The Tattered Lands

by Barbara Ann Wright

  When Carisse reappeared in the dim alley, Lilani jumped. Faelyn touched her arm, but she couldn’t take any comfort from him. She was far too tired.

  “There is a door,” Carisse said softly. “Also shut and barred from this side, and two guards wait on either side of the gate within small stone huts. One guard is asleep, but the other seems wakeful, and there are many torches in the wall.”

  Faelyn sighed. “The wakeful one would probably notice an invisible person unbarring the door.”

  “We can’t kill him,” Lilani said in case anyone was thinking it. Even if some human had killed two of them, violence wouldn’t be cured with more violence. No one responded, and Lilani couldn’t bring herself to ask if anyone had even thought of that solution.

  “We wait for daybreak,” Lucian said. “If Maegwyn and Burani survived, they’ll be stuck inside the city, too. We’ll look for them in the shanties.”

  Lilani leaned against the wall. Faelyn pulled her close. “Sit down and close your eyes,” he said. “We can take turns on watch.”

  “I wouldn’t be able to sleep,” she said, “not out here in the open.”

  “Standing and worrying is better?”

  She sighed, feared that would turn into a sob, and slid down to the wet stones. Her coat was doomed, all its history ruined, adding to the veil of sadness around her along with grief for Maegwyn and Burani, her faith in her people, and her hope for the humans.

  And any chance of seeing Vandra again.

  Lilani hoped the human guards wouldn’t blame Vandra for Lilani’s disappearance. If Vandra remained free, she’d keep working on the pylon, and Lilani would see her again. Even if both their peoples were against them, they could hold back the tattered lands themselves.

  Somehow.

  Selgwyn grunted in pain. Lilani sat up as someone else cursed. “What—”

  Faelyn grabbed her arm. “Shroud!”

  Lilani’s magic stuttered but pulled together, making her feel as if a blanket was pulled too tight around her. She froze, listening, no longer able to see anyone in the dim alley.

  Slowly, Lilani stood, silent. She didn’t reach for the others, not knowing what had happened. But why would Faelyn call for her to shroud unless there was a threat? No bodies lay on the ground, so everyone was alive.

  Lilani leaned forward, ears straining. If she stepped into the street, maybe she could see footprints in the light of the torches. Farther into the alley, something fell over, making Lilani jump. Several footsteps smacked wetly against the stone, and Lilani raced into the torchlight and whirled around, watching the ground.

  A scuff appeared on a muddy stone, followed by a skidding pebble: someone walking. Friend or foe? The alley had gone silent again. Lilani breathed shallowly, waiting. Whoever stood before her seemed to be waiting, too. Something swiped through the mud on another stone, and a small lump of dirt squished to the side, headed straight for her.

  Her shroud was tight. How could they still see her? As she spotted the outline of a boot on the wet ground, realization dawned, and she looked to her own feet.

  She stood half in a puddle, leaving a void with one foot.

  Lilani leapt to the side as footfalls smacked against stone. The puddle splashed when the runner hit it, and Lilani rolled, hoping she wasn’t leaving too much of a trail through the muck. Other footfalls ran toward her. She tried to rise, but a telltale whoosh of air made her go flat. Feeling around, she grabbed the first thing that came to hand and flung it with all her might.

  A small wooden box hit someone invisible and crashed to the ground. The footsteps stumbled back, skidding. Other footfalls spread out around the street.

  “I’m here!” Lilani said.

  “Come this way.” Faelyn’s voice, still in the alley.

  Lilani stood as the footfalls converged on the wooden box. The sound of tearing cloth, followed by a grunt, made Lilani wince. Then the street went quiet again save for the sound of dripping. Blood splashed amongst the puddles, staining them crimson.

  Lilani reached the alley, and her shroud fell. A dark shadow flickered in the street, and Burani appeared, holding a bleeding wound in his side.

  “Oh elders, no!” Lilani took a step toward him. He’d escaped the fire, and they’d repaid his bravery by stabbing him?

  “Wait.” Someone gripped Lilani’s elbow. She turned, expecting Faelyn, but Selgwyn stood there, a line of blood across her brow. “He attacked me.”

  Lilani glanced back, but Burani was gone. No one else appeared, but the wakeful human guard now stood outside his little hut, staring at the street with a frown.

  “Run,” Lucian said. He grabbed Lilani’s elbow, and she coaxed her reluctant shroud over herself again. If the guard realized what had happened, the entire city would be looking for the seelie, if they weren’t already. And dawn was almost upon them.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Vandra wandered through Lowtown but didn’t know what she expected to find. She’d hoped the seelie might find her, but they hadn’t shown themselves. Maybe they’d gotten over the wall. That seemed the best case even though it meant Lilani was gone.

  No sign of a message, either, but that had been a long shot. Most of Lowtown’s denizens seemed too consumed with their own problems to notice her or anything else, but she’d seen a few greedy glances. The twins had told her that criminals often mixed with the poor, hiding from the City Watch.

  Vandra hurried toward Parbeh again. As she made way for a group of people walking together, she happened to glance back. Someone stopped exactly when she did. A green mantle hid their face, but Vandra’s suspicious mind went on alert, and she realized how foolish it had been to go out without the twins. No doubt they’d say the same thing later in a louder tone.

  She walked faster, taking peeks over her shoulder. The green mantle followed, head down. They might simply be going in the same direction, but Vandra couldn’t trust that. She didn’t want to try to lose them in Lowtown, so she picked up speed, hoping nothing would happen in a crowd.

  Up ahead, the stream of people stalled behind a herd of sheep. Vandra reached one of the shepherds and nodded ahead. “I need to get through.”

  “We’re all goin’ the same way in the same time,” he said, his voice tight with irritability.

  She pushed past, walking among the sheep. The shepherds cried out as others followed Vandra’s example. She looked for the green mantle but could see nothing past the sheep and the crowd. When she got to the head of the herd, a shepherd practically flung her from their midst, making her stumble, but she kept her feet. The green mantle couldn’t follow her through that, not without attracting too much attention. Vandra hurried past the guards on the gate, who let her through after a glance. Vandra relaxed a little. If the green mantle got past the sheep, the guards would stop them.

  She relaxed even more when she was far into Parbeh, listing off the ingredients she needed in her head. A few turns from home, she made way for a wagon and happened to look back. Her heart thudded hard at a flash of green.

  * * *

  Lilani hoped Lucian remembered the way back to the gate; she was almost too tired to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

  “There,” Lucian said, nodding ahead.

  A squat, gray building, it seemed like some sort of barracks. Lucian wanted to hide in the midst of guards? He pulled Lilani to the building, and as dawn crept over them, she peeked in a window. All the guards were leaving for their shifts, and a barracks would be the last place anyone would look for runaway seelie.

  The last guard left, locking the door behind them. Lucian revealed hidden talents by picking the lock. Lilani could barely hold her shroud as the door opened. She slipped inside, and the rows of bunks seemed like paradise.

  Provided no one came back for a nap.

  Alonse wrapped a bandage around Selgwyn’s black hair. It was a wonder she’d managed to hold her shroud after Burani hit her.

  “How did you know who hit you?” Lucian asked. />
  Selgwyn stared at nothing. “I know his scent.”

  Lilani nearly gasped. So, they’d been close, probably intimate. Selgwyn had to feel so betrayed.

  “Why would he do this?” Lilani asked.

  Faelyn sat on one of the bunks with his head in his hands, getting the blanket dirty. The barracks was going to be filthy after they left; hopefully, no one would connect that with a pack of missing seelie. “There are so many questions. Did Burani set the guesthouse on fire? Did he kill Maegwyn, or is she also trying to kill us?”

  Selgwyn glanced at Lilani. “I think he was after you, Lilani.”

  Lilani didn’t think she could feel worse, but somehow, she managed.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Lucian said. “If he comes back, I’ll kill him.” He had to feel as betrayed as Selgwyn. Burani had gone bad under his watchful eye.

  “Do you think he attacked Vandra at the ball?” Lilani asked. “He could have followed us while Maegwyn burned down the guesthouse.”

  “Then why didn’t she attack us, too?” Faelyn asked.

  Lilani lay back on her bed. Who was she supposed to grieve for, and who was she supposed to hate? No one seemed to have any answers.

  Some of the guards lay down while others kept watch. Lilani’s worry and grief and anger took turns washing over her, but her eyes closed anyway. She knew what Faelyn would say: it was best to sleep while they could.

  * * *

  Vandra stumbled in shock. The person in the green mantle should have been stopped at the gate. Unless she’d been wrong, and they were innocent, just in town for business. Vandra looked again. The green mantle slowed and made a small gesture against their chest, as if they were trying to hide the movement from everyone else on the street. A wave? No, it had been up and down, like a stabbing gesture. A threat? Her mind worked overtime, running through one dangerous scenario after another.

  The gods could figure it out later. She ran, thinking of the slit scarf, the seelie burned to death in the guesthouse, the attempt on Lilani’s life, and poor Ariadne slain in her bed. Her heart thundering, Vandra looked for a Watch officer, but saw none. Just her luck. Fieta and Pietyr hated jokes about how the Watch was never around when needed, but that was certainly the case now.

  Vandra barreled past people who cursed in her wake. She wanted to shout for help but barely had the breath to run. She dashed for home, for Fieta and Pietyr, taking a shortcut down an alley.

  Fool! Such dim, close surroundings would be the perfect place to murder her, but there was nothing to do except run faster. Vandra skirted a pile of rubbish and leapt another. Footsteps pounded behind her. She willed herself to go faster, but her foot skidded, and her shoulder bounced off one wall. She pushed off, banged into the opposite wall, and nearly slid down. Her back throbbed, and she couldn’t get enough air. She turned, wanting to see any attack coming.

  Nothing. No one stood in the alley but her. Her heart still beating wildly, Vandra barked a slightly hysterical laugh. She pressed a hand to her chest and almost panted. Maybe the gesture the green mantle had made was a wave, a simple acknowledgement that they’d seen each other before. Vandra turned for home again, relieved to be laughing at herself rather than lying in a pool of her own blood.

  A figure blinked into view ahead of her. Vandra cried out, staggering back. She began to turn, but the figure pushed back the hood. Still, Vandra took a few steps away before her rational mind convinced her of what she’d seen: pointed ears and a face she’d glimpsed behind Lilani at some point.

  One of her attendants. He must have escaped the fire. Vandra stumbled to a halt, trying to calm her heart. “Who…”

  He put a hand to his chest. The other was pressed to a wound in his side. “Vandra Singh? Lilani friend, yes? My name is Burani.”

  “Burani,” Vandra said with a sigh. She trembled, too much fear and anxiety after too little sleep. She was going to fall down soon. “You’re alive!”

  He smiled sadly. “I escape. Maegwyn…no.”

  He spoke the human tongue haltingly, his accent much thicker than Lilani’s or Faelyn’s. And besides the wound in his side, Vandra noted marks near his collar, the edge of a burn peeking out from under a hasty bandage.

  “I did not mean frighten you,” he said. “I try…” He made that same gesture she’d seen in the street, the one she hadn’t understood, waving up and down his body before hiding his eyes.

  “Disappear? Vanish?”

  “Yes. Vanish. Then I come close, show my face, and you know me.”

  She nodded. He hadn’t dared speak to her until he could be sure no one else would see his features. His brown hair hung lank and sweaty around his neck and pointed ears. Dark circles under his eyes stood out starkly against his pale skin. He needed help.

  “Come on,” she said, waving him forward. “My family’s house isn’t far. You can rest, and we can tend your wounds.” She spoke slowly, trying to help him understand with gestures. When he hesitated, she stepped around him. “You can trust us. You’ll be safe.”

  After a sad nod, he put his hood up and followed. Vandra hurried him as much as she could, and when they were inside the house, she called for help.

  Papa came out from his weaver’s workshop. “Vandra? What are you doing—” He gasped as he caught sight of Burani. “Who’s this?”

  “Burani. He needs our help.” She stepped aside, and Papa clucked over Burani’s injuries. Fieta and Pietyr emerged a short time later, both of them yawning. Everyone sat at the kitchen table and listened as Vandra told them of her adventure.

  The twins frowned at her story. Vandra thanked the gods that her youngest siblings were either playing elsewhere or at their lessons. She didn’t need more accusatory glares.

  “Van,” Pietyr said once she finished her story. “What were you thinking?”

  “Other than a bruise on my shoulder where I hit a wall, I’m fine.” Except for the fatigue that left her feeling hollow.

  “You were lucky,” Fieta said, but her voice was distracted as she stared at Burani.

  He stripped to the waist, and Papa wrapped a bandage around his belly. Burani was fit, all lean muscle under pale skin, but Vandra preferred Lilani’s athletic curves. Papa dabbed at the burn mark that crossed Burani’s shoulders and muttered about how it could have been worse.

  Fieta stared at Burani with an appraising smile before biting her lip. Vandra nudged her arm and whispered, “You can’t jump on him until he’s healed.”

  “Says you.”

  Pietyr rolled his eyes and dug a plate of chicken out of the cold store. “Let her practice her own version of diplomacy, Van.”

  Fieta barked a laugh. Vandra gave them both a glare before taking a large piece of chicken. She hadn’t realized she was so hungry.

  Pietyr grabbed her hand. “No food until you promise never to leave the house without us again.”

  She wondered how she’d ever get anything done under that promise, but at the moment, the food was more important. “Sure.” Through a bite of chicken, she asked, “How bad is it, Papa?”

  “Not as bad as I feared,” he said. “You had good luck, Burani.”

  “Not Maegwyn,” Burani said sadly. “A lantern broke…” He gestured toward the window. “She is cut here.” He touched his neck. “I try, but so much fire.”

  Vandra imagined a lantern flying through the window, the flames surrounding the seelie, one of them wounded in the neck. She shivered. Fieta took one of Burani’s hands. He gave her a tiny smile, and she grinned, thoroughly tactless.

  Burani looked away. “More lanterns, more fire.” He gestured toward one of the naked beams on the ceiling. “Those fall with fire.” He touched the burn mark. “And I fall…” Another wave at the window before he indicated his side. “Hurt. I…try Maegwyn again, but I run from…” He looked at all of them in turn.

  Vandra nodded. “You couldn’t go back inside, and you didn’t know who had started the fire, so you had to hide? To vanish?”

  “Van
ish, yes. Such hurt. Find this to help.” He plucked at the green mantle where it lay on the table. “Sleep, then you.”

  Sorrow filled Burani’s voice, but he didn’t weep. Maybe seelie never wept, or maybe he’d done so already. When he looked at Vandra, he seemed resolved, even angry, as if action was called for before grieving could begin. “Lilani? Lucian?”

  She shook her head. “When they saw the fire, they vanished. They must have fled the city. Word would have spread if they’d been caught.” He stared, and she didn’t know how much he understood. “I’m sure they’re safe. If they get caught, they’ll be all right. I mean, they should be, though, sometimes the monarchs don’t know what they’re doing. They want me to abandon the pylon, but I’m not going to.”

  Burani blinked at her. “You…go against monarchs?”

  “When they’re wrong? Sure,” Vandra said. “If they won’t hurry up and save the world, I will.”

  Papa cleared his throat, giving her a warning look. “They just won’t know you’re helping, that’s all.”

  Vandra chuckled, happy her family was on her side. “I still need to buy a few things.”

  Papa finished with Burani’s shoulder. “There now. I’m sure someone has a clean shirt you can borrow.”

  “I’ll look.” Fieta hurried upstairs. “No one get injured again without me,” she called over her shoulder.

  “That means you, Van,” Pietyr said. “Give me a list, and I’ll shop for you.”

  Vandra handed over a list. Papa announced he was going back to work, and in the space of a few moments, Vandra was alone with Burani. Awkwardness descended.

  “I’m very sorry,” Vandra said, fighting the urge to fidget. “About Maegwyn. I know it probably doesn’t help, but most humans are good people.”

  “I knew her two…” He waved a hand.

  “Years?” But that probably wasn’t right. “Twenty years?” When he shook his head and held his hands far apart, Vandra swallowed, her belly going cold. “Centuries? Two hundred years?”