between her parents’ names, she noted its smooth surface. Porcelain.

  “I hope you like it,” Teo said quickly, a hesitant look in his eyes like he feared he’d made a mistake. “Raurie told me how her parents used to burn the bodies of Inosen who’d been killed and place their as
hes in a hidden shed near the mass graves. A few days ago, when I left with Tannis and Raurie, we went there. We had no idea if we’d find them, so I didn’t want anyone to tell you. Tannis said that she’d found the pieces of that porcelain horse that used to belong to your mother. It was broken, and she assumed you did it, but she knew you’d probably regret it later, so she took a piece of it for you. Ryuu had the idea to put it here.”

  He’d barely finished speaking when she pulled him into a tight hug. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, but she didn’t mind them falling now.

  “It’s perfect,” she said, pulling slightly away as the sun crested to a position directly above them. “It’s amazing that you were able to find them. Do you think we’d be able to bring back more? The ashes of people who died during the war?”

  “We can tell Mariya Okubo,” he said slowly, his forehead creased in thought. “If she wants to announce it to the public, people could go look.”

  His voice trailed off, and she reread the names, thinking of everything that had led to this moment—and who’d been by her side for it all.

  She and Teo looked at each other at the same time. The sun lit his eyes a warm copper tone. It scared her, to sink into this comfort, to be at someone’s side without fear—but she wanted to.

  “How do you feel?” he asked in a slightly cautious tone. “You killed Kohl. You’re free of him now.”

  The words themselves were hopeful, but she could sense his real question—did she feel free?

  “I don’t know,” she said slowly. Then her gaze turned to the rest of the cemetery. “I came here with him, just a few times. But it’s enough to make me remember. It’ll be like that all over the city, everywhere I go.” Her voice tightened with the realization—she didn’t know if she’d ever actually feel free.

  Kohl was a ghost wherever she walked, a scar on her heart that would always be there. She tried to believe he would fade over time and she’d stop looking over her shoulder, stop hearing his voice in her head, but she truthfully didn’t know if that was possible.

  “It’s okay if you don’t know,” Teo said, reaching a hand forward to touch her jaw—and she remembered a time Kohl had gripped her chin so hard, she thought it would break. She tensed, forcing her way through the memory, and thought instead of how different this was. Teo’s touch was warm, his grip gentle, his eyes filled only with love. Then he said, “There are two things you know for sure: He’s gone.”

  Aina breathed in deeply, as if she could heal herself with those words alone. “What’s the other thing?”

  “That I’m here for you.” The softness of his voice made her tension slide away then, and she leaned into his touch. “Just because you’ve been hurt doesn’t mean you’re broken or have to punish yourself somehow. You deserve love like anyone else.”

  Her heart swelled at his words—no one had ever told her something like that, and she desperately wanted to believe it.

  “I want to figure this all out,” she said. “With you, Teo.”

  She leaned toward him then, weaving one hand through his hair. Teo placed his hand on the back of her head and drew her into a kiss.

  But she felt like he was holding back; like he was afraid of hurting her.

  She ran her fingers through his hair, cupped the back of his neck and pulled him closer to her—to show him he didn’t have to be careful with her. To show him she trusted him. She wasn’t a fragile piece of porcelain that might be easily broken, but if there were anyone’s arms she wanted to fall apart in, they were his.

  He kissed her jaw, trailing kisses toward the back of her ear and then down her neck, one hand on the back of her neck and the other at her waist. His warmth seeped into her, like the sun shone on her from all directions. When he pulled her closer, she leaned into his embrace, feeling safer than she had in years—and wanting to stay there.

  43

  The Tower still bore signs of the fighting that had happened there, especially in the entrance hall. The Diamond Guard leading Aina and Tannis to a meeting with the Sentinel showed them up the staircase near the ballroom. Peering inside, she noted that most of it was roped off. Broken glass and blood still covered the floor. People hired to clean and repair the Tower were busy fixing the floor, but not in the way Aina had expected.

  “Look,” Tannis whispered, pointing at one of the men who hauled out diamonds from the floor in a large crate.

  “What are they planning to do?” Aina asked the Diamond Guard escorting them as they reached the landing to the next floor.

  “Putting a new floor in,” he said over his shoulder. “Marble, I heard. A little pretentious, don’t you think? They’re going to renovate the whole Tower.”

  She and Tannis rolled their eyes at the same time. If he thought marble was pretentious but a floor of diamonds wasn’t, Aina didn’t really know what to say to him. But as long as he wasn’t a traitor like all the others, she wouldn’t judge him too harshly. There were plenty of open jobs among the Diamond Guards to take the place of the old and support the new Sentinel.

  “I’m surprised she invited us to a meeting today,” Aina said, frowning as they continued to ascend flights of stairs. “You’d think they’d be busy rebuilding.”

  “I’m not,” Tannis said in a low voice, one hand going to a throwing star—a move Aina recognized as one she did out of habit when she sensed a threat. “She was around after the first war, so she saw what happened. They made sure enough Steels were alive to keep the factories going and give jobs to everyone else, but they didn’t pay attention to the rest of the country, and well … we both know what happens when people are given free rein in a place that’s falling apart.”

  The Diamond Guard leading them looked back with an uneasy grimace, but said nothing as he showed them into a meeting room. A circular oak table sat in the center, with three people gathered there: Mariya, June, and Sofía. Aina nodded at them all as they sat down, feeling a slight hint of trepidation. All of them knew her, and with two Sacoren in the government, she had hoped the country really was moving into a new future. But Tannis’s words spun in her head now, and she had a suspicion of what today’s meeting was about.

  “Good afternoon, Aina and Tannis,” Mariya said with a terse smile. “This is the first chance we’ve gotten to talk after Bautix’s death, so I didn’t have a chance to thank you. Without you and everyone on your side, the country would be in Bautix’s hands now. I trust you’ve been busy managing the tradehouses since things have calmed down.”

  “We have,” Aina said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat at the idea of discussing her criminal activities with the highest position of government in the country. But they all knew who she and Tannis were.

  “That’s actually what we would like to talk to you about,” Mariya continued, clasping her hands together atop the table. “We have to decide what is best for the country. The tradehouses began after the civil war, didn’t they?”

  “It’s easy to build profit off instability,” Tannis said shortly.

  “That’s true. However, if we want Sumerand to rise into a new future, and prove to the world that we are advancing as a nation, we need to make an effort to reduce crime and disorder. I hope an agreement will be possible instead of having to act by force.”

  Her words were soft, but Aina sensed the threat in the air. Aina couldn’t blame her; as Tannis had said, Mariya had seen the failures of the Sentinel after the last war, and likely didn’t want to repeat them. The photograph of Mariya’s daughter on her desk came back to Aina then, and she couldn’t help feeling a pang of sympathy for the woman in front of her. She knew Mariya didn’t expect any of this to be easy, but her hope was clear in the glint in her eyes as she waited patiently for Aina and Tannis to reply.

  “No matter how you try to close the tradehouses—especially if you tried by force—they’ll spring up again,” Aina said slowly. “Whether we manage them or not. And right now, we are managing them. Crime will never really go away, and we only control a
small part of it.”

  Mariya let out a heavy sigh, and next to her, June and Sofía exchanged a knowing look, as if they could have expected this answer.

  Aina turned to Tannis, who nodded at her to let her know they were on the same page.

  “I should have known you would be difficult about this,” Mariya said, but a small smile twitched at the corners of her lips.

  “We won’t actually,” Aina said. “We think the tradehouses should end too.”

  It was almost comical how all their eyes widened at once, as if they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

  “Not immediately, though,” Aina continued, the words coming slow and steady, as if she could hardly believe them herself, but she knew this was the right thing to do. “And not by anything the Sentinel does to try to close them. Whatever you try, it won’t work. Like you said, the tradehouses began after the civil war. They thrived in instability and chaos. But it’s more than that. They give jobs to people who don’t have other options. I want to believe that Sumerand is heading in a new direction and that everything will be happy and prosperous for everyone, but the poor can’t survive on hopes and promises. And change in the way that you see it won’t happen overnight, not if it’s going to last. We want to keep running the tradehouses for a few more years, then we’ll transition them slowly into something else; something that might benefit the city. But the Sentinel will not be involved in it.”

  Mariya nodded at Aina. “You would know best. I think that you, and other young people like you, are exactly what Kosín needs to become a better version of itself.” She took a deep breath before adding, “Which is exactly why I’ll be stepping down.”

  Aina’s eyes widened, and she looked to June and Sofía for confirmation.

  “The new Sentinel will be larger,” June explained, “with people from all backgrounds in the country, not just a few.”

  “I’m here to facilitate a transition,” Mariya explained, “while June and Sofía are here to oversee the repeal of any laws and systems that currently disenfranchise the Inosen. We plan to have a new Sentinel put together within a few months, but I won’t be a part of it. I am a part of the old order—and I should have done a lot more to fix our country’s problems than I did. I tried my best, but we need something new for the future. Me stepping down, peacefully and publicly, will be a sign of that.”