The Tattered Lands

by Barbara Ann Wright

  He nodded. A heavy weight settled around Vandra’s shoulders. Two centuries. After so long, no doubt they knew everything there was to know about each other. What a blow that had to be, an eternity snuffed out by some idiot with a few lanterns and a grudge.

  “I’m sorry,” Vandra said again. Grief for a friend of two centuries seemed so much weightier than her grief for Ariadne, a friend of less than a decade. What a sad day when someone had to ponder the difference between the two. “You should rest, sleep,” she said, not knowing if sleep would come to him.

  He nodded, and she led him upstairs. After claiming a shirt from Fieta, he settled in Vandra’s old bedroom.

  “Time for you to sleep, too,” Fieta said.

  Vandra sighed. She’d given up thinking that sleep even existed, but now that someone had said the word, sleep seemed to be taking her by the shoulder. Fieta guided her to a bed and saw her lying down before leaving. Vandra closed her eyes, knowing Fieta was probably standing guard on the other side of the door.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Vandra woke up a few hours later with a head full of ideas. She’d dreamed of silver lakes of syndrium. She often did, but these dreams felt different, with more promise. It didn’t hurt that she’d also dreamed of reuniting with Lilani and fixing the pylon, saving the world, and kissing until they swooned.

  First things first.

  As luck would have it, she’d left her notebook at her parents’ house. She wouldn’t be surprised if she’d managed to leave copies all around the city. She rarely went anywhere without something to make a note on. Now she scribbled hurriedly. Replacing the pylon would be impossible. She didn’t have the syndrium and would never convince anyone to give it to her. All she had was some old equipment she’d left here, whatever ingredients Pietyr managed to get, and her wits.

  Added up, it didn’t seem like much.

  She went downstairs, running possibilities in her mind and discarding them. In her dreams she’d been so hopeful, but when confronted by the reality of just how little she had…

  “Vandra, you have a visitor,” Papa called from the kitchen. “One of your friends from the university.”

  Which friend? She’d never been close with any of her colleagues. And how did Papa always know which of his children was moving around? Maybe he’d befriended a little god in the area and used it as a spy. She shuffled to the kitchen and stopped, gawking at Shyn Harra Rhys, who sat at the table drinking tea as if monarchs did such things all the time.

  Papa stood. “I must get back to work. Nice speaking with you.”

  Shyn inclined their head and waited until Papa left the room before saying, “Professor Singh, I’m happy to see you again.” When she still gawked, Shyn smiled. “Please, forgive my lie to your father. I did not wish a…big reaction.”

  Vandra’s mouth worked, and she fought to get her brain working. “What can I do for you?”

  Shyn reached down and picked up a large, paper-wrapped package, setting it on the table. “I’ve come to give you this.”

  Vandra walked forward woodenly. There was a monarch sitting at her kitchen table. At least her hands seemed to know what to do. She clipped the string holding the paper and whisked it away. It took a moment before she realized what it was: a bundle of equipment and ingredients, all carefully boxed and labeled, including exactly what she needed for her syndrium formula.

  “How…why?” She cleared her throat, remembering that she was supposed to be intelligent. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. As to how, I have money. The why is a little more complicated.” Shyn sipped their tea and sighed. “Some of my colleagues think you should be barred from the pylons because of your connection to the seelie, and some think you should be barred because you have no connection to the seelie.” Shyn tilted their head. “At least, not the right kind of seelie.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “And I don’t have enough proof to name names at the moment.” Shyn stood. “I won’t tell you to be careful; you already know the danger you’re in. I will tell you that there are some in the monarchy who want their kingdoms back by any means necessary, even if a great many people are killed.” Shyn spread their hands. “Perhaps they’ve taken to heart an old saying in the lost kingdom of Farisse: better to have an estate in hell than rent a room in heaven.”

  Vandra shook her head, trying to think of what that might mean, what unscrupulous people could help the monarchs get their kingdoms back and how. By pushing back the tattered lands? That would be good news, wouldn’t it?

  But having an estate in hell implied that the tattered lands would remain as they were, only with people living inside them. “They want to return to their old kingdoms as they are now? Tattered? They’ll all be corrupted or die!”

  “Until I know more, it’s better to have the pylons in working order, and I believe you’re the one to keep them so.” Shyn stepped around the table and took one of Vandra’s nerveless hands. “Please, thank your father for the tea.”

  She was still staring at nothing as Shyn left, and Fieta and Pietyr came in. “Van, was that a monarch?” Pietyr asked.

  “In our house?” Fieta added.

  Vandra nodded numbly before she smiled. The why didn’t matter. Now she had real equipment, a host of ingredients, her wits, and the support of a monarch!

  And she had a seelie. She’d nearly forgotten about Burani.

  She answered the twins’ questions as quickly as she could and tried to ignore their rampant speculation. She had work to do. “Help me convince Burani to do some experiments with me.”

  “What sort of experiments?” Fieta asked.

  “It’s time we found out how that magical field around the seelie can help us.” They gathered up the equipment and ingredients and trooped upstairs.

  “These experiments won’t hurt him, will they?” Fieta asked

  Vandra gave her a dark look. “We also don’t have time for your crushes, Fie.”

  Pietyr snickered, and Fieta grumbled. Vandra knocked on Burani’s door but forgot to wait to open it. Luckily, he was up and dressed, staring out the window. He turned when he saw them, hand going to the knife at his belt. Even after he saw them, he hesitated before straightening, as if making certain they weren’t going to rush him. Vandra couldn’t blame him.

  “How are you feeling, Burani?” Vandra asked.

  He smiled softly. “Better, thanks.”

  “Good. I need to run a little experiment.” She set some equipment on the bed, found a syndrium detector, and used it, gratified when it detected both the syndrium in the ingredients and Burani, but how could that information help with the pylons? Maybe the presence of a seelie helped in the pylons’ creation? Could they affect alchemy just by being nearby?

  One way to find out.

  Vandra went through a list of possible experiments, but once she’d seen that her ingredients included those needed for her syndrium formula, it stuck in her brain. Well, if she was going to start somewhere…

  She set up on the nightstand. “Come stand here, please.”

  “Why?” Burani asked.

  “It’s all right,” Fieta said. “It’s not going to hurt, I swear.” She moved into the position. “See? Vandra’s never hurt anyone. Come stand with me.”

  He frowned but moved to stand slightly behind Fieta. She turned to face him with a wink.

  “You’ll be fine,” Pietyr added from out in the hallway. Very reassuring.

  “Don’t move.” Vandra went through her formula, adding all the ingredients and heating it. She went faster than last time, not expecting this to work but curious to see if Burani’s magical field affected it at all.

  Five agonizing minutes passed, and they all leaned close. When the mixture puffed with smoke, they jumped back. Burani nearly fell over the bed. Vandra waved her hand through the smoke, her heart not knowing whether to lift or sink. When she saw the glint from the bowl, she blinked, not daring to believe.

  “What is it
?” Fieta stepped around Burani, staring at where the jumble of common materials had turned into a bowl of syndrium. “Van…we’re going to be rich!”

  Vandra barked a laugh, but it had happy tears behind it. “That’s not the point, Fieta.”

  “She can fix the pylon,” Pietyr said. “She could make a million pylons!”

  Fieta whooped and grabbed Vandra, swinging her around. Vandra laughed and clapped her on the back. After she set Vandra down, Fieta ran to Burani and grabbed his hand, but he leaned away as if torn between the desire to stay or leap out the window.

  “It’s all right, Burani,” Vandra said. “It’s better than okay. We have a chance now.”

  He gave her a smile that seemed kind of sickly, but she wasn’t in the mood to explain. All she had to do now was find Lilani, and everything would be okay.

  Two thoughts nibbled at the back of her mind. Would the syndrium she’d created be as powerful as the syndrium that made up the pylons? Maybe, like her colleagues claimed, the pylons’ power simply came from so much of it being in one place. If so, and she could create enough, it might be all right.

  Also, if it took a seelie to make her formula work, why did it work the first time? Could there have been a seelie in the room when she’d first experimented with this formula? Her stomach went cold. How long had they been following her?

  She shook the thought away. Unnerving as it was, it was a puzzle for another time. “We should leave for the pylons now.”

  The twins fell silent as if she’d thrown cold water on them. “It’s already well after noon,” Pietyr said.

  “We don’t have time to waste. Lilani is gone. A murderer is hunting us, and if someone has been sabotaging the other pylons while we’ve been gone…”

  They glanced at each other and nodded. It would take them an hour to pack, and they could be on their way. Burani seemed relieved, no doubt in a hurry to get back home.

  * * *

  When Lilani awoke, the sun streamed in the windows of the barracks. She’d slept longer than she’d wanted, though nearly everyone else was still asleep. Lucian guarded the door, casting the occasional glance toward the back door and the barrack’s small yard. He offered her a tiny smile, one with the weight of disappointment and fatigue.

  She moved to his side. “You should take a break,” she whispered. “I’ll watch.”

  “No, thank you.”

  She shrugged, knowing he wouldn’t change his mind.

  “We can’t stay here much longer,” he said.

  “At least Burani will have moved on by now.”

  “I hope he died from his wounds.”

  Lilani fidgeted, not knowing how to comfort someone so much older than her. Best not to try. “Should we try the gate again?”

  “Yes, and sooner is better than later.”

  She took the hint and gently woke Faelyn. By the time he’d risen, the other guards sat up, roused by the activity. Carisse and Alonse raided the small pantry, stuffing whatever they found in a sack and filling two canteens from a rain barrel in the yard. When everyone was ready, Lucian had them line up and shroud.

  Lilani wrapped her magic around her. The door opened under Lucian’s invisible touch, and Lilani gaped at the sight of a human standing there, key in hand. He froze, blinking at a door opened by no one. He seemed young, no lines on his face or gray in his hair.

  He scratched his neck and stepped inside. “Hello?”

  Lilani stepped to the side and almost chuckled at his confusion. She heard a soft tread and followed it to the door, keeping contact with the seelie in front of her. The confused human turned as Lilani passed, and for half a heartbeat, she looked into his eyes, dark like Vandra’s and thoroughly spooked. Then she went wide around him and through the door.

  In the daylight of late afternoon, the gates of Parbeh were bustling. Lilani wound through the humans, bending or gliding out of the way. She imagined the seelie as an invisible snake darting between hustling feet. When they were through the gates, Lilani began to feel as if she’d been dancing for hours, her muscles overtaxed from all the ducking and creeping, all while keeping a hand on the fellow in front of her. They strayed from the main road through the shanties, having to step over tent ropes and refuse, the occasional sleeping human. Lilani became as lost as she’d been in Parbeh, too tired to watch where she was going.

  At last they stopped, and Lilani recognized the dwelling, a large one made of tin, the rendezvous point. The door creaked open, and Lilani followed the person in front of her inside.

  Boxes, baskets, and all sorts of possessions littered the insides. No humans stood to confront them, and Lucian blinked into view, followed by Faelyn. Lilani dropped her magic and turned to find the rest of them there as well.

  Lucian sighed. “Good, we didn’t lose anyone.”

  “We should rest a little,” Lilani said. “Maegwyn might find her way here if she…lives. And we should watch for Vandra. I told her we were coming to the shanties. She’d follow the road, looking for us.”

  Lucian nodded, and everyone spread out, Selgwyn watching the door, the others waiting in the shadows. Light flooded through many holes in the shanty walls; anyone coming in would be blinded temporarily, giving the seelie time to hide. Lilani sat on a pile of flotsam and watched the road through a gap in the tin.

  “I hope Vandra hasn’t been captured,” she said when Faelyn settled beside her.

  “If she has, she can be rescued.”

  Lilani pictured herself returning to Parbeh with as many seelie as would come. She could rescue Vandra, they’d fall into each other’s arms, then venture forth to breathe life into the pylon once again.

  Or something like that.

  A few hours passed, and Lilani knew they couldn’t stay any longer. They hadn’t found Vandra or Maegwyn, and Lilani’s heart felt even lower than it had after Burani had attacked.

  “Lilani,” Faelyn’s voice said. The others had already shrouded.

  “I know.” She let Vandra’s image linger in her thoughts, whispering, “I will find you again.” Her magic flowed around her.

  “One by one.” Lucian slipped past, brushing her arm.

  She followed, dodging humans as best she could, but there were too many people in the shanties to avoid them all, and as it got darker, the numbers seemed to swell. She bumped into a few, and most seemed to forget the touches after they happened, but some made a sign on their forehead before fleeing. None raised an alarm, and after a few, slow, agonizing hours, Lilani was free of the great human mire, and she could breathe again.

  When Parbeh was far in the distance, Lucian led them away from the road and dropped his shroud. With a sigh, Lilani did the same. Between only a few hours of sleep, overusing her magic, and all the emotions twisting inside her, she was exhausted. They’d have to sleep again soon, much as Lilani wanted to hurry home.

  Of course, someone back home was trying to kill her, too, and that clumsy attempt couldn’t have been Burani, who was a member of the Guard. How many confederates did he have? Just one more or others among the Guard?

  Lilani eyed Alonse, Carisse, Selgwyn, and Lucian. None gave off a feeling like the one Vandra had described: an aura of nauseating dread. That meant there were other seelie lurking in Parbeh, maybe working with Burani, and they could have other spies.

  How did that help her now? She couldn’t shroud and run away, not without Faelyn. These guards had already had many opportunities to kill her and hadn’t. Unless they’d been waiting to find out exactly what she knew about them, and now that they knew she was completely ignorant…

  Faelyn rested a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped, clamping her teeth together to keep from crying out. Everyone turned, alarm on their faces.

  “Lilani?” Faelyn asked. She wondered if he could hear her heart thundering. “Are you all right?”

  Lilani sighed. “No, but keep walking.”

  They’d reached a small forest not far from Parbeh. Inside the trees, Lucian had the others spread
out to search for possible campsites. Lilani leaned against a tree, knowing she should be helping but unable to do more than wish for the boredom she’d lamented a week ago.

  “What’s going on?” Faelyn asked.

  She barked a humorless laugh. “Where shall I begin?”

  “Besides the obvious.”

  She glanced around to make sure none of the guards stood too close. “Do you think Burani was the only traitor in the Guard?”

  His lips pressed into a thin line. “Out of all of them?” He shrugged. “Out of those with us? Well, Lucian is the only one I know well, and he’s one of the most loyal people I know. And he trusts Selgwyn.”

  “Alonse and Carisse?”

  “Don’t panic. Last thing we want to do is let paranoia drive us into the wilderness by ourselves.”

  She sighed and closed her eyes, trying to quiet her busy mind. “Or maybe that’s the last thing a cabal of murderers would expect us to do.”

  “Let’s talk to Lucian and Selgwyn. They’ll know who’s capable of belonging to a murder cabal.” He sighed. “I want the answer to be, ‘no one.’”

  They found Lucian and Selgwyn together, and Lilani told them of her suspicions while Faelyn kept watch for Alonse and Carisse. Lucian stared for several minutes after she finished. She couldn’t read his expression, but then, she never could.

  Finally, he nodded. “I’m glad you told me.” He offered a smile, probably pleased she didn’t suspect him, even though she had at first. She’d decided to leave that part out. He glanced at Selgwyn, who shrugged.

  “Before Burani,” Lucian said, “I wouldn’t have believed any of the Guard capable of murder.”

  “The question is who to suspect now,” Faelyn said. “If anyone.”

  Lucian rubbed his chin. “Neither Alonse nor Carisse have ever been personally harmed by a human.”

  “And Alonse cared for Maegwyn,” Selgwyn said. “He wouldn’t have had a hand in her death.”

  “Good to know,” Faelyn said.

  Lilani wasn’t relieved. “There’s still whoever tried to kill Vandra at the ball, and whoever is waiting to kill me at home.”