Twice Dead

by Caitlin Seal

  “Who attacked you?” Corten spoke softly, as though calming a frightened animal.

  “A man. He had a knife. I think it was a wraith eater.” She’d never seen one of the weapons, but her father had told her stories of the men and women who’d wielded them during the last war.

  Corten’s grip on her arm tightened. “Are you sure?”

  “I think so. When he stabbed me, it felt like the knife was trying to tear my soul away. I thought I would die, but then I found another source of aether. It was stronger somehow, harder to control. I…It’s hard to remember exactly what happened, but I drew it in, and when it was over the man was dead.”

  “I don’t think that was aether,” Corten said. Naya saw the fear in his eyes and her chest tightened.

  “Then what was it?”

  Corten shook his head. “You can’t kill someone by drawing their aether. But you can kill them if you draw out their soul.”

  Fear flooded through her. “I thought that was impossible.”

  “Not impossible. Just very difficult. It would probably shatter my bones if I tried to hold another soul. But you’re…”

  “A reaper,” Naya finished.

  “You didn’t know,” Corten said. His hand slid down her arm and he squeezed her fingers.

  Naya shuddered. “What happens to a soul if a reaper draws from it?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure if anybody does.” Corten shook his head. “But you shouldn’t worry about that right now. If you think you can walk, then we need to get you back to Lucia’s shop so she can fix your bone.”

  “Fix my bone?” Naya asked, trying to pull her thoughts away from the horror of what she’d done.

  “Yeah. I examined your bones while you were unconscious. I’m not sure if it was the knife or the strain of touching another soul, but one of your bones is cracked.”

  Naya flexed her hand. The sharp ache she’d felt ever since she’d fought the assassin wasn’t going away. “I thought you said that if any of my bones cracked, I would die.”

  “The crack is small. So far the damage hasn’t been enough to destroy the bindings on your soul. But we don’t heal the way the living do. If we don’t replace that bone soon, the crack will spread. That’s why we have to go to Lucia. Do you think you can walk there?”

  “We can’t go to Lucia. The guard already took her.”

  “What?” Corten’s grip on Naya’s fingers tightened. “You said you’d warn her.”

  “I tried. There wasn’t time.”

  Corten’s eyes darted around the room, then fell on the shackle lying next to the bed. “Don’t tell me they were the ones who attacked you? They aren’t supposed to be armed with wraith eaters.”

  “Yes. No. I mean, the guard did come to Lucia’s shop. They didn’t even pretend to search the shop. They just broke down the door and tried to arrest both of us. I tried to save her but they put her in a carriage and I couldn’t…I ran.”

  Fear and confusion flickered over Corten’s face before his expression settled into a determined scowl. “We’ll have to find a way to get you out of the city.”

  “No! I won’t run again.” The words came out far louder than she’d intended.

  “You don’t have a choice. From what you described, it sounds like the guard already assumed you were involved in the kidnapping. They’ll have searched Lucia’s shop. Even if they didn’t find evidence of what you are, you won’t be safe here so long as they’re looking for you. Any wraith who gets taken into custody has to have their bond examined for abnormal runes. I don’t know if anyone else can fix Lucia’s work, but for now we’ll have to leave the city. We can go east. My parents have friends in Riorrica. I’ll find someone there to help us.”

  The guilt felt like a giant fist squeezing her chest. “I can’t run. What happened to Lucia is my fault. It’s all my fault. I have to do something before this gets any worse.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “It is! You don’t understand. I’m not who you think I am.”

  “Blue—”

  “Would you please listen? That isn’t even my real name.”

  “I…What? What are you talking about?”

  Naya drew a shuddering breath. Her eyes burned with tears she couldn’t shed, and she wished more than anything that she could hold back what she was about to say. “My name isn’t Blue. It’s Naya. Ever since I died, I’ve been working as a spy for the Talmiran Embassy. I helped kidnap Delence. When the guards came for Lucia, they were looking for me.”

  Corten’s expression froze. “No. That can’t be right. You’re confused. That crack must be worse than I thought. Or…”

  “It’s true.” Naya’s throat felt like it was trying to close in on itself, but she forced the words out. “When Ambassador Valn recruited me, he told me we were working to protect the treaty. But I overheard him talking to my father, and I think it’s something bigger than that. They had me killed just so they could make me a wraith. I think they might have killed others too. Lucia thinks Valn is trying to start a war. She said we have to warn people and that you would know who to talk to. Please—I never wanted to get you tangled up in this, but I didn’t know who else to go to.”

  Corten sat in silence. Naya closed her eyes, not wanting to see the look on his face. When he finally spoke, the words sounded flat and cold. “You’re serious.”

  “I’m sorry,” Naya whispered.

  Corten pulled his hand from hers. “You lied to me? About everything? Creator, all that time I thought you—” The legs of his chair scraped the floor as he stood. He paced to the window. “Now you want me to help you? Why should I trust you? Either you’re lying now or you’ve been lying since the day I met you.”

  “Why would I lie now? What would be the point?”

  “I have no idea, but this is ridiculous. Nobody wants another war. And even if the Talmirans tried to start one, we still have our alliances with Banen and Silmar. They won’t let Talmir get away with attacking us.” But Corten didn’t sound so sure anymore. He rubbed the back of his head.

  Naya leaned forward. “I know it sounds absurd, but it’s true. You asked me once to trust you, and I did. I don’t deserve it, I know, but I need you to trust me now. Please.” The last word came out as a whisper.

  Corten closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “What you’re asking is madness.”

  “Please. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want anyone else to die.”

  Minutes slipped past and Corten continued to stare at her. Naya forced herself to keep her eyes on his. She wouldn’t be the first to look away.

  “Damn it. Fine,” Corten eventually said.

  “You believe me?”

  “No. But I can’t just leave you here alone, and if something is really going on here, then the Necromantic Council needs to know about it.”

  “Wait,” Naya said. “I know we have to tell someone, but I don’t see how getting the Necromantic Council involved will help.” Lucia had told her to go to the Council, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea.

  Corten let out an exasperated breath. “They’ve got resources, and given what you told me, they’re the only ones who will be willing to help Lucia at this point.”

  “But they’re—” Naya swallowed what she was about to say when she saw the expression on Corten’s face.

  “They’re what?” Corten asked.

  According to Celia, the Council was a secretive mob of agitators and criminals always looking for ways to subvert the treaty. “They’re being watched,” Naya said. “Valn has spies keeping track of all the major leaders.” Many of the houses whose runes she’d tracked had belonged to suspected members of the Necromantic Council.

  “They won’t be watching everyone,” Corten said. “Do you feel like you can walk?”

  Naya swung her legs over the edge of
the bed and stood. It hurt, but at least she didn’t fall over. “Where are we going?”

  “There’s something we need to pick up before we meet with the Council. And on the way there, you’re going to tell me everything you know about the Talmiran spies, and everything they think they know about the Council.”

  Naya looked down at her clothes. Her skirt was ripped and filthy from when the train had hit her. Her shirt and vest were even worse, with holes and slashes showing where her attacker’s knife had pierced her. “Do you have anything else I can wear?”

  Some emotion flashed across Corten’s face, too quick for Naya to identify. “Sure. Give me a minute to find something.” He dug through his chest, then handed her a bundle of clothes and turned so he faced the desk.

  Corten’s spare pants were an inch too short. His shirt was too broad around the shoulders, and the vest too tight across her chest. Despite the distracting ache in her hand, Naya felt every brush of the fabric as she put on the borrowed clothes. The smell of orange-scented soap and old smoke enveloped her. It was comforting despite the way Corten kept watching her out of the corner of his eye, like she was a rabid dog that might bite him at any moment.

  Naya turned away from him and concentrated on Blue’s face. The ache in her hand pulsed brighter, and a wave of dizziness threatened to send her to the floor. But after a moment she felt her features shift as Blue’s face settled into place. It would have been better to wear an entirely new face. But with pain throbbing through her bones like a heartbeat, she didn’t trust herself to hold on to less familiar features.

  “What about Matius?” Naya asked as Corten led her to the door. “Won’t he wonder where you are?”

  “I’ll leave this downstairs,” he said, holding up a folded slip of paper. “It should be enough to keep him from getting suspicious. I don’t want him involved in any of this. He has a family.”

  “So do you,” Naya said.

  Corten hunched his shoulders. “Their lands are way out in the southern foothills. I’m hoping that’s far enough to keep them out of this mess.”

  Outside, the streets were turning gray with dawn. Naya walked beside Corten, telling him everything she could remember about the Council from her conversations with Celia. When she finished, Corten nodded. “I think I know who we can go to.”

  “Who?”

  “Earon Jalance.”

  Naya thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I’ve never heard of him.”

  “Good,” Corten said.

  Naya’s toe caught in a gap between two paving stones and she stumbled. Corten grabbed her arm, stopping her fall. When she looked up, her eyes met his. For a moment the world seemed to slow. Then Corten looked away. His fingers uncurled from her arm like she was made of salma wood. “Is it getting worse?” he asked.

  Naya gritted her teeth. “No. Don’t worry about me.” She turned away, not wanting to see the hard set of his mouth. In doing so she spotted a familiar street sign and her brow furrowed. “Why are you taking me back to Lucia’s shop?”

  “Because we’ll need your extra bones if we’re going to repair your bond,” Corten said.

  “I thought you said no one would help with that.”

  “Jalance might, if we tell him what’s going on. And if he can’t do it, he should be able to connect us to someone who can. But that won’t matter if we don’t have your bones and Lucia’s notes.”

  Dawn had fully broken by the time they reached Lucia’s shop. There they found two guards leaning against the frame of the broken door. Naya watched Corten as he glanced from the guards to the rooftops, then down to the narrow alley where the shop’s side door was located. “We’ll need to figure out a way to distract those two if I’m going to get inside,” he said.

  “How?” Naya’s bones throbbed, but she tried to keep the pain from her voice.

  “You’ve got a key to the back door, right? If you keep them looking the other way, then I can sneak around back and get your bones.”

  Naya shook her head. “I mean how do you expect me to distract them? And what if they’ve got more guards around the side?”

  “I don’t know. You’re the spy. Isn’t that the sort of thing you’re supposed to know how to do?”

  Naya glared around the corner of the house they hid behind. She tried to remember every piece of advice Celia had given her, but the older spy’s lessons had always been about how to avoid attention—not draw it. “Why don’t I try getting inside?”

  “No,” Corten said. “You wouldn’t know what you were looking for. Besides, I’m not giving you the chance to run off with your bones.”

  “I’d have a better chance of getting in.”

  “With your bond so damaged you can barely walk? No. We’ll both be better off if you stay here.”

  Naya swallowed her retort. The scorn in Corten’s tone made her want to sink under the paving stones. She peeked around the corner for a better look at the guards. “You’re sure my bones are in there?”

  “Yeah, assuming no one has taken them.”

  Naya’s fingers tapped against her leg. By now Valn probably knew the assassin had failed. Like the guards who’d come for Lucia, these could be working for him. He might have left them here on the off chance she came back. Then again, yesterday she’d managed to fight her way through four guards, and the man with the wraith eater. Did Valn know about her injury? Was he underestimating her? Or were the two men part of a larger trap? Naya flexed the fingers of her left hand and winced at the pain. Trap or no, she couldn’t afford to stay injured. She needed those bones.

  Naya let her eyes unfocus so she could concentrate on the aether. The city’s pulse beat in time with the pain in her bones. Underneath the flood of raw sensations, she could just feel the icy tides of death lapping at her calves, ready to drag her down if she let them. She tried to ignore the unsettling sensation as she searched for a trap. The street was emptier than it should have been this time of day, and there was a nervous sweat-stink in the aether. She tried to extend her reach to see if any more guards lurked by the shop’s back door, but the world blurred and she had to grab the nearby wall to keep from falling over. She concentrated on the feel of rough wood against her fingers, and slowly the city’s pulse faded back to a murmur.

  “What is it?” Corten asked softly. He was leaning against the wall and obviously trying to act natural. But his eyes kept darting up and down the street.

  “It’s nothing. I’m fine.” She pushed away from the wall. She’d just have to rely on more mundane sight. The two guards stood with their backs to the wall of Lucia’s shop, almost lounging. But their eyes followed everyone who walked past. It would take something spectacular to keep them distracted long enough for Corten to get in and out. As her gaze focused on a pair of women hurrying away from the bakery down the street, Naya realized she knew exactly what could draw the guards’ attention. But the only thing spectacular about the idea was how spectacularly foolish it was. She scoured her mind for a better solution, but with her hand aching she didn’t dare risk anything complicated.

  “Get ready to run,” she said to Corten.

  “You have a plan?”

  “Yes.” No. She sucked in a deep breath of aether. “Do you know the café by Lisala Plaza?”

  “Sure, but what—” Corten began.

  “I’ll meet you there if this works.”

  “Wait. What are you planning?” He reached for her wrist but Naya pulled away, walking then running toward the guards before her courage could fail. Each step was agony, but if this worked, the pain would be worth it. She felt her face shift and blur as her hair curled back into its old tangled shape.

  “Hey!” she shouted. “You’re looking for me, right?” Both guards turned, obviously shocked. Naya’s expression twisted into something between a smile and a grimace. She could sense growing curiosity behind her from the shopkeep
ers and their few customers. Some of them recognized her, or would soon. Maybe, if she was lucky, she’d have a chance to do more than just distract these two. She hoped Corten was ready.

  One guard stepped forward. His cheeks were pox-dimpled, and he had a gangly look that made Naya suspect he wasn’t much older than her. “Stay right there.” He reached for the club strapped to his belt. This close she could sense the fear in his aether without trying. Maybe she’d been wrong about a trap.

  “These men are liars,” she shouted. “They’re working for Talmir. They’re trying to frame Lucia Laroke. Their masters kidnapped Delence and dragged Lucia from her home.” She pointed at the guards and willed herself not to glance at the open street Corten would have to cross.

  The second guard advanced with a scowl. He was an older man with thickly-muscled arms and a hard look in his eyes. “Everyone, stay back! This girl is dangerous and obviously mad.”

  Naya sensed movement to her left. She risked a glance and spotted a third guard leaving the alley, his club already drawn. Corten stood behind him, his back pressed to a nearby building and his eyes on the retreating guard. Naya stepped back, hoping to draw the guards away from the shop. “I’m not mad. The Talmiran ambassador—”

  The older guard swung his club at her. Naya stumbled back and felt the wood brush through the tip of her nose. The ground seemed to tilt, and she fell on her back with a cry of pain. Before she could stand, an old man in a bright-red vest grabbed the guard’s arm.

  “Hey now, there’s no need for this to get rough,” he said.

  It took Naya a moment to recognize the man’s craggy features. He was the flower seller who owned the little shop next to Lucia’s. And he wasn’t alone. A half-dozen others had inched closer to the scene, including the broad woman from the bakery down the street. Bright curiosity was starting to overshadow their fear. Many of them had probably known Lucia for years. She’d treated their colds and scrapes. They wouldn’t want to believe she was a criminal.